By Sophie Ogunyemi
Earlier this year I was *thrilled* to be nominated as a badass gal in part for my work on the Hoodies for the Homeless project I’ve been working on with Hector Hughes and Freya Hughes. Now we’re back for our second winter I thought I could tell the Badass.Gal community a bit more about it...
How did hfth come about?
Hector left his job as a tech startup executive last year and came up with the idea for Hoodies for the Homeless (hfth). It started with that common scenario of feeling fairly useless when being approached by people sleeping rough in London, especially as the common advice from charities is now not to give money - all we can manage is an apologetic “Sorry, no change”.
Hector came across the story of Toms shoes and their one-for-one giving model. The idea came after their founder noticed how few of the local children had shoes. Off the back of this he launched Toms with the pledge that for each pair of shoes sold, they would donate a pair to a child in need. Coming from the high octane world of tech startups, Hector found this “business for good” model inspiring, and so a couple of weeks later, he started working on something similar for London’s homeless and hfth was born!
How did I get involved?
At a school reunion in a central London pub one cold evening, Hector and I started chatting and hfth came up. My ears pricked up and I soon came on board offering my experience and skills as a marketer. What started as a couple of months has turned into a year and I’m really enjoying marketing something that does good, looks good and feels good!
So, what was next?
The original idea plan was: for each hoodie sold, we’d donate a hoodie to the homeless charity Crisis who would supply them to anyone that needed one to help stay warm. However, when we got talking it turned out that what was desperately needed were actually the basics - warm socks, thermals, underwear etc. So instead, for each hoodie sold, we bought the equivalent amount of these necessities and donated them. So far we’ve been able to donate over 2,000 items!
What makes these hoodies different?
Apart from helping support London’s homeless community, our hoodies are also made out of 100% recycled materials ♻. Having as little impact on the environment is super important to us so finding a supplier who could make our hoodies out of 60% recycled organic cotton and 40% recycled plastic bottles and reduce waste at every part of the process was fantastic.
And what about the design?
Hands are very expressive and have lots of symbolic meaning. They’re one of our body's best tools, we use them to greet, to emphasis our words as well as speaking for us.
Within this design for htfh, there’s the idea of ‘lending a hand’ but it was really important to us that the hands were on a level showing that we’re all equal, all human, all have something to give and learn from each other.
Ultimately, the design represents unity and was created by graphic designer Jack Morgan.
How can you help?
Spread the word and buy a hoodie! I have it on good authority that they make excellent gifts and that we are likely to sell out before Christmas so get your order in now 😊
Visit hoodiesforthehomeless.co.uk
If hoodies aren’t your thing please do consider donating to Crisis to help support them with all the fantastic work they do.
Check us out on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @hoodiesforthehomelessldn or feel free to contact me directly on Instagram.
