Our Story

Pioneering good things since 1991

     Still Eagle Planetary Persuasions began in 1991 as a small alternative environmental storefront in the Kootenays of BC. Shortly thereafter we became one of Canada's first hemp stores, wholesaling the best hemp products we could find to other hemp stores across Canada. Today, we carry everything from twine to food to rope to clothing to bags, body products, hats, socks, jewellery, rolling papers, posters, books and information.

We pride ourselves on continuously pushing the envelope, and on striving not just to maintain, but to improve upon the highest environmental and social standards.

	Why buy fair trade? Remember the fiasco with Kathy Lee and Walmart? Remember the pictures of small children chained to tables sewing Nike shoes?      North America's hunger for consumer goods continues to "force" manufacturers to produce "cheaper" product. Labour costs are one of the first places to cut costs; and that mostly means taking manufacturing over-seas to the third world where desperation causes men, women, and small children to work for pennies per day. Here at Still Eagle, we believe in supporting companies who pay fairly for labour. Period.
	When Still Eagle opened in 1991, recycled paper was a new idea. We were pretty much the only store in town carrying it. A lot has changed. Today, pretty much everyone knows what it is, and why we should use it. Right? Right? But just to recap: why make something new, if you can fix, re-use, or recycle something old. Particularly plastic. Our big push for 2010/2011 is to move towards being as plastic-free as possible. We already recycle our plastic bags in the store (along with our boxes, cans, bottles etc…) now we are trying to get out suppliers to use as little packaging as possible.
	Natural can be defined in many ways…at Still Eagle when we say that we promote natural products, we mean products that are made in an organic way: not requiring too much extra irrigation, or man-made chemicals. A product doesn't have to be certified organic to be natural. For some suppliers the process they would have to go through to be certified organic would be overly costly or time-consuming, but the beauty of Still Eagle is that because we use mainly local or small suppliers we can be sure that they are natural. Bamboo would be an example of a product that is natural (requiring no chemicals or extra irrigation), but is very seldom given an organic certification.
	Organic is natural bumped up a notch (without the steroids). Organic takes the idea of natural and makes it completely chemical free. It is important to note however that some products can claim to be certified organic, but that doesn't mean they are actually natural…soy being a key example. Soy crops have been so genetically modified and cross-pollinated, that it would be difficult to say that even the organic soy is natural.
	'Local' takes a few shapes at Still Eagle. We  keep  the petroleum footprint of shipping as small as possible by supporting as many Kootenay manufacturers as we can. That way the only shipping cost to the environment is the one where we send it to you! We also support products that are not only designed, but manufactured in Canada. Why? Products that have been manufactured in Canada are naturally fair-trade, and fair-wage, they are also held under the (relatively) stricter environmental guidelines that Canada has in place for the use, re-use, and waste of substances used in the process. Yes, products like fabric that are manufactured in Canada are more expensive, but they are made under guidelines that ( at least in theory) protect the environment. And they don't have as far to travel to get to you. It's a win-win situation to buy a Canadian-made product.
	Well, we could almost write a book on this subject, but for the condensed version please see the WHOLESALER page.
	We are the pusher man when it comes to finding, sourcing, selling and convincing not only our customers but our wholesalers to use sustainable alternative fabrics. No one needs to have petroleum in their pants as far as we are concerned; providing our customers with funky, stylish, well made alternatives is our goal.