Consumers with a conscience have many ways to spend their money today. They can invest in mutual funds focused on socially responsible corporations. They can sip "fair trade" coffee picked by farmers guaranteed a reasonable return on investment.
And thanks to Specs2C of Hollywood, Fla., Tampa Bay area consumers can wear eyeglasses made from naturally felled trees in the Ecuadoran rain forest. That is, if they have 400 or so greenbacks to spend.
Company owner Craig Caplan said his SOL-Seeds of Life line of glasses are handmade in Ecuador not only from fallen trees but from petrified wood, bamboo and seeds. He purchases the materials from several tribes, he said, including the Waorani. Another line is made with exotic woods from around the world and manufactured in Japan.
"What we're doing is giving these natives an alternative source of income, as opposed to cutting down their lumber and destroying the rain forest," he said.
Environmentalism alone doesn't explain Caplan's game plan. As an artist, he's inspired by nature. And as a businessperson, he knows tough-to-obtain materials make his glasses harder to copy.
He's so protective of his eyewear lines that he has no brochures, doesn't run a company Web site and won't exhibit the glasses on a trade-show floor, preferring private suites.
But do consumers really care that his glasses are made from organically grown materials? Or purchased from rain forest dwellers?
Not in St. Pete Beach, said Chuck Eubanks, owner of Elegante Eyewear and Spec2C's only distributor in Pinellas County. Most of his customers are northern snowbirds. Many favor the look of the company's bamboo models.
"They buy it," he said, "because it's exotic, Florida and unique."
