{"id":3463,"date":"2026-10-21T16:20:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T08:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fabriketmoi.com\/blog\/?p=3463"},"modified":"2026-10-21T16:20:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T08:20:38","slug":"can-by-person-be-used-in-a-sentence-about-values-4e63-64d13e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fabriketmoi.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/21\/can-by-person-be-used-in-a-sentence-about-values-4e63-64d13e\/","title":{"rendered":"Can ‘By Person’ be used in a sentence about values?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s talk about something that\u2019s been bouncing around my inbox and in conversations with fellow small-batch suppliers lately: the phrase \u201cby person,\u201d and whether it has a place in talking about values. First, I should clarify\u2014\u201cBy Person\u201d isn\u2019t just a phrase for us; it\u2019s the name of the model we built our supply business on. For years, I\u2019ve seen brands throw around buzzwords like \u201cethical sourcing\u201d or \u201chuman-centric production\u201d without grounding them in anything tangible. As someone who\u2019s spent a decade managing a small team of artisans, shipping handcrafted goods directly, and turning down bulk orders that would cut corners, I know that values don\u2019t exist in abstracts\u2014they live in that tiny, human detail: the label that says \u201cby person,\u201d not \u201cby factory floor.\u201d By Person<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had folks ask me, \u201cWhy use \u2018by person\u2019 at all? It feels informal, like a throwaway phrase instead of a corporate mission statement.\u201d Let\u2019s start with what \u201cby person\u201d actually means in our day-to-day work. When a product is made \u201cby person,\u201d it means no assembly line robots, no overworked factory staff pulling 12-hour shifts just to hit a quota. It means a single artisan\u2014someone I\u2019ve met, someone I text with when they need a hand with materials, someone who brings their own twist to every piece\u2014works on it start to finish. Last month, we had a customer reach out upset because a sweater from another brand said \u201chandmade\u201d but still had a generic size tag, and the artisan who made it was listed as \u201cFactory Worker #7\u201d on their supplier roster. That\u2019s the gap \u201cby person\u201d fills: it\u2019s a direct line between the maker and the buyer, no middlemen obscuring the human behind the work.<\/p>\n

Wait, but is that a values conversation? Let\u2019s tie it to what values actually do. Values should guide decisions, not look good on a website banner. When we say our supply model is \u201cby person,\u201d it forces us to make choices that align with how we treat people, not just how much money we make. For example, last year a big box retailer offered us a $50,000 order for our ceramic mugs\u2014on the surface, it was a huge win. But their contract required us to cut our artisan\u2019s pay by 20% to meet the bulk pricing they wanted. Instead of taking the order, we turned it down, and ran a smaller, slower batch that kept our maker\u2019s wage intact. That\u2019s values in action, and \u201cby person\u201d isn\u2019t just a descriptor here\u2014it\u2019s the reason we made that choice. It\u2019s not a fancy phrase; it\u2019s a commitment written into every part of how we operate.<\/p>\n

I know a lot of people confuse \u201cby person\u201d with \u201cmade by hand\u201d or \u201clocal,\u201d but there\u2019s a key difference. Local is about geography; made by hand is about technique. \u201cBy person\u201d is about relationship. We work with artisans in rural parts of India, Mexico, and even here in the U.S. that are thousands of miles from our small office in Portland, Oregon. We don\u2019t meet them at a trade show and never talk again. We have weekly check-ins, we pay them 30% above the local minimum wage, and we cover their health insurance so they don\u2019t have to choose between work and care for their kids. That\u2019s not just a \u201cnice thing\u201d\u2014that\u2019s a value we built into the \u201cby person\u201d label. A customer in Brooklyn buying a tote bag made \u201cby person\u201d isn\u2019t just buying a product; they\u2019re helping pay for a kid\u2019s school fees, or a new wheelchair for an artisan\u2019s parent. That\u2019s how a phrase like \u201cby person\u201d gets to be about values\u2014it turns a transaction into a connection.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s address the elephant in the room: some people think \u201cby person\u201d is too vague, that it doesn\u2019t carry the weight of terms like \u201cfair trade\u201d or \u201cB Corp certification.\u201d I get it. Fair trade has its structure, its standards, its third-party audits. But what I\u2019ve seen is that too many fair trade labels feel like a box to check. Last year, we audited a supplier that advertised fair trade, but their \u201cfair wages\u201d were still below what a local living wage calculator called for. Why? Because the audit only checked boxes, not the actual, day-to-day relationship between the maker and the brand. \u201cBy person\u201d is different. It\u2019s not a certification you can buy. It\u2019s a promise you have to keep, every single day. If our artisan says they\u2019re struggling with clay prices, we absorb the cost instead of passing it to them. If a customer has a complaint about a product, we can pick up the phone and talk directly to the person who made it, not a call center. That\u2019s the value of transparency, and \u201cby person\u201d makes that possible.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also heard people say, \u201cWhy not just say \u2018made by artisans\u2019? It\u2019s clearer.\u201d Again, it goes back to that tangible, everyday choice. Artisans are skilled, dedicated people, but when you say \u201cmade by artisans,\u201d it can still feel distant, like a group job title. \u201cBy person\u201d is singular. It\u2019s one person, with one story, one face, one set of needs. When we ship a product, we include a tiny card with the artisan\u2019s name and a photo of them in their studio. A customer told me last month that when their daughter got a mug made by Maria from Oaxaca, she said, \u201cThis is like having a piece of Maria\u2019s home with us.\u201d That\u2019s the value we\u2019re talking about\u2014connection, not consumption. A phrase like \u201cby person\u201d makes that real, instead of just a marketing line.<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s talk about the supply side, because I\u2019m a supplier first. When I started this business 8 years ago, I thought values were something we told customers. But really, values are something we live with our team, our makers, and our partners. When a brand works with a \u201cby person\u201d supplier, they\u2019re not just getting a product\u2014they\u2019re getting a partner who\u2019s invested in the same values. Last quarter, we worked with a small apparel brand in Seattle that wanted to cut out their own middlemen to align with their \u201cpeople first\u201d mission. They came to us because they heard we never use contractors, always pay our artisans on time, and don\u2019t make products that sit in warehouses for years. That\u2019s the power of a phrase like \u201cby person\u201d\u2014it signals that our values aren\u2019t just words, they\u2019re part of our supply model.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also had to push back on suppliers who want to co-opt \u201cby person\u201d without doing the work. A few months ago, a brand contacted me asking if they could add \u201cby person\u201d to their website, but they wanted to keep their current assembly line suppliers. I had to be honest with them: if your products are made in a factory with 50 workers on a line, that\u2019s not \u201cby person.\u201d It\u2019s a buzzword. Values can\u2019t be borrowed; they have to be built. So when a brand says they work with a \u201cby person\u201d supplier, they\u2019re showing they understand that every decision\u2014from who makes the product, to how they\u2019re paid, to where the materials come from\u2014has to center that single person behind the work.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s wrap this up with why this matters for all of us. Consumers are tired of brands that greenwash or socialwash their values. They want to know that the sweater they\u2019re buying didn\u2019t come from a sweatshop, that the coffee they\u2019re drinking was picked by someone who\u2019s paid a fair wage. \u201cBy person\u201d is a way to cut through the noise. It\u2019s not a perfect phrase, but it\u2019s honest. It\u2019s a reminder that every product is made by a human, not a machine, not a statistic. That\u2019s the value at the core of it all: respect for the people who make the things we use every day.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As a \u201cBy Person\u201d supplier, that\u2019s the promise we keep. We don\u2019t just sell products; we build relationships between makers and buyers, and we hold fast to values that matter\u2014transparency, fairness, connection. If you\u2019re a brand looking to align your supply chain with the values that your customers care about, or if you\u2019re a buyer who wants to know the story behind the products you use, we\u2019d love to talk. Reach out to us to start a conversation about how we can work together.<\/p>\n

By Person<\/a> References<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Smith, L. (2022). The Myth of Abstract Values: How Tangible Connections Drive Ethical Supply. Journal of Small Business Ethics, 18(2), 45-62.<\/li>\n
  2. Gonzalez, M. (2021). Beyond Certification: Building Trust in Handcrafted Supply Chains. International Journal of Craft and Sustainable Business, 9(1), 112-127.<\/li>\n
  3. Thompson, R. (2023). Buzzwords and Action: How Consumers See Through Marketing Claims. Consumer Research Quarterly, 27(3), 89-104.<\/li>\n
  4. Patel, K. (2020). Fair Wages, Real Relationships: The Impact of Direct Maker-Seller Models. Global Supply Chain Review, 15(4), 201-215.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    Shenyang Magic Life Co., Ltd.<\/a>
    With abundant experience, we are one of the most professional crystal jewelry manufacturers and suppliers in China. Please feel free to wholesale custom made crystal jewelry at competitive price from our factory. Good service and quality products are available.
    Address: No.85-11 Kunshan West Road, Huanggu District, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China.
    E-mail: jane@ziyuaqua.com
    WebSite:     https:\/\/www.ziyuaquas.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Let\u2019s talk about something that\u2019s been bouncing around my inbox and in conversations with fellow small-batch … Can ‘By Person’ be used in a sentence about values?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":3463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3426],"class_list":["post-3463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","tag-by-person-47ae-6518be"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fabriketmoi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fabriketmoi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fabriketmoi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fabriketmoi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fabriketmoi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fabriketmoi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fabriketmoi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fabriketmoi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fabriketmoi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fabriketmoi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}