25+ AAPI Owned Small Businesses to Shop
According to the Asian/Pacific Islander Chamber of Commerce (ACE), there are 2.2 million AAPI business owners in the U.S. Make the conscious decision to use your money and support AAPI communities.
When consumers purchase from AAPI-owned brands it supports these businesses to continue growing financially and creates more jobs within AAPI communities.
Pin this small business list for later!
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What does AAPI stand for?
The term AAPI stands for Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander and refers to a community of people including "approximately 50 distinct ethnic groups speaking over 100 languages, with connections to Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, Hawaiian, and other Asian and Pacific Islander ancestries," according to www.NAMI.org
25 Sustainable AAPI Owned Brands
If you're ready to show your support and shop small AAPI owned businesses this list is a perfect place to start! All of these amazing AAPI owned brands use sustainable materials and ethical practices.
Copper Cow Vietnamese Pour Over Coffee
Copper Cow’s Vietnamese-style pour-over coffee company is AAPI and women-owned, working to bring you sustainable, ethical, and delicious coffee to your home.
They work directly with Vietnamese farmers to ensure sustainable sources and pay twice the market rate for their Vietnamese coffee beans.
If you have a sweet tooth, you'll love turning the pourover coffee into lattes with the sweetened condensed milk that comes with each set. I've personally tried a few of their latte kits and love them.
My personal favorite flavors are the churro, pumpkin, and matcha. Copper Cow Coffee latte kits and boba tea kits make a perfect gift for those who you love.
Outer's Sustainable Outdoor Furniture
Outer is a high-quality outdoor furniture company that focuses on eco-friendly materials, circular design, and encouraging conscious consumers to fall in love with their outdoor living spaces. If this brand looks familiar to you, you might have seen founders Terry Lin and Jiake Liu on Shark Tank!
Outer outdoor furniture is made with eco-friendly and recycled materials such as wicker, teak, aluminum, and concrete. When designing their products this brand takes into consideration durability and circular design which is great for conscious consumers searching for a long lasting patio furniture.
Be sure to read my Outer loveseat review!
Our place's Non-Toxic Cookware and Dinnerware
Our Place dinnerware features high-quality ceramic dinnerware and non-toxic cookware. This brand is best known for their Always Pan. Using patent pending technology, this one pan can braise, sear, steam, strain, sauté, fry, and boil.
Made using only ethical labor, the Always Pan is a beautiful addition to any kitchen and a popular choice for sustainable consumers who believe in buying less. Along with the Always Pan, conscious consumers can find ceramic mugs, plates, bowls, knives, cutting boards, and more.
Free AF Mocktails
Free AF is an all-natural alcohol-free cocktail brand, founded by AAPI entrepreneur Lisa King. This mocktail company offers award-winning options based on the flavors of the world’s most popular classic cocktails, including the Aperol Spritz, Paloma, Cuba Libre and Vodka Spritz.
Each drink is powered by Afterglow™, a 100% natural botanical extract that mimics the pleasant warmth of drinking alcohol—without the alcohol. These all-natural alcohol-free cocktails are low calorie, low sugar, gluten free and vegan.
Honeyberry Studios Stationery Printed on Recycled Paper
Honeyberry Studios is a joyful, thoughtful, and beautiful stationary brand by Yuko. This business is AAPI, Woman, and LGBTQ+ owned and operated to bring beautiful greeting cards and stationary gifts to those who need joy, compassion, and love in their life.
Honeyberry Studios stationery is printed on recycled paper making this a more sustainable stationery choice! Personally, I love the art and messaging on their 2023 Wall Calendar.
Polite's CBD Products
Polite is a woman and minority owned CBD brand founded on a mission to serve people by making cutting-edge cannabinoid products more accessible.
Polite uses clean and simple ingredients and all products are tested by third-party labs for your safety and wellness. Their products feature:
• No Sugar, Flavorings, Coloring, or Preservatives
• Verified Free of Pesticides, Heavy Metals, Microbials, and Mycotoxins
• Gluten-free, GMO-free, Vegan, Kosher Certified
• USA Grown Hemp
They offer a range of formulas that combine clinically researched ratios of cannabidiol (CBD), cannabigerol (CBG) and cannabinol (CBN) with medicinal herbs.
These hemp-derived cannabinoids are compounds that work naturally with your system to support daily wellness. You can use the discount code HONEST15 for 15% off their products.
Valani's Sustainable Fashion
Valani makes clothing for women who want a "fun, flirty, and beautiful wardrobe without harming the planet." Each piece is ethically produced in USA and India and made with plant-based fabrics and low-impact, non-toxic dyes. This is a great place if you love designs that have asymetry, bold sleeves, and classic yet empowering looks.
Untold's Creative Gift Boxes
untold is an Asian American owned gifting company focused on amplifying the voices of BIPOC entrepreneurs.
This eco-friendly gift box company curates care packages featuring products that promote BIPOC-owned small businesses to work toward a more socially inclusive economy.
This brand is on a mission to tell the unique stories of the entrepreneurs behind the brands and curate experience-based gifts with every box to build meaningful connections.
Lovanie's Made to Order Slow Fashion
Lovanie is a made-to-order slow fashion brand for petite women, whose mission is to create clothing that is kind to people and the planet to inspire those who wear it to live the life of their dreams. They source fabric made from natural fibers for their designs such as 100% linen and deadstock cotton fabric.
This is the perfect place to shop if you're a petite woman who loves dreamy, flowy, and boho-inspired designs. You can use the code THEHONESTCONSUMER for 10% off your order too!
Cocokind's Beauty & Skincare
Cocokind is a conscious beauty brand made for everyone. They are a company that doesn’t need to hide how they formulate, they invest in highly effective but gentle formulas, and sets fair prices based on what’s inside the bottle.
Most importantly, cocokind exists to ensure that all of us have a safe place in the beauty industry where we’re celebrated and accepted, exactly as we already are, says their founder, Priscilla (P) Tsai. This is a one-stop shop for gentle-yet-powerful skincare for everyday.
CURA Co. Marketplace Showcasing Intersections of Beauty, Equity, & Impact
CURA Co. is a one-stop shop for conscious living. CURA seeks the intersections of beauty, art, equity and impact. CURA Co.'s core values include being artful, ethical, and mindful. This shop strives to curate products that embrace a modern point of view while honoring heritage craft and origin stories.
Cura Co.
Meow Meow Tweet Skincare Products
Meow Meow Tweet is an all-natural vegan skincare company whose mission is: Vegan personal care for every body. Always ethical, low-waste, handmade & cruelty-free.
This one-stop shop for face, body, hair, and underarm products cares about every inch of their company and the planet, which is why they focus on small-batch, plant-based, cruelty-free products that give back.
They also have a refill program, where you can buy in bulk and return your empty containers to them where they can be sterilized and used again. Some best sellers are their lavender-bergamot deodorant stick, geranium-palmarosa face toner, matcha face masks, and rosemary avocado shampoo bar.
One StripE Chai
One Stripe Chai is a woman-owned South Asian beverage brand that offers authentic, small batch masala chai concentrates and blends.
This brand works to source ethical and sustainable ingredients. Their chai offerings even feature organic ingredients too! They offer chai blends, concentrates, and gift sets for purchase on their online shop.
Kitschy Delish's Art Filled with sweetness and whimsy
Kitschy Delish™ is a paper and gifts company founded in 2017 by Seattle illustrator Kelly. Kelly's designs feature food inspired work, play on words, and pin-up. Her unique artwork can be purchased in the form of pins, notecards, stickers, magnets, and more.
Apothekary’s Herbs & Tinctures
Apothékary is a brand focused on herbs and tinctures. This brand is working to get to the root cause of our health issues, not just treating the symptom. Their goal, always, is to keep toxins out, not bring them in, and they believe that through our plant-based medicine we have the ability to unite the mind, body and soul into balance.
Founded by a Wall-Street refugee and lifelong wellness entrepreneur, Shizu Okusa, this brands roots lie in her mental and physical healing journey with Ayurveda, TCM and Japanese Kampo Medicine, rooted in over 5,000 years of science and tradition. They offer single herbs, tinctures, starter kits, classes, and more.
Slow Stitch Studio's Ethical & Sustainable Textiles
Slow Stitch Studio is a sustainable, ethical textile brand that makes clothing, accessories, and wall art. The fabric is designed in the ancient Shibori style, where patterns are created on the cloth by manipulating and compressing the fabric before dyeing it.
Slow Stitch Studio uses natural extracts from leaves, wood chips, fruits and roots of various plants that they source locally whenever they can.
Healthy Baby's Clean Products for Babies
Healthy Baby is founded by Shazi Visram is a mother, entrepreneur, and activist committed to bettering the world by improving the health and wellness of children and families around the world.
Healthy Baby carries eco-friendly diapers, wipes, non-toxic cleaning products, clean personal care products, gentle baby care products, and more.
Mount Lai's Beauty Products
Mount Lai is a proudly Asian female owned beauty brand rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Mount Lai takes a modern approach to ancient rituals for radiant, glowing skin.
They specifically focus on Gua sha and facial rolling which have been healing modalities used for centuries, shared from one family member to another, like our founder and her grandmother.
Along with their beauty tools, they also sell skincare products that are crafted in collaboration with Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners, using herbs intentionally selected for their healing and beneficial properties.
ettitude's Sustainable Bedding
ettitude is a female and Asian-owned brand that was founded by Phoebe Yu in 2014. After emigrating from China to Australia and struggling to find affordable homewares that were both sustainable and comfortable, Phoebe was inspired and founded Ettitude, a clean bamboo bedding and loungewear brand.
ettitude spent years refining and testing its signature lyocell fabric to create a new-generation bamboo fabric that is 100% pesticide and chemical-free, sourced from FSC-certified forests and made in a closed-loop manufacturing process.
In 2021, ettitude announced it is a certified Climate Neutral company. In April 2022, ettitude became a certified BCorp.
Blueland's Zero Waste Cleaning Supplies
Blueland is zero waste cleaning brand offers everything you could need to clean your home. This sustainable cleaning company sells Forever Bottles so that you can reuse time and again simply by purchasing their cleaning and hand soap tablet refills.
They also have single-dose dishwasher tablets that are not wrapped in plastic and can be stored in Blueland steel tins which are designed to be refilled and keep out humidity. Plus, they have a wide range of sustainable cleaning products along with the ones mentioned above.
nguyen coffee supply
Nguyen Coffee Supply imports coffee beans through direct-trade relationships with Vietnamese farmers and roast in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2018 by 1st generation entrepreneur-activist Sahra Nguyen, this socially responsible brand on a mission to change the future of coffee through diversity, sustainability and cultural integrity.
Specifically, we diversify the industry through Vietnamese coffee, elevate resilient robusta as the key to our sustainable coffee future and transform the landscape through economic advancement for both arabica & robusta farmers, globally.
EATABLE's Gourmet Popcorn
EATABLE's infused gourmet popcorn uses non-GMO corn kernels that are locally sourced, then popped in small batches, and bagged fresh from their Toronto production facility, so customers can enjoy the best taste and texture. Their alcohol inspired popcorns feature unique flavors.
Founded by a husband and wife team, EATABLE is also proud to be Certified Plastic Neutral: For every bag sold, plastic is removed from the environment through their partnership with rePurpose Global.
A portion of ALL online sales is contributed to Second Harvest which is Canada’s largest food rescue organization capture unsold, healthy food and redirect it to people, not landfills, minimizing the environmental impact of unnecessary waste and maximizing food’s healthy potential.
Discover unique flavors such as Whisky on the Pops, Pop the Champagne, Poppin' Rosé All Day, Pop Goes Sangria, Poppy Ceasar, and more. Their gourmet popcorn can be found online and at select retailers.
Long Dog Clothing's Sustainable Pet Accessories
Long Dog Clothing is a woman and AAPI owned dog clothing brand. Long Dog Clothing prioritizes clothing that actually fits dogs and is sustainably made. Their clothing is ethically made in the USA.
Select dog clothing and accessories are made with fabrics that hold the STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® certification or organic cotton. On top of having ethical practices and sustainable materials, this brand gives back. 15% of proceeds are donated to helping rescue animals.
Aiden & Coco Aromatherapy
Aiden & Coco is a brand inspired by sunshine and nature creating handcrafted aromatherapy products for everyday wellness and self-care practices.
Their products are ethically made in California in small batches. I personally use and love their Calm spray.
Amy Zhang Stationery
Amy Zhang is an Asian owned Denver-based illustration studio specializing in pretty witty greetings celebrating genuine human moments.
This woman- and minority-owned — small business illustrates and prints all products in the USA, while also giving back to their local community by donating a portion of proceeds to Food Bank of the Rockies.
Pink Moon's Wellness Products
Pink Moon is a lifestyle brand and inclusive community at the intersection of ancient wellcare practices and high quality eco-friendly products.
The products Pink Moon creates are a curation inspired by various practices and tools the founder Lin grew up with and incorporates in her daily life including Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Reiki, Crystals, Aromatherapy, and Astrology.
Lin wanted to create a company that facilitates healing while creating products that turn these ancient practices into tangible products and making these practices more inclusive, approachable and accessible. Pink Moon's current product offerings feature skin care, body care, and gifts.
The importance of Supporting AAPI Owned Brands
Since the Covid-19 pandemic broke in the United States in early 2020, there have been thousands of reports of anti-asian hate and blatant racism against Asian Americans.
Research from Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism shows us that anti-asian hate crimes increased 339% in the past year across the country, with New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco having the most crimes reported.
This also means that asian-owned businesses have suffered.
With the racism and acts of violence also comes decreased sales and business closures, as well as fear for safety and the future. This is another reason why it is important to support asian-owned small businesses and asian communities.
Is it more difficult for AAPI entrepreneurs to get funding and resources for their businesses?
In the report "Small Businesses, Big Dreams" by National CAPACD found that AAPI entrepreneurs face significant barriers in starting and sustaining small businesses, such as accessing funding, linguistic barriers, and accessing the information for resources available.
How to Support AAPI Businesses
Shopping with asian-owned brands gives much-needed recognition and support of the AAPI community and the small business owners with it.
Financial support is not the only way you can have an impact of allyship.
Another way to support is by honoring and celebrating AAPI cultures and communities during May, which is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
You can also share the love on social media by promoting AAPI local businesses, women-owned businesses, and asian-owned companies.
Support your local community by eating at asian-owned establishments or visiting AAPI museums.
Be sure to write reviews too! This is another great way to support AAPI small businesses locally.
Hopefully this guide has encouraged you to shop with some AAPI small businesses! To support women-owned, Indigenous-owned, BIPOC-owned, and black-owned businesses, check out our other round-ups 50 Sustainable Black Owned Brands, 15 Gift Ideas from BIPOC Owned Brands, & 9 Sustainable Indigenous Brands.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Marina Crouse is a writer, editor, & writing coach based in Los Angeles, California. She has her MFA in creative writing and 10+ years experience working as a professional writer. Her favorite sustainability habits involve making choices that are kind to herself, others, & the planet, & carrying her emotional support reusable water bottle with her everywhere. Learn more on Marina’s website or Instagram.
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