Marie So and Carol Chyau, two alumni of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, used $10,000 in prize money from the Harvard Business School Plan Contest, created the first line of yak-down women and men’s wear. Apparently the soft hair of a yak has the downy quality of cashmere, who knew?

So and Chyau’s company Shokay (the Tibetan word for yak) sources fiber from a cooperative of 2,600 Tibetan herders in Qinghai Province, paying them directly and offering fair prices for the yak down. The company also employs a number of artisans on Chongming Island, an impoverished rural community a few hours outside of Shanghai and they also reinvest a portion of profits into a development fund serving the Tibetan community.

(Photo Flickr Ucumari/Creative Commons)