Alkimee

Our flagship product is our jewelry-inspired earphones with a patent pending wire sheath invented by our founder in February 2015. In an effort to create her own unique design interpretation of "jewelry earphones" for the 2015 Shopify Build a Business Competition, Aiyanna disassembled all of her jewelry and discovered that plastic audio wires could be encased in chains to recreate the look of a real necklace, while preventing damage and tangling. When her second venture, Ader, was accepted into startup accelerator MassChallenge in May 2015 and later funded by 500 Startups and The Walt Disney Company's Disney Accelerator in 2016, d evelopment of Alkimee was put on hold until Ader reached its $7M accrued revenue milestone in December 2017. Born into a low-income family of immigrants from Trinidad and Mizoram, India, Aiyanna was accepted to Amherst College with the help of QuestBridge , a nonprofit organization that connects high-achieving, low-income youth with leading colleges and opportunities. Her studies of Capitalism as an Anthropology major during her sophomore year at Amherst inspired her to informally found her first company, venture studio and consultancy, Greene Street Innovation , at age 19. She soon after left Amherst to pursue entrepreneurship full-time with the aim of learning how to create wealth by creating economic value. Once this goal was achieved, she planned to share the required knowledge and resources with anyone who needed access to them. To that end, Alkimee - like all Greene Street ventures - is part social venture, allocating up to 50% of net profit made on the sales of our luxury goods to our Giving Fund, which focuses on providing funding for necessity goods and services to those who cannot afford them. Recipients of Alkimee's Giving Fund are nonprofits and social ventures that help individuals gain access to necessities such as housing, food, healthcare, education, employment, business funding (self-employment), clothing, technology, and transportation. Our social mission is predicated on the belief that "rags to riches" stories can become the norm instead of a novelty if people are provided with the resources required to fulfill their basic survival needs, achieve financial security, and transform their dreams into a reality. The majority of Alkimee jewelry products are produced in the USA with the help of our experienced and Responsible Jewelry Council certified manufacturing partners. Meanwhile, the precious metals and gemstones used to produce our products come from a variety of sources, both known and unknown. When considering the jewelry industry's use of metals and gemstones that come from unknown, limited, and controversial sources, the sustainability of Alkimee's products and social mission can be called into question. Are we selling luxuries mined through forced labor to fund necessities for the very people being exploited? Can the sales of our luxury products ever provide sustainable funding for necessities if they are made with non-renewable resources? It is extremely difficult to create jewelry products with 100% traceable and ethically sourced metals and gemstones in the current marketplace, as the majority of already mined resources are untraceable. Unless it's explicitly stated, there is no way to know that the metals and gemstones available to produce our jewelry haven't funded human and environmental abuses. Even recycled materials, despite having a lower environmental impact than their newly mined counterparts, are impossible to trace to their mine of origin in most cases (although they can at least be traced to their refiner). On the other hand, completely abstaining from using already mined resources because their origins are potentially controversial, but impossible to know, is neither a solution to the industry's systemic problems, nor an efficient use of available resources. Alkimee intends to limit the negative impact of producing our products by first providing as much transparency as possible into the origins of the metals and gemstones that we can use. Secondly, both to limit resource waste and epitomize the concept of alchemical transmutation, all Alkimee jewelry products are prototyped using sterling silver, made to order, and only "transformed" into gold once demand has been proven for a design. Our wire sheath is currently made with untraceable sterling silver - meaning of unknown origins, like the majority of precious metal on the market. Our traditional jewelry and jewelry embellishments are currently made using untraceable and uncertified recycled sterling silver primarily sourced from old jewelry, scrap metal, and electronic waste. As a fairmined licensee, Alkimee is able to produce jewelry products made with fairmined silver, fairmined gold, and fairmined ecological gold - meaning responsibly mined by artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) communities who are paid a premium. Once we have proven demand for our designs made with untraceable and recycled sterling silver, we will offer our clients the option to customize their designs. Specifically, they will be able to request the use of fairmined or fair trade metals, certified conflict-free gold and gemstones - meaning not mined using forced labor to fund wars, untraceable gold and gemstones, SCS certified recycled silver and gold, uncertified recycled gold and gemstones, or lab-created gemstones in the production of their Alkimee products. It is worth noting, however, that the demand for ethically sourced and certified conflict-free, fair trade, fairmined, recycled metals and gemstones, and lab-created gemstones currently exceeds the supply. To address this deficiency and further our commitment to responsible jewelry and luxury goods production, Alkimee has created the Sustainability Initiative. As part of our Giving Fund, the initiative provides funding to new and existing organizations that support, certify, use or supply fair trade, fairmined, recycled, conflict-free metals and gemstones, lab-created gemstones, and other ethically sourced and sustainable materials. The goal of the initiative is to enable the creation of sustainable products through more transparent and abundant supply chains. Alkimee also intends to work with ethical and sustainable non-jewelry material suppliers to expand our offerings outside of our specialization to luxury products made without precious metals and gemstones - if this becomes necessary to sustainably achieve our social mission in the long term. Although precious metals can be recycled indefinitely and lab-created gemstones are seen as a more sustainable alternative to mined gemstones, if the demand and supply of newly mined materials disappeared, it would have a devastating impact on the millions of artisanal and small-scale miners who currently do not have access to equally lucrative employment. The same can be said for luxury apparel and accessories made with materials such as leather and silk from countries like China, India, and Brazil, despite the harm that their unregulated production causes to animals, the environment, and the workers themselves. Through our Giving Fund and Sustainability Initiative, Alkimee contributes to solving these complex issues by funding the creation of sustainable alternative materials, supply chains, and employment opportunities that prioritize the ethical treatment of workers, animals, and the environment. Email [email protected] for inquiries. Our business hours are 10am-7pm PST, Monday through Friday. CONTACT