A Marker of Hope. Black Lives Matter.
When we established Stele a year ago, our initial plan was the name the company, Marker. We wanted our hats to be a marker, a signal, a sign, of hope for people. To either be inspired by others who wear the hats or to give inspiration through donning a hat of their own.
Due to trademark issues, we had to search for another name. When our co-founder Julie came across the word "stele" (pronounced STEE-lee), we knew we found the name of our company.
A Stele is a monument with an inscription. In our terms, that means a marker of hope.
Our mission now is to design hats and share stories that provide hope. Those that inspire us to be better, to be motivated to change, to make this world a stronger community where we kick the influence of the critics and we bond together.
These protests show the pain and hurt black Americans (and other minorities) have bottled up for so long. And the more we study to understand, the more we realize how deep the pain goes.
We're committed to helping make a change.
Just as Break The Stigma is meant to promote the acceptance of speaking up about your mental health, it is meant to represent the breaking of all stigmas.
Social stigma is the disapproval of, or discrimination against, a person based on perceivable social characteristics that serve to distinguish them from other members of a society. Social stigmas are commonly related to culture, gender, race, intelligence, and health.
We want to break these stigmas and a portion of proceeds from the break the stigma hat will go to several organizations that promote hope toward making change. Organizations regarding mental health, race, cultural divides, and building a better community.
We want the Black Lives Matter movement to know we want to help! We've provided resources below that have helped us to understand the situation and have motivated us even further to take action to help make change.
Launching our company in 2020 could be seen as having the odds stacked against us. We take it as a challenge. We don't mind being or supporting the underdog.
Be Brave. Have Heart.
With love,
Brock, Julie, and the Stele Team.
Thank you to our friends at Trainual for their curation of a lot of these resources. We've added a few of our own.