Hammock Boutique

Hammock Boutique is a socially responsible organization committed to the sustainable development of indigenous communities in Mexico through the manufacture and distribution of the highest quality hammocks. For over 10 years, we have worked very hard to promote the ancient art of Mayan hammock weaving world wide. We are extremely proud of our Mayan ancestry and the beauty of its history and craftsmanship. We make a point of sharing this rich history outside of Mexico. For years we have been shipping our hammocks all over the world. Moving into the future, we will continue to expand and promote our unique art and history. Our business operates as a cooperative, whereby we provide the men and women from Mayan villages the raw material to hand-weave each one of our hammocks from the comfort of their homes and then collect the finished product upon completion. Because we only suggest color combinations to our weavers, the actual final design of the hammock is absolutely unique and an expression of the artist, that is "our weavers". The men and women we employ as weavers, work on the hammocks in order to supplement their family income. Since weaving is done at home, at their own individual schedules, working conditions are far better than working at a factory or in the fields. This work model allows them to weave their hammocks and take care of their children at the same time. Working at their own pace allows them the freedom to take a day off if necessary; they do so without the need to ask anyone's permission or report to a supervisor. When they have finished weaving the hammocks, they deliver them to a company representative or our representative will pick up at their home. This model allows production to be a very family friendly job. At Hammock Boutique, we provide our weavers with all the raw materials needed to build the hammocks and, therefore, there is absolutely no economic constraint or investment on the part of our Mayan craftsman. We believe this is a key advantage when compared to other sources of income for the people in these poor and sometimes remote villages in the Yucatan peninsula. Our Award Winning Business concept is called SHE Network (Sustainable Holistic Empowerment Network) for Social Impact and Social Entrepreneurship. Our Sustainability comes from running a profitable hammock business. The Holistic component comes from the integrated approach of not limiting ourselves to provide just jobs but also act in other aspects to help improve their overall living conditions. Empowerment comes with the economic independence that results from being lifted out of poverty. ?The Network represents the institutions that make this impact possible as well as each family of weavers and their communities. This fully integrated model creates a symbiotic relationship where we mutually benefit from improved living conditions of our weavers. Our business model for engaging extremely poor, illiterate, marginalized people in Mayan villages in the Yucatan is both more successful and less risky than other models such as Micro-Finance. This is because we do not ask people to take on burdensome and complicated loans in order to improve their economic situation, which is the case in Micro-Finance. Rather, we take on all the investments in materials, transportation, and sales, leaving the weavers to invest only their time. All the hammocks we collect are transported and stored in our warehouse facilities. At the warehouse, each hammock is then carefully inspected for quality control and standardization. We hope you have enjoyed learning more about the ancient art of Mayan hammock weaving and the people who make it possible!