TMBR really started back in 2020 in beautiful Playa Ponderosa, amongst the ancient pine forests outside Flagstaff, Arizona. But that's a story for another time. TMBR, as we know it, began in the summer of 2024 when a dear friend suggested a rebrand of our originally named, Nice Shades Trade Co. NSTco was a mouthful any way you cut it, while TMBR was a catchy new name which perfectly adapted to our product and our ethos of giving back, while allowing us to hone in on a more specific cause that was near to our hearts--planting trees!
Our official launch came just in time to debut a variety of new styles along with our original signature Donut Shades at Phish's Mondegreen Festival in August. The four-day festival at The Woodlands in Dover, DE, was an amazing opportunity to showcase our new shades and our re-defined mission. We had an amazing time connecting with so many people from all over the country, including many long-time friends, and we got to enjoy some incredible music in between.
Shortly before the festival we were volunteering in St. Louis with the WaterWheel Foundation when we were introduced to our friend Dan Breidenstein from Living, Lands & Waters. We were blown away learning about LL&W's mission and history. We already knew we wanted to plant trees but we weren't sure yet how we were going to do it, so when we learned about LL&W's MillionTrees project, we knew it was a partnership that was meant to be.
A few thousand miles later, we were home and got to work on building a new website and a strategy to plant as many trees as possible. In our first six months, we funded the planting of over 2,000 trees and we have even bigger goals for 2025. We are increasing the number of trees planted per pair of sunglasses sold from five to ten and we are pledging to plant 100,000 trees in the coming year. We're also planning tree planting events of our own and initiating partnerships with additional arborist foundations to increase our impact in the US as well as globally.
We hope you will join our movement by checking out our online store, subscribing to our newsletter, or following us on our socials. Every like and share helps us greatly in growing our dream of planting more trees!
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