Sanjay’s Trip to Nepal – Continued

An artisan making cashmere scarfs in outskirts of kathmandu

A couple of weeks ago we shared some photos from Sanjay’s trip to Nepal earlier this year. Today we’ve got a second edition for you!
Last time we left off with the Nepalese festival of Dashain. After the festival was over, Sanjay spent some time visiting a group of Nepalese artisans in outskirts of Kathmandu making beautiful, high-end scarves. The scarves are made of cashmere, silk and other fibers including bamboo and banana leaves. Pretty cool, huh?
Here at Yak, we were so impressed with the scarves that we’re planning on adding them to the Yak online store in the spring of 2012 – so be sure to check back in the new year!

landslide on the way to a village outside kathmandu

The next stop on the trip was a small hillside village where many Yak hat artisans reside. Unfortunately – due to the torrential rains from the week before, the road to the village was blocked by a landslide (apparently they’re very common in Nepal). But the landslide didn’t stop Sanjay – he climbed right over it, braving 100+ foot cliffs on the left side of the mountain. He was met on the other side of the slide by a shuttle service, which brought him to the quaint village known for knitting and organic farming.
There, Sanjay stayed in a beautiful mountaintop guest house with gorgeous views of the village farm fields, and even a winery! Doesn’t it look gorgeous?!
Check back in the coming weeks for more on Sanjay’s exciting travels in Nepal.

a village outside kathmandu where our artisans live and work

view of the village where the artisans live

Yak Apparel Selected to Appear on The Daily Grommet

YAK Apparel on the Daily Grommet

Lots of exciting things have been happening at Yak recently. Last week we told you about our new winter hat collection on Kohls.com, and this week we were selected to appear on The Daily Grommet!
The Daily Grommet is an online marketplace and the birthplace of Citizen Commerce, a movement that gives people the information and tools they need to support products that align with their own values. The Daily Grommet strives to create a place for people who want their purchases to have meaning — to support what matters most to them: whether it’s technical innovation, green or social enterprises, the creation of jobs, domestic manufacturing, or the preservation of craft. Every day at noon The Daily Grommet launches one inventive and meaningful consumer product and broadcasts its story across the web – this Thursday, that product is going to be Yak Hats!

Suggestions for The Daily Grommet come in from all over the world. Each month there are over 1000 submissions for just 20 spots! The staff of The Daily Grommet reviews all of the entries, tests the products – and then creates a video review for each of their favorites, and campaigns for the product across the web.

Here at Yak we are so honored to be featured on The Daily Grommet and we are proud that our product line and company values align with those of consumers across the globe. We also couldn’t have had more fun filming the video with The Daily Grommet in their awesome studio.

So don’t miss us this Thursday at noon on www.dailygrommet.com/products. We’ll be online to chat from 12-4pm so sign in and share your thoughts, ideas or suggestions.
See you there!

Yak Welcomes New Models Amanda and Jade

With all the fun goings-on at Yak this past month, we forget to tell you about some exciting new additions to the Yak Apparel family! Boston fashion models Amanda and Jade (recently named one of Boston’s top 10 models) spent a day with us in the studio last month, being shot by photographer Joel Benjamin in all kinds of Yak Apparel.

Amanda and Jade were so much fun to work with – and of course, looked absolutely stunning. Check out the website (www.yakapparel.com) to see some of the photos we got during the shoot. You can also visit photographer Joel Benjamin’s blog (http://joelbenjaminphoto.blogspot.com/search/label/YAK%20Apparel) to see some behind the scenes video of a previous Yak photo shoot.

Think you could be a Yak model? So do we! Visit http://www.yakapparel.com/women-winter-hats/Become-a-model.php to enter to win a free hat, and a chance to model for Yak.
Also, in case you missed it – Yak was featured on The Daily Grommet today. Go to http://www.dailygrommet.com/products/yak-apparel-winter-hats to see our listing on their website, and watch a video about the work we do in Nepal.

The Perfect Present – at the Perfect Price

Trapper Hat: YAK Apparel (L), Abercrombie and Fitch (R)

With Christmas and Chanukah right around the corner, holiday shopping is in full swing. While of course everyone is looking for the perfect presents – in this economy, we know most people are also looking for the perfect price. That’s why this week we decided to compare the price, comfort and warmth of Yak hats to other popular brands – to make sure we’re offering customers the best value. Today we thought we’d share with you the results of our (probably a little bit biased) research!

Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister are notorious for the stylish apparel – so we decided to take a look at what they have to offer in terms of headwear.

Abercrombie featured a “Cute Trapper Hat” for $58. A little bit more expensive than the Yak equivalent. However, while the hats may look similar in appearance, the more expensive Abercrombie hat is actually made out of a synthetic wool and acrylic blend – much less warm than the 100% wool that we use here at Yak.

We also compared our trapper hats to Abercrombie’s counterpart – Hollister. Hollister’s “Classic Trapper Hat” was a little bit cheaper at $44.50 – similar to Yak. But the Hollister hat faced the same issue as the Abercrombie one – it’s made out of a nylon/acrylic – no wool whatsoever! So it’s definitely not going to keep you as warm as Yak when you hit the slopes or face the bitter wind chill of cities like New York and Chicago.

So in the end we thought Yak came out on top – but what do you think? Which hat is the best value?

A Trip to the Birthplace of Yak Hats – Sanjay Visits Nepal

One of the things we’re most proud of here at Yak, is that the vast majority of our hats are handmade by local artisans in Nepal. The manufacturing of Yak hats is a great source of income for Nepalese women, and has a positive impact on Nepal’s fledgling economy.

This past month, Sanjay, one of the founders here at Yak, took a trip to his birthplace of Nepal to check in on the Yak manufacturers and spend some time with the wonderful artisans who knit the hats.

Sanjay arrived in Kathmandu during a monsoon, so he was stuck indoors for a few days. But if you have to be stuck indoors somewhere, you may as well be stuck at a gorgeous hillside resort with a sparkling indoor pool and stunning mountain views. Certainly beats another day at the office…

Luckily, the rain cleared up within a few days and all of the Yak hat artisans were hard at work earning some extra money before the Dashain Festival – Nepal’s biggest annual festival.

During Dashain all businesses close for ten to fifteen days and families come together to celebrate with food and music. Check out some of Sanjay’s pictures from the festival below – and check back next week for more on Sanjay’s exciting trip.