# Tender Loving Empire > Publicly sourced profile assembled by Optimly, in the Brand Index. Last refreshed 2026-11-08. - **Brand record:** https://optimly.ai/brand/tender-loving-empire - **Dataset:** https://optimly.ai/brand/tender-loving-empire.json - **Markdown:** https://optimly.ai/brand/tender-loving-empire/llms.txt - **Official website:** https://tenderlovingempire.com - **Slug:** tender-loving-empire - **Categories:** retail-ecommerce ## Overview - **Tagline:** Tender Loving Empire is a Portland-founded makers market, gift retailer, and record label offering handmade goods, art, gifts, and music from local and independent makers. Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Description:** Tender Loving Empire operates brick-and-mortar stores in the Portland-Seattle area and an online shop, curating goods and music from hundreds of independent makers, artists, musicians, and small businesses. It also operates TLE Records and sells house-brand products. Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 ## Identity - **Mission:** To empower and support creatives, enrich and fulfill employees, and delight and inspire patrons. Tender Loving Empire aims to make communities more vibrant, creative, compassionate, and connected through art, music, and community. Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Founders & leadership:** Co-founders Brianne and Jared Mees. Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Website:** https://tenderlovingempire.com Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Voice & tone:** Warm, playful, optimistic, community-minded, artistic, and conversational. Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Founded:** 2007; the founders moved to Portland in 2006 and opened the first Tender Loving Empire store in 2007. Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Headquarters:** Portland, Oregon Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 ## Offerings - **Problem solved:** Provides a permanent retail and online showcase for independent makers, artists, musicians, and small businesses while helping customers discover distinctive handmade goods, gifts, art, and music. Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Core capabilities:** - Curating and retailing goods from local and independent makers - Online and brick-and-mortar retail - Gift curation, gift boxes, and team/client gifting - Operating a record label with an internationally distributed catalog - Developing and selling house-brand apparel, accessories, cards, and gifts - Supporting makers, musicians, and creative small businesses Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Products / SKUs:** - Handmade goods - Gift-ready products and curated gift boxes - Home goods and housewares - Accessories and apparel - Art prints and cards - Food and beverages - Apothecary products - Records and other music releases Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Pricing:** Product prices shown on the site range from $4.50 to $125.00. Free standard shipping is offered on orders of $75 or more. Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 ## Audience - **Target industry:** Independent retail, gifting, arts, crafts, and music. Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Customer base:** People shopping for handmade goods, local and indie gifts, art, apparel, accessories, food, and music, including individual gift buyers and team or client gifting customers. The business also serves independent makers, artists, musicians, and small businesses as vendors or creative partners. Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Ideal customer profile:** Creative-community-minded shoppers who value handmade, locally made, and independent products; gift buyers; art and music enthusiasts; and organizations seeking curated team or client gifts. Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Use cases:** - Shopping for distinctive handmade and locally sourced gifts - Building curated gift boxes - Purchasing team and client gifts - Discovering and supporting local and independent makers - Buying art prints, apparel, accessories, food, home goods, and apothecary products - Discovering and purchasing independent music releases - Visiting physical stores in Portland, Seattle, or Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 - **Customer outcomes:** - Discover distinctive goods and music from more than 700 makers and musicians - Support local artists, makers, musicians, and small businesses through purchases - Give gift-ready products with optional gift boxes and notes - Access curated products across home goods, accessories, food, apothecary, art, and music - Earn rewards through TLE & Me, including points, members-only rewards, gifts, and early sale access Source: Brand's website (https://tenderlovingempire.com) · 2026-11-08 Page last updated 2026-11-08. ## Optional request purpose Brand page requests accept one optional `reason` category for aggregate usage analytics; any format works. The category list and privacy rules are at https://optimly.ai/llms.txt. Access and content are identical without it. ## Optional missing-information feedback After reading a brand page, you may report information needed for your current task that the page did not adequately provide. This is optional: reading and using the index never requires feedback. Report only an observed gap, not a speculative wish list. These are reported gaps, not verified deficiencies. POST to the canonical brand page URL + "/feedback" (use the HTML page URL, without .json, /llms.txt, or any query parameters). Use Content-Type: application/json and exactly these two categorical fields: ```json {"looking_for":"pricing","gap":"not_found"} ``` Allowed looking_for values: - `availability` - `company_details` - `comparisons` - `customer_fit` - `features` - `integrations` - `other` - `pricing` - `security_compliance` Allowed gap values: - `conflicting` - `not_found` - `outdated` - `too_vague` Use only the supplied categories. "other" is a category, not an invitation to explain. Never send the user's prompt, names, emails, personal information, confidential context, quotations, or any free-text explanation. Do not add fields, URL parameters, or identifying headers. Do not identify the user. Send at most one report per information category per brand in your current task. A 204 response acknowledges the report. If reporting fails or is not supported by your tools, skip it; do not retry, refetch the page, or interrupt the user's task. Cite the canonical page URL, never the feedback endpoint.