Zazzle Launches Zazzle Heart with First African Maker

Zazzle Launches Zazzle Heart with First African Maker

Redwood City, CA – March 3, 2015 –

Zazzle has launched Zazzle Heart, a new initiative that is focused on sustainable work that drives positive change across the world. As part of this partnership, we’re launching our first African maker on the Zazzle Heart platform. Known as the LIFE Line sewing project based in Kenya, this group of amazing moms has created various products including bracelets and aprons for Zazzle. In fact, the Zazzle product development team travelled to Kenya to meet these amazing women and to collaborate on creative direction, design and implementation. Zazzle’s work with LIFE Line supports their mission to empower Kenyan mothers of special needs children to be self-sustaining. This new line of products are handmade in Kenya and sales of these products will directly benefit the Malaika Mums, many of whom have been shunned by society because of their special needs children.

At Zazzle, we want our customers to receive products that have soul, are made by extraordinary people, and live on a platform that supports independent designers and artists. By purchasing these items directly from LIFE Line, Zazzle is directly supporting these women. These entrepreneurial women are making each product by hand, which takes a tremendous amount of time. Then, thanks to the Zazzle platform, we’re able to offer customers the ability to add customization – anything from an image to text – onto the products directly.

The products include aprons, bracelets, shirts, tote bags, wine bags, scarves, and coin purses. Customization on Zazzle is available for the aprons, shirts, tote bags and wine bags. The gray and white plaid fabric design for the scarves and coin purses is an exclusive collaboration between LIFE Line and Zazzle, created when Zazzle travelled to Kenya to meet the women in person and gain a better understanding of their crafts and passion. The result is a blending of the traditional Maasai shuka pattern with a classic color palette available only on Zazzle. These items are available now. As there is a limited number of items, we aim to sell out quickly.

At Zazzle, we've seen firsthand how economic empowerment is possible through a platform like ours. There is nothing more powerful to improve the human condition than enabling economic empowerment, and specifically, in this case, doing it through beautiful, hand-crafted products. Being able to work with LIFE line has added so much more heart to an already very passionate business. We believe in building a business that has a positive impact across the world, and Zazzle Heart is a first step of what we hope will be many inspirational partnerships in the future.

About Zazzle

Zazzle is the world's leading platform for quality custom products. Zazzle's proprietary technology enables individuals, professional artists and major brands, including Disney and Hallmark, to create and offer billions of unique products for customers worldwide. Zazzle's rapidly expanding product base covers every topic imaginable and includes t-shirts, business cards, invitations, in addition to a variety of custom gifts. Upon creation, products are instantly and accurately visualized on the site and offered in the Zazzle marketplace. When ordered, each product is made on-demand, typically within 24 hours. Launched in 2005 and based in Redwood City, California, Zazzle's vision is to redefine commerce, powered by the world's imagination.