Belts that make a difference

A new metro Atlanta belt company C4, is taking a new way of selling their product while remaining socially conscious.

Belt Company holding your pants up from Asia to Atlanta

Choose Wisely

Belt Company holding your pants up from Asia to Atlanta

By RICHARD LAWRENCE

They might be new to Atlanta but C4 Belts are already in 100 stores nationwide and are expanding everyday thanks to their great product and even better business model.

The C4 Co. is the idea of two friends Nick Farwald and Jared Everline who came from Ohio, and met each other while traveling throughout Asia. The belt idea was thought up when they were spending time in China and seeing the cool trend setting fashions of the Far East. The two observed the trends of bright colored watches like the G-Shock watch and thought that belts could be the next big thing.

The Product at work

At this point the belts are all they do unlike other fashion companies but they might only need to stick with this because how unique the belts are. Most belts are leather straps and a plain buckle to hide under your shirt and be discreet about holding up your pants.

C4 wants you to show off your belts in pride with their arrangement of colors for both belts and buckles. There are 20 different belts and 20 different buckles that give you up to 400 different combinations for style.

Not only can you mix and match, but all belts are made up of a recyclable environmentally friendly plastic. That helps them stand out even more.

Having a good cause to stand on

The company isn’t just in the business to make money with bold fashion choses but they want to make a difference with their product. Modeled after the shoe company TOMS, C4 is in the business of giving back to the world.

With every belt bought from C4 they donate a portion of the profits to a charity that you choose from four nonprofits they sponsor at this time. It’s no wonder why they are getting so much attention even though they have only been official since 2011.

With this idea they are not only helping their brand expand but also shining a light on socially conscious companies doing what they think is right for the whole of the planet.

Coming to the city of Atlanta

Coming from Ohio it could have been easy for the C4 Co. to return home and start production there but Farwald and Everline felt like their best opportunity was to coming down south to Atlanta and expand their brand.

They came to Atlanta in 2011 to open an office and you can find their products in 8 stores within the Atlanta perimeter.

Everline said, “We have only been here a short while but knew that Atlanta was the place that we could thrive and expand to where we want to be in the next five years. Not only did the East Coast of the U.S. really gravitate to the belts but we found a good sponsor in Atlanta rapper Gorilla Zoe, who loved the product and what we stood for.”

The C4 Belt Co. seems to be heading in the right direction and its star might shine brightest here in Atlanta. 

Choose Wisely

By RICHARD LAWRENCE

Belt designer C4’s business model is pretty simple, “Choose your color, and choose your cause.” It has been a popular change from a majority of fashion designers in the world right now.

The founders Nick Farwald and Jared Everline wanted to give back to the world in a way that made sense and was efficient for them and the nonprofits that needed help. The color part is simple, what color would you like your belt, now the cause is the interesting part.

The C4 Co. teamed up with four nonprofit organizations so that with your purchase of a belt a portion of the profit will be donated to one of these organizations. The list at this time is the Boy and Girls of America, American Cancer Society, Project Kaisei (non-profit aimed to help clean our oceans) and Kiva (allows people to lend money to developing countries).

The socially conscious decision has helped the company thrive so far and has peeked interest of others. This is just a great example in business ethics, to help people along the way as you rise in the world.

Farwald said, “We might be a new and for right now -“small”- company, but when coming up with this product we knew we had to give back. We have always known that a little can go a long way at the end of the day.” 

Romney for the Republican lead, Cain stresses for VP.

Republicans point to Mitt Romney for ticket lead, while Cain presses for exciting VP.

Mitt Romney wins Wisconsin, Maryland, D.C. primaries

Herman Cain: Romney must pick VP who will ‘bring some excitement to the ticket’

Mitt Romney wins Wisconsin, Maryland, D.C. primaries

Herman Cain: Romney must pick VP who will ‘bring some excitement to the ticket’

By Dan Balz and Philip Rucker

WAUKESHA, Wis. — Mitt Romney captured presidential primaries in Maryland, the District and battleground Wisconsin, the biggest prize of the day, to complete a momentum-building, three-contest sweep Tuesday that cemented his status as the almost certain Republican nominee and put new pressure on rival Rick Santorum to reassess his candidacy.

With his campaign increasingly focused on President Obama and the general election, the former Massachusetts governor’s victories in Maryland and the District were never in doubt. He won both by crushing margins. In Wisconsin, where Romney and Santorum devoted most of their energies, the margin was narrower but nonetheless decisive.

With Tuesday’s primaries behind them, the candidates now look ahead to April 24, when Pennsylvania and four other states hold their primaries. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, can ill-afford to lose his home state and has keyed the future of his campaign to success there, a reality openly acknowledged by his advisers.

The urgency for Romney to pivot away from intraparty warfare toward the general election contest became even more apparent on Tuesday. On a day he formally clinched the Democratic nomination, Obama delivered a speech clearly designed to frame the fall choice. He sharply attacked the budget approved by House Republicans, calling it a “radical vision” and “thinly veiled Social Darwinism” that amounted to “a prescription for decline” in the country.

Romney Fires back at President

On Tuesday night, Romney fired back, calling the president out of touch with the suffering in society and saying that on Obama’s watch America isn’t working.

“This campaign is going to deal with many complicated issues but there is a basic choice we’re going to face,” he said in his victory speech in Milwaukee. “The president has pledged to transform America and he has spent the last four years building a government-centered society. I will spend the next four years rebuilding the foundation of an opportunity society led by free people and free enterprise.”

Already there is a rising chorus of party leaders urging that Republicans rally around Romney, while carefully avoiding direct calls for Santorum to get out. Party leaders fear that an extended contest that includes a continuation of the negative attacks that have been pervasive throughout the primaries will only weaken the party and its likely nominee for the fall.

Santorum runs the risk of either embarrassment, if he loses Pennsylvania, or becoming seen within his party as a spoiler if he stays in the race indefinitely and continues to attack Romney.

But on Tuesday night, he sounded a defiant note in his concession speech.

Saying the race was only at its halfway point, he vowed to keep campaigning and threatened to take his candidacy all the way to the GOP convention in Tampa. He laced his remarks, delivered in Pennsylvania, with criticisms of Romney, calling his rival a moderate who lacks true convictions.

“If we’re going to win this race we can’t have little differences between our nominee and President Obama,” he said. “We have to have clear contrasting colors.” He said people have gotten behind his candidacy “because they see someone who has a clear positive vision, someone whose convictions are also forged in steel, not on an Etch A Sketch.”

In the past two weeks, Romney has been endorsed by establishment leaders such as former Florida governor Jeb Bush and by two favorites of the right and the tea party, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the author of the House budget plan. Ryan was at Romney’s side throughout the final days of campaigning in Wisconsin.

Romney was likely to win the overwhelming share of the 95 delegates at stake on Tuesday. That would still leave him well short of the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination, but the latest haul would expand what already was a significant lead over Santorum and the other two remaining candidates, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.). Santorum was not even on the ballot in the District.

Tuesday’s contests were significant because they marked the first of two important days for Santorum’s candidacy-and what the Romney forces see as a critical three-week period that could effectively end a nomination battle that has lasted longer than many strategists had predicted when it began a few months ago.

Romney’s victory in Wisconsin was another major blow to Santorum. The former senator has had success in southern primaries but had lost Michigan, Ohio and Illinois to Romney in earlier contests and needed to demonstrate that he could expand his support beyond the narrow base that has backed his candidacy since he emerged as Romney’s main challenger.

Romney to win most states, besides Pennsylvania

Romney is favored to win all the other states except Pennsylvania with contests on April 24-New York, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island. Santorum hopes that a victory in Pennsylvania will give him the legitimacy and the political lift to keep going into May, despite his underdog status. A poll released Tuesday showed Santorum leading in Pennsylvania by six points, but that margin is narrower than some earlier polls showed.

For many of the reasons the contests this month tend to favor Romney, the calendar in May is far more hospitable to Santorum. The May contests include primaries in North Carolina, West Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky and Texas, states that have a significant number of evangelical Christians in the Republican electorate and that are similar in makeup to some of those Santorum already has won.

“If we win Pennsylvania, it sets up huge momentum going into the month of May, which we believe will be a great month for us,” said John Brabender, Santorum’s top strategist. “We think Pennsylvania will be do or die for both candidates.”

Santorum has said he will not consider dropping out of the race until it is clear that Romney has reached the delegate threshold to guarantee his nomination. The former governor began the day with almost 572 delegates, while Santorum was at 272, according to the Associated Press count.

Gingrich and Paul also have vowed to stay in the race for now, but they are not attacking Romney the way Santorum has been doing. Gingrich in particular has shifted his rhetorical focus from Romney to the president.

Herman Cain: Romney must pick VP who will ‘bring some excitement to the ticket’

GILBERT, Ariz. – Should Mitt Romney follow the advice of one of his top backers, former New Hampshire governor John H. Sununu, that “the winning choice is the dull choice” when it comes to a running mate?

Businessman and former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)Not according to Herman Cain.

The businessman and former GOP presidential hopeful – who dropped out of the race in November amid allegations of sexual harassment and an extramarital affair — said in an interview here Tuesday night that the best choice for Romney is a VP who will energize the GOP ticket.

“I just want it to be someone that people can be excited about,” Cain said after addressing the annual dinner of a local tea party group. “I think that enthusiasm gap is going to be the biggest challenge that we’re going to have, because of the primary, because of all of the unpredictability. I just want to see someone who’s going to bring some excitement to the ticket.”

Might Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) be that kind of choice?

“He would be one,” Cain said. “He would bring some excitement to the ticket. But here again, you’ve got to consider what he wants to do versus what the nominee wants to do.”

How about Cain himself?

“There again, we’ll have to see if we get to that point, because when I have offered my assistance to the candidates, I wasn’t looking for anything, I didn’t ask for anything and they didn’t offer anything,” he said. “So, it’s just too premature to say whether something like that would make any sense or not.”