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COMMUNITY Waterloo Region’s independent monthly • Vol 2 Issue 3 • December 6, 2013 • community.thecord.ca
Unravelling Etsy The global craft market is cultivating homegrown consumerism Allison Leonard WLUSP President & Cord Publisher
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my Walbridge hasn’t had a proper dining room for six years. Reams of fabric and spools of thread now take up the space. It’s a one-woman factory that exists where the formal table and chairs once sat. Like a tiny assembly line, the subtle stitches, sales and sending of handmade clothing happen rhythmically in the Walbridge’s home. Walbridge is one of hundreds of thousands of people who sell handmade goods on the popular online retail store Etsy. Built for the discerning consumer — those who won’t settle for a massmarketed sweater — Etsy and other craft-peddling e-commerce sites are quickly changing the landscape of consumerism and corporate labour. Dubbed ‘craft capitalism’ by academics, the sea of knitted scarfs, engraved lockets and handcarved, wooden iPhone cases inundate the seemingly endless pages of Etsy listings. Church bazaars and small-town craft sales are but fleeting memories for the craft consumer; the intimacy of a handmade item is now available online. Grant Packard, assistant professor of marketing at Wilfrid Laurier University, said craft culture is not revolutionary, but a reversion to once necessary trade skills, one with added value. “Etsy creates global access. There are no barriers or entry fee to open up a shop and see if you can have a business,” said Packard. “eBay, Craigslist and Kijiji opened doors for more formal models like Etsy or crowdsourcing where people have become investors.” Based on Etsy’s research on seller dem0graphics, Walbridge fits Etsy’s standard seller profile: a female under 40 who moved away from the corporate sector to pursue a passion for the
handmade. In Walbridge’s case, her passion is sewing and selling women’s and children’s clothing from her Waterloo home. “I have always been crafty, I learned to sew from my grandmother when I was young,” she said. “It wasn’t until I had my daughter six-anda-half years ago that I had nap times available and I started sewing in my dining room.” Walbridge, a former oversees educator, committed to her craft and decided to indefinitely Continued on page 4 >>
• KATE TURNER CORD VISUAL DESIGNER