We’re definitely not anti-consumerism – stopping people buying stuff is a tide we can’t hope to change – but we do believe in responsible consumerism. There’s nothing wrong with buying things, but what we choose to buy can make a big difference. And our goal is simply to encourage people to think about the choices they make. All USELESS products are utilitarian, well-designed, built to last, made sustainably and manufactured in the good old US of A. And there aren’t many product lines out there that can say that.

So really we’re just trying to demonstrate a way thinking about products through the products themselves. By the way, we thought the “anti-consumerism” label might come up when we first launched and mention it in the FAQ section of the website at useless.org (in the “about us” section).

As for the dot org comment, we did try and get the dot com but couldn’t so went for dot org instead. We had also considered going the non-profit route, but want to grow a business that does good and felt too constrained by being a not for profit.

We love conversations like this. We don’t think we’re perfect, but nor are we cynically trying to manipulate any one. Buy our products not because they’ll save the world (they won’t), but because they are well-made and serve a useful function (yes, even the notebooks do and are made from 100% post consumer waste). Yes, 10% of profits go to fund water and sanitation projects in the developing world but we’ll only ever help a few thousand of the 2.6 billion going without, so what we can do is just a drop in the ocean. But at least we’re trying.

Thanks for listening. All suggestions on how to make ourselves better please send them to mark@useless.org

Mark

Audrey, you’re right. The .org thing is kinda misleading for a for-profit company. Let’s hope they’re working on getting .com instead. Looks like someone else already has “useless.com” and might be holding out for a juicy ransom. Ugh.