Private company

Cherie Amie

Logo: http://www.cherieamie.com, Non-free logo, via Wikipedia³

U.S.- based lingerie retailer

Cherie Amie is a U.S.-based retailer of ethical lingerie with production and operations in Cameroon, Central Africa. It is the first fair trade intimate apparel company to adopt the Good Returns business model and use 100 percent of its net profits to fund microloans. Styling itself as a "do-good" lingerie producer, the company also finances sustainable development projects in sub-Saharan Africa by contributing 10 percent of its net income to Peace Tree Africa, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit organization.² Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

HeadquartersFlower Mound¹
Websitewww.cherieamie.com

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The story

Founding

University of North Texas alumni Ryan Schuette and Tara Smith first came upon the idea for fair-trade lingerie after a discussion about their frustrations over a lack of ethically made intimate apparel in the United States. The two had founded their own separate nonprofits to further development projects in sub-Saharan Africa and wanted to launch a business capable of connecting apparel made by women overseas to U.S. markets.

A scandal involving child labor on a fair trade-certified farm contracted with Victoria's Secret reportedly helped Schuette and Smith cement their commitment to fair trade principles in December 2012.

2012 fire

A fire unexpectedly gutted the older house and office in use by Schuette and Smith early in the morning on November 7, 2012. The incident occurred roughly four hours after Smith had returned from her six-week production trip to Cameroon. The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer escaped with minor burns, rescuing her dog and more than half of the apparel in the process. Irving, Texas-based authorities ruled the fire an accident.

The event made national headlines and forced the company to postpone its Black Friday launch until Human Rights Day. The founders made light of their situation by notably releasing humorous pictures of themselves and their house on Cherie Amie's Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Founders' relationship

Schuette proposed to Smith live on an NBC affiliate station on Valentine's Day in 2012.

From Wikipedia’s article on Cherie Amie, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.⁴

Controversies and legal

Criticism

Several prominent news bloggers criticize Cherie Amie for undermining a message about poverty with a controversial marketing strategy. Writing for Osocio, a nonprofit advertising weblog, Tom Megginson highlighted the "provocative" nature of the teaser video that Cherie Amie uploaded in July 2012, adding that "one can't help but wonder if this kind of western objectification is the best way to support the empowerment of women in the developing world." Kate Leaver, a critic for The Daily Life, an Australian news blog, slammed the company for "casually linking Western excess and sexuality to African poverty," so that "[r]ather than encouraging women to empathise or understand or directly support African women, it reduces their role to a single transaction: panties for social change."

Other blogs and trade publications, including Adrants, The Lingerie Journal, and Lingerie Talk, gave the social enterprise more positive coverage.