The Man Behind The Brand

Is there a saying that goes "Behind every great white lady... is a Sri Lankan man who taught her everything?" If not, I'm coining it today. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Upali Weerakoon.



But first, let me tell you how I met him. While living in Sri Lanka as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar, certain I had everything I needed to start my own brand and a living wage garment factory (oh, ignorance can be bliss!), I placed an advertisement in the Sunday Observer, a Colombo newspaper. It read something like "U.S. buyer seeking small, flexible apparel manufacturer for unique ethical manufacturing initiative." The day I placed the advertisement, there was a suicide bomb 2 blocks from the newspaper building... but that's a different story for a different day!

I received dozens of phone calls, some strange, some intriguing. One of them came from Upali Weerakoon, and we agreed to meet at a coffee shop to discuss my project. Several weeks and phone calls later, Upali convinced me that I did not really need the fancy business plan I had in mind, I needed **samples** and one hell of an order from the university clients I was after.



So I got in his car, and we went to make some samples.

With Roshan, his friend and colleague, behind the wheel, we went on a high speed chase through the streets of Colombo, the neighboring villages, and out to the free trade zones. We visited trim suppliers (hang tags, labels, etc.), fabric mills and libraries, sample rooms, and countless factories to develop the sample collection for Duke. My garment industry vocabulary must have grown 800% in 4 weeks. It was like a crash course in "Everything You Wanted To Know About T-Shirts But Were Afraid To Ask." And it was deeply, wildly fascinating.

In between factory visits, Upali took me to his house to eat what will always remain my favorite food on earth: Sri Lankan. At most of the fancy Fulbright events I was attending, we were treated like westerners and given forks and knives... at Upali's house I learned to eat rice and curry with my fingers, the way they do - only with much less grace and a little more mouth-gaping. Thinking of the curries we ate at his house still makes my mouth water. Afterwards, we'd all take a nap in the mid-afternoon heat before going out to brave the rag trade wildnerness again.

By nighttime, I fell asleep feeling like God put me on earth to come to Sri Lanka and meet this man. I was never sure why Upali treated me like a daughter from the moment I met him. Maybe he saw how much I had fallen in love with his country and culture, how I wanted beyond all else to do something good in his tiny, beautiful corner of the world. As an American not used to this kind of treatment, his endless time, energy, and giving often made me feel guilty... in the way that someone can feel undeserving of the love in their lives.

I hope you actually get to meet Upali one day, because there's no way you wouldn't love him. In the meantime, know that he has made every t-shirt, hoodie, or yoga pant you buy possible. He was the second person, after my own father, to believe in me. And he knows more about bringing people together to make beautiful garments than anyone you'll ever meet.