A new company that's taking shape.

There is no question that America is a place where you can get ten kinds of everything. From the thirty or so sports drink brands that fill the fridge at the mini-mart to the glut of similarly-priced, pseudo-boxy silver sedans that get about 28mpg, we have a plethora of choices (and not just in pinatas.) In this era of continuous quality improvements, endless consumer testing and, for all we know, ridiculous amounts of industrial espionage, products in any category tend to merge together, with little separating them but the catchiness of their ad campaigns or the cachet of their celebrity endorser.

Into this arena of excellent sameness steps a new company with a difference. Open Arms is a local company that not only offers great products, they do so as a way to provide a living wage for refugee women living in America. Not only that, they help the environment by using reclaimed t-shirts that would have spent the next eon in a landfill or some dude's t-shirt drawer.

Now, chances are I personally won't make any purchases from the company because a) tote bags are for chicks, b) diaper covers are for babies [our youngest is 8 years old] and c) if I bought a rug without my wife's input, it would end up in the garage by my workbench. However, their target demo (wimmenfolk) love that kind of stuff.

For me, I've already scavenged through my t-shirt drawer for holdovers from college, political campaigns and triathlons [what? you don't think I could run a triathlon? fine. it was actually from a dog walk, but that's a charity, so it essentially a spiritual triathlon, which, upon further consideration, is probably the closest I'll ever get to running one] and donated them. It made me feel good, and that's the difference with Open Arms.

Now, if you've read this far, I owe you a little bit of disclosure: my wife is one of the founders of Open Arms. However, if you know her and her beautiful hard-headedness, you know she wouldn't ask me for help if her arm was caught under one of those big boulders that usually cost lone hikers their arms. She's working for the company for free for one year.

So, if you want a reason to make a purchase beyond a finely-honed level of quality, check out Open Arms and see if something floats your boat.