Product Policies
At Makers - we strive to support local Canadian makers fairly and equally. The following are our policies regarding what is acceptable to be sold at Makers.
Any decisions regarding the enforcement of the Product Policies will be done at the sole discretion of the store manager. Please contact your store manager directly for any questions regarding these policies using the contact info here.
Your business must be based in Canada.
- 1A Handmade products: Items created entirely by hand from raw materials.
- Example: A bowl made from resin using a mold. A cutting board cut and sanded from a piece of wood.
- 1B Hand modified items: Items altered by a maker using a craft or skill.
- Example: Sewing unique patches or embroidery onto a tote bag, hand painting pots/planters, hand painting acrylic nails to make a unique set.
- 1C Technologically made products: Physical items created using technology or tech programs, like: a 3D printer, laser printer, laser engravers, CNC or Cricut. Items can be made from either a templated or original design.
- Example: A 3D printed axolotl made from a templated design, templated designs printed from a cricut heat-sealed onto a tumbler, wooden holiday ornaments laser engraved with a quote or saying.
- 1D Hand assembled items: Commercially available supplies or components where one or more components has been created, altered or designed to some degree, where a maker attaches, fuses or combines multiple elements together by hand to create a unique end-product. Note that charm bars qualify.
- Example: Adding wire, custom designed gemstones, chains and beads together to make a unique suncatcher, using tools to attach a unique/designed charm to a chain creating a necklace or bracelet.
The following are examples of items that do not qualify as ‘made by a maker’:
- Adding two unaltered commercially available products together with no changes, adjustments or additions.
- Example: Taking a wholesale/pre-made keychain charm and adding it to a keychain chain. Taking a wholesale/pre-made charm and adding it to a pre-made/fixed length chain with clasp creating a necklace.
- Simply branding or repackaging wholesaled products with the brand name on it.
- Example: Taking acrylic nails purchased from Ali Express and putting them in new packaging with the vendor's brand name on it.
- 2A Designed and Assembled: Either products produced from original, hand-drawn or digitally created designs, or created from assembling multiple pieces together or created from unique, proprietary concepts.
- Example: Jewelry created by a manufacturer from hand-drawn designs. A unique, proprietary product that a maker has created, designed and holds the patent for.
- 2B Designed then created via manufacturing partner: Original designs made into new products by collaborating with a manufacturing partner.
- Example: A unique design created into keychains by a manufacturing partner. A hand-drawn illustration created into stickers by a manufacturing partner.
The following are examples of items that do not qualify as ‘designed by a maker’:
- Picking from a pre-existing list of a manufacturer's design elements (colours, shapes, sizes, etc) to create a new product.
- Example: A hair claw that was designed by picking the colour, length and shape from a pre-existing list of manufacturer’s available specifications.
- Using a production partner to take an existing, unedited design and creating it unedited into a new product,
- Example: Purchasing and downloading a PNG design file from ETSY and having a production partner add it unaltered or minimally altered to a mug.
3A Gemstones: The only sourced items permitted at Makers are gemstones/crystals.
- Gemstones must have a curatorial, cohesive presentation.
- Gemstone brands where the vendor is involved in the creation process are preferred.
- Examples: By tumbling their own stones, creating their own original crystal designs (unique crystal shapes, patterns, etc) hand-making or designing crystal based products (jewelry, suncatchers or similar) providing a curatorial element to their products like grouping crystals by healing type and creating crystal healing packages, providing crystal healing instructions or descriptions.
The following are examples of items that do not qualify as ‘Sourced by a Maker’:
- Vintage brands of all varieties ex: clothing, housewares, furniture, etc
- New items sourced by a maker and resold unaltered.
- New items sourced by a maker and resold with very minimal changes
- Example: A bath and body brand that orders loofahs wholesale from Ali Express and adds only their brand name/logo on the tag.
Vendors in all provinces must:
- Have their food business be a registered business with their province
- Have business insurance
- Specifically have business liability insurance
- Follow mandatory labeling requirements - ingredients, possible allergens and expiration dates must be listed on all labels
- All food must be individually packaged
- In addition to the above, food vendors MUST work in a commercial kitchen and hold a current Foodsafe permit.
- Food vendors that are considered ‘low risk’ (candy, tea, etc) are not required to work out of a commercial kitchen space or hold a foodsafe/dinesafe permit.
- Food vendors that are not considered ‘low risk’ must hold a foodsafe/dinesafe permit and work out of a commercial space.
We recognize that AI is a new and evolving form of technology and we are currently testing the inclusion of AI products in our stores in a limited capacity. Please review the policy below as not all stores will be participating in this testing phase.
BC Locations - Not accepting AI applications
AB Locations - Accepting limited AI applications, as defined below
ON Locations - Accepting limited AI applications, as defined below
Guidelines:
AI is defined as the creation of an image or text using Artificial Intelligence (DALL•E, Chat GPT, Midjourney or similar) by using written prompts.
What is permitted:
- An AI image used only as a component of an existing design, created using unique design prompts. AI components can only be used if they comprise 50% of a total image or less.
- Example: a design of a dog in a landscape on a t-shirt where the background is an original design, but the dog has been created using AI.
- The use of AI for brand elements
- Example: The use of Chat GPT to create product descriptions, the use of DALL•E to create your brand logo.
- The following are examples of items that do not qualify as ‘AI Designed Products’:
- Example: An image created fully in AI and printed on a tumbler using a production partner. Purchasing a PNG design created fully using AI on ETSY or similar and reproducing it on a mug.
We ask all vendors who use AI to disclose that AI was used in the production of their artwork on their shelf/display. This disclosure will be provided to you by the store in the form of a 4x6 poster.
Note our policies are subject to change and products/images submitted in this category will be scanned with AI detection software to ensure they fit within our criteria.
All items must be accurately described and must not infringe upon any third party intellectual property rights. If your product infringes on third party intellectual rights, Makers assumes no responsibility for the infringement and it falls entirely on the maker of the items.
The sale of wholesale items, including items purchased in bulk at a discounted price, which are sold unaltered is strictly prohibited. This includes white-label wholesale items. Note that if you are suspected of wholesaling, or if a manager would like to collect more information regarding your product creation process, they may request this information at any time. You will have 48 hours to respond providing proof regarding your creative process.
If you have any questions about whether an item is eligible for sale at our stores, please contact your store manager directly.
Any makers found to be in violation of these policies can have their membership terminated or products removed from their display.
We reserve the right to modify this policy at any time without prior notice. It is the seller's responsibility to stay up-to-date on our selling policies.
