NY Launch Pod: Welcome to the New York Launch Pod, the New York Press Club award-winning podcast highlighting the most interesting new startups, businesses and openings in the New York City area. I’m your host and New York attorney, Hal Coopersmith. And this is our December episode. So maybe you’re thinking about the gift giving season, or maybe you’re thinking about making a statement and giving back. Well you’re in luck, because our guest combines both of those things. In this episode, we speak to Kate Sokolov and Lisa Sokolov, they’re sisters and the co-founders of Social Goods, an online retail store that offers statement making gifts, which include donations to worthwhile causes. Here’s Lisa:
Lisa: And so what we really try to do is curate the ones that we think fit in with our aesthetic and also are able to give back. So a lot of those products that are out there actually say vote, but don’t necessarily take it that step farther and work directly with a voting organization to help educate people on how to do it. And so what we’re trying to do is find products that not only is there a monetary donation made, but also can hopefully educate the consumer and connect them to the actual non-profits that are doing the work .
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NY Launch Pod: So what is Social Goods?
Kate: We’re a relatively new e-commerce site where all the goods on the site give back to different non-profits, whether it’s non-profits for women’s rights or environmental protections or mental health awareness, you know, we cover a lot of different issues, but no matter what, every item we sell includes a non-profit component.
NY Launch Pod: So being a business and giving back to non-profits has become certainly on trend recently, how did you get the idea to start Social Goods and why was giving back important to the two of you?
Lisa: Yeah, it’s actually something we’ve been talking about for a while and is really sort of a marriage of our interests. So I worked in fashion for almost 20 years in retail and Kate comes from the non-profit and political side. So we kind of have always been talking about ways to integrate those two and if there was a way to leverage fashion and retail to give back. And so that was sort of where we initially had come up with the idea.
Kate: And it really came from our, aside from our career backgrounds, but as you know, shoppers and activists and consumers you know we are often looking for gifts and items for Lisa’s daughter or for friends that had a give back component, but were also statement making and, you know, talked about a lot of the issues that we care about. And we were looking for one place where we knew everything had a donation component and everything was kind of hopeful and polished. So it really came out of a place of our consumer background as well.
NY Launch Pod: And so when someone goes on the Social Goods site, what sorts of products are they likely to see?
Kate: Yeah, so we have a variety of products from t-shirts and sweatshirts to beanies and books, and really giftable items like greeting cards and pencils. It’s really a wide range of products. All of them have a statement that they’re making about a certain cause. You know, one of our favorite products is a collection of items that have 1973 on it, which was the Roe V. Wade passed. And they all have a percentage of their proceeds go back to the National Institute of Reproductive Health. So that’s kind of a good example where the statement being made on the shirt, whether it’s subtle or more direct, you know, really aligns with the non-profit beneficiary of its proceeds.
NY Launch Pod: I find that very interesting. 1973, when Roe V Wade was decided, how did you decide to do that? Was that your own design?
Lisa: One of our partners is her name’s Pamela Bell from Print Shop and we carry exclusively majority of her designs. And one of them was 1973 and it was obviously out of the gate, one of our favorites because it really speaks to in a subliminal way of getting the message across. And it does exactly what with most of our products we intend to do, which is start a conversation. So, many people say they buy it. And people say, oh was that the year you were born? Or what does this mean? And so it’s often an introduction to talking more about the cause and what you care about, which is what we hope that a lot of these products do.
NY Launch Pod: And so how do you partner with designers that have meaning with your mission?
Lisa: We typically run as a true wholesale platform. So we seek out designers and brands that align. If the products didn’t initially have a give back component, we’d provide that. So we have some products that might be available elsewhere that don’t give back, but on our side, if you buy them, we make a non-profit contribution. And then we also have a percentage where we create and design on our own as well. So under the Social Good. So like we have a collection of Speak Up that gives back to the Jed Foundation and all of those were designed by us and produced on our end. And then like 1973 was with our designer.
NY Launch Pod: And when you are seeking out designers and goods to sell on Social Goods, have you found that there are more socially responsible goods that have your type of messaging that you want to get across?
Kate: Yeah, I think definitely over the last few years, the more socially responsible products, whether it’s in the messaging on them or in how they’re developed or how they’re created, has really grown, which is awesome for us to see. And, you know, we love finding new vendors and partners and designers to work with. Almost all of our vendors are women owned, similar to us. A lot of them are small businesses like us. So it’s been one of the things we’ve loved is finding a lot of these people and putting a lot of this product out there.
Lisa: I think using vote merchandise, just as an example, if you wanted to buy a vote t-shirt, there was, you know, a minimum of a million places you have bought one. And so what we really try to do is curate the ones that we think fit in with our aesthetic and also are able to give back. So a lot of those products that are out there actually say vote, but don’t necessarily take it that step farther and work directly with a voting organization to help educate people on how to do it. And so what we’re trying to do is find products that not only is there a monetary donation made, but also can hopefully educate the consumer and connect them to the actual non-profits that are doing the work.
NY Launch Pod: And when you are curating the merchandise for your site, you certainly have a point of view, both in terms of how you’re giving back and the merchandise that you select, how would you characterize your point of view and the conversation that you said you’re trying to start?
Lisa: Yeah. We like to think of it as more optimistic and hopeful. And so, you know, obviously if 2020 has taught as anything, you have to be optimistic to make it through. And that we found there was a lot of product out there that gets more negative. And so what we were trying to do is say, okay, we know that we’re up against all these problems, but there are all these organizations that are working really hard to try to solve them. And so what is the messaging throughout the merchandise that sort of speaks to that and reminds us that we’re all still working, make a statement, make change, that it’s helping to create a better world, so to speak. And so a lot of our messaging it’s up to the women or New York women aren’t as negative and tend to align with sort of this more hopeful and optimistic tone.
Kate: And really solution driven, all of our messaging around our products, whether it’s actually on the product itself or how we talk about it on our site or on social media or marketing is all really solution driven. So we’re not only talking about the item itself and describing it to our customers, but talking about the non-profit that they work with and what work is happening that aligns with the product you’re buying.
NY Launch Pod: So that’s the merchandise that you’re selecting. And the other aspect is how you’re giving back, the social responsibility aspect of it. How are you selecting the organizations by which you’re giving back to?
Kate: Yeah, we try to have a really well-rounded sort of non-profit partners that touch on different causes. So I was talking about womens rights and the environment, the Jed Foundation and the Sad Girls Club are two non-profits working on mental health awareness. You know, the National Resource Defense Council is working on the environment. So we really try to have a broad set of issue areas and the non-profits that we work with all work within those issue areas, women’s rights, women’s empowerment, bettering the lives of girls around the world are a lot of our focus and our non-profit partners come from, nonprofits we know or nonprofits that reach out to us. They all take a tone working within these kind of issues.
Lisa: And definitely align with what we’re passionate about and, you know, the luxury of having your own small businesses is we get to sort of do that. So most of the non-profits that we’re so fortunate to work with are ones that we feel passionate about, causes that we cared about even before Social Goods came to existence. And that now we feel so lucky to be able to make a contribution to even if it’s in such a small way.
NY Launch Pod: And as you’re developing Social Goods and curating the merchandise with your point of view, do you have a target market in mind, a certain ideal customer that you’re thinking about?
Kate: We want to have a broad audience, I’d say most of our customers are women. I would say the age is broader, you know, ranging from younger activists, kind of starting to get really passionate about these causes to our moms and grandmas. So I think we like that it relates to a broad consumer audience, but most of the people are women.
Lisa: I think one of the most fun things for us being a small business was with the election coming up. So many people that had purchased the product, tagged themselves in it on election day that they were wearing it to the polls or to celebrate it. And it really gave us the opportunity to really see who the customer was, which is such a unique thing on social media. You’re like, oh these are the people who are buying these products. And while they are a lot of women, it was much more diverse and really exciting for us too. We had a shirt that said swing state voter. And so even though sometimes, you know, we’re obviously based in New York and a lot of the non-profits we work with are New York centric, it’s really exciting to see that we have this customer base across the US and that people in all 50 States and abroad are buying and passionate about these charities and causes as we are. And so it was something really exciting on election day. I’m like, oh my God, these people in Texas and California and New York, and Pennsylvania, everyone’s feeling the excitement and wearing all these shirts. So it was really great.
NY Launch Pod: I love hearing about how broad your customer base is in addition to being based in New York, which is obviously our focus and as your business grows, you probably have a tension that a lot of businesses face in this area where you’re for-profit, but also want to be socially responsible. How do you deal with the tension between those two poles where you want to give back as much as possible, I imagine, but you also want to be profitable and a business.
Lisa: It’s something we’re still working on, honestly, and some of our products give back as much as a hundred percent of the proceeds. So we’re really trying, it’s still a push and pull and we always want to be, you know, the more we sell, the more we can give back. So we’re trying to sort of find that appropriate balance and it’s something within our first year I think we’re definitely still working on and trying to find just the right way, what percentage we can donate. We also have been donating product to various nonprofits as well. So we give back, not just monetarily, but sometimes in the product as well. So it is something that I would say we’re still learning.
NY Launch Pod: And what’s it like being based in New York in terms of your designs, and you talked about the New York woman, that’s something that we always like to focus on here.
Kate: Yeah. A lot of our designs are, you know, New York driven. We have New York woman, we have a collection that’s New York Tough, I think right now, especially as the city was kind of working together to get through the uncertainty around the pandemic and all the issues that come with that we released New York Tough to get back to a non-profit called Win NYC that provides shelter and critical services to homeless families, which in this time is even more important as the pandemic continues and we shift into winter and they do such amazing work. So the New York Tough collection was one as, the pride we have of our city and our state. But we also look for, we’re actually from Ohio, we’re not New Yorkers by birth. So we look for also other non-profits that tie back to where we’re from. You know, one of the nonprofits we work with is Welcome Baby, which miraculously only works within New York City and Mahoning County, Ohio, which is where we grew up. So we love how we can give back to both of our kind of communities.
Lisa: I think, again, it’s sort of as a small business, we started with where we are and what we’re focused on. So our initial, one of our first partners was Planned Parenthood of Greater New York and Eleanor’s legacy, which works to get New York women elected. And so it kind of happens more organically where we are and where we initially started to give back. And hopefully as we grow that we can widen that net. But, we’re New Yorkers. We’re passionate about it.
NY Launch Pod: And another important aspect of your story is that you two are sisters. And I know that you have another sister who’s involved in the business. Did you have the dream of starting a business together? How did that happen?
Kate: Yeah, we actually had talked about it for a while. Lisa’s laughing. We actually talked about it for awhile before we started Social Goods. We had another idea. We were playing around with a few years prior. And then when we had the idea for Social Goods, we kind of sat on it for a while. We both had full-time jobs that we were working on. And then over the months leading, we’re like, wait, this is really something we want to do and we want to dedicate our times time for. So when that shift came, I think we love working as sisters. Most days, other days we bicker, we are sisters.
NY Launch Pod: I was going to ask about the bad days
Lisa: Like when we have to live together, because we’re all in quarantine. When we’re just working together, we’re okay. We’ve all been living together for six months. That’s when it, that’s when it gets a little bit harder. And actually Katie has a twin I’m older. And so it’s the two of us. And then we get the casual advice from her twin sister also. So it’s, you know, it’s three sisters working together. Some days are better than others, but it’s great.
Kate: It’s been really fun. And our parents have gotten involved where they can and our dad works in retail as well. So it’s been fun to get his advice as we grow. So it’s become a bit of a family affair and no big fights just yet.
NY Launch Pod: Well, that is a wonderful note to wrap things up on how do people find out more about you and Social Goods?
Kate: So they can follow us on Instagram at shop Social Goods. Our website is socialgoods.com. We have a lot of gift guides and special sales and items that we’re working on for the holidays. So it’s a fun time to check it out. Uh, and we hope that everyone likes what they see and appreciates learning more about the non-profit partners that we’re so passionate about.
Lisa: And if you check us out we’re happy to offer a discount to listeners. You can just use the code NYLAUNCH at checkout for 15% off. Anything that you see.
NY Launch Pod: Oh, that is wonderful. Everyone’s certainly going to appreciate that. And if you want to learn more about the New York Launch Pod, you can follow us on social media @nylaunchpod and for transcripts of every episode, including this one, visit nylaunchpod.com. And if you are a super fan of the New York Launch Pod, Kate and Lisa, are you super fans of the New York Launch Pod?
Kate and Lisa: Absolutely!
NY Launch Pod: If you are obviously a fan of the New York Launch Pod, like Kate and Lisa, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It is greatly appreciated and does help people discover the show.
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