This past year has been a difficult year for most companies involved in apparel manufacturing or the retail sector.
Jedidiah has not been immune to the tough economic environment we all now live in.
Our customer base has decreased by about 30%, mostly because those stores are no longer in business.
We feel for all the people who have lost their jobs, postponed their dreams and have lost hope.

But I guess that is what Jedidiah hangs on to the most, we always have hope.

There seems to be a sort of cleansing going on around us.
Maybe it’s like when you finally clean your closet or organize your garage.
You find a bunch of crap that you should never have held on to.
Yes, Jedidiah is smaller today than it was a year ago, but in some ways we are stronger.
We have strengthened our relationships with so many of our good friends at World Vision, Compassion International, Surfing the Nations and others.
We are not circling the wagons and just trying to survive.
We are doing everything in our power to create more, design more, inspire more and give more.
With chaos comes great opportunity.
We believe there is a fundamental shift happening in the American economy.
We believe people are thinking more before they are buying.
If given a choice, we believe people will choose to buy products that are purposeful as opposed to products that are not.
In this fundamental shift lies great opportunity for Jedidiah to grow, expand, tell more stories and give more.
We hold firmly to that hope.

As we move into 2010, Jedidiah resolves to:

Never stop being creative, we are looking to build our creative staff. It is through art that we tell our stories and it is through our clothing that we can help others.
Fully implement our THRIVE campaign where we donate 5% of our revenue, 5% of the actual clothes we make and 5% of our time to our non profit partners.
Dig deeper into all our manufacturing partners’ labor standards and actually develop a Jedidiah Fair Trade agreement with each company we deal with.
Pray more, because it matters.

Thanks to everyone who considers themselves a friend of Jedidiah, we cherish your involvement with us.
We hope to make many new friends in 2010.

Whether you’re flying or driving or ice skating or surfing or doing somersaults to your Christmas destination, we wish you safe travels and a magical time with friends and family. Santa put in a big order with us just a few weeks ago, so you might want to leave him some good treats just in case. (Word to the wise: he may have told us that should you live next to a Trader Joes, he can’t get enough of the Candy Cane Joe Joe cookies with a glass of 2% milk.)

And in Case your looking for that last minute gift… it’s not to late to pick up a Jedidiah Gift Certificate.

Merry Christmas to all!