When Gelaine Santiago and Jerome Gagnon-Voyer traveled to the Philippines in 2015, they found what they described as an ecosystem of ethical businesses run by young Filipino entrepreneurs: companies making beautiful, locally crafted products and unable to find the North American markets that would value them. They came home and built Cambio & Co as the bridge between those makers and those markets.
It’s a familiar social enterprise structure. What makes Cambio & Co worth studying is how it works at the intersection of diaspora identity and ethical commerce.
The “Wear Your Heritage” Movement
Cambio & Co was an early participant in what’s become known as the “Wear Your Heritage” movement: the use of fashion as a vehicle for cultural pride and solidarity among diaspora communities. For Filipino Canadians specifically, buying from Filipino artisan brands is both an ethical consumption choice and a statement of cultural identity.
This dual function is a design feature of Cambio & Co’s model, not an accident. Their customer base includes Filipino diaspora members across Canada who want to celebrate their heritage through their purchasing choices, as well as ethically-minded consumers who might have no Filipino connection but respond to the craftsmanship and sustainability story.
Vancouver’s Filipino population grew nearly 25% between 2011 and 2016, making it Canada’s third-largest visible minority group after South Asians and Chinese. That demographic growth represents a growing market that Cambio & Co was positioned to serve before most retailers had noticed it.
The Partner Brands and What They Do
Cambio & Co’s sourcing team conducts in-person site visits to their Filipino partner brands, reviewing social media, verifying practices, and building direct relationships before bringing producers onto the platform.
Rags2Riches (R2R), one of their most successful partners, creates eco-ethical fashion and home accessories from overstock fabric, upcycled cloth, and indigenous textiles that would otherwise go to landfill. Founded by Reese Fernandez-Ruiz, R2R is itself a social enterprise that works with artisans in urban poor communities to develop craft skills and fair employment.
Anthill Fabric Gallery uses eco-friendly weaving methods and indigenous textile traditions. Olivia & Diego creates upcycled jewelry. Sesotunawa rounds out a product range that spans home goods, fashion, and accessories.
The sourcing model at Cambio & Co isn’t just about finding ethical products. It’s about maintaining relationships with the communities those products come from — which is the only way to ensure the ethics are real and ongoing rather than verified once and forgotten.
The Model for the Filipino Diaspora Market
Cambio & Co has collaborated with 12 partner organizations and thousands of social advocates since founding, positioning itself as a cultural hub as much as a retail brand. Their website carries editorial content about the Philippines, the artisans, and the broader “business for social good” ecosystem they’re part of.
This content investment isn’t peripheral. It’s what turns a transactional purchase into a community participation. Filipino diaspora customers who buy from Cambio & Co are connecting to a story about their heritage and supporting an ethical supply chain simultaneously. That double value proposition produces the loyalty and word-of-mouth that retail brands usually can’t buy with advertising.
For retailers building products for diaspora markets: the combination of genuine supply chain relationships, cultural credibility, and editorial depth is what separates Cambio & Co from a generic “world market” retailer curating international goods without the same depth of connection.
To find out more about Cambio & Co, visit their:
P.S. If you’re in Canada and looking for distinctive, ethically made Filipino-crafted goods, Cambio & Co’s platform has the most curated selection available outside the Philippines.