Arts of Ecuador began as a project to help the many poor families we met in Ecuador who were selling their goods to tourists in the famous outdoor market in Otavalo.  As winter residents in the nearby village of Cotacachi, we marveled at the variety and quality of many of the hand crafted goods being offered. We were especially attracted to the knit hats.  We discovered they were being made by indigenous families, most of whom had learned their skills from their ancestors, passed down and honed through generations.

Our primary mission was to help these people to a better life by raising their incomes through making their goods available in the United States.  A secondary benefit has been to reduce the incentive to leave Ecuador through emigration.

In keeping with those objectives, Arts of Ecuador also directs a substantial portion of our profits to an educational fund for the children of our hat makers. 

At first, many of the hat designs we found were of fantasy and cartoon animals.  Some of them could not be imported due to copyright restrictions.  In time, we set about working with these artisan families to design a unique set of animal hats, geared to the U.S. market.  Today we and our artisan families are proud to offer some of the highest quality and elegant knit animal hats to be found anywhere, all at affordable prices. 

Our motto, “Vive Bien” means “Live Well” in Spanish.  By purchasing our hats and other products, you are not only living well yourself, but helping these deserving families to