Rurban

Rurban (formerly Roots Studio) reverses cultural appropriation into celebration by licensing and curating global craft as IP onto retail, art, and home goods. The Rurban library is the world's authoritative archive of over 20,000 endangered art and crafts, traceable back to every artist trusted by 52 communities globally from the Amazon rainforest to the Loess Plateau. Described by TechCrunch as the “Shutterstock for Cultural Art," Rurban has curated and co-developed 5.1 million products in distribution over multiple seasons with Patagonia, Cartier, Chanel, UNDP, and more. Their partnerships with brands have increased artists' annual income by 23% - 300%. Rurban has been featured in The Business of Fashion as "The Antidote to Cultural Appropriation”, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Vogue Business 100 “Champions for Change”, and Forbes Under 30, and was recently awarded in 2026 The Explorers Club Eric and Wendy Schmidt Visionary Award.