Buy A Beanie & We'll Donate One

In November, we got a random email about a project that would help the homeless stay warm during the cold winter months. The person behind the project was a 10 year old girl named Addison. With the help from her father, Michael, we took on a project to donate beanies to the homeless. They weren't looking for just any beanies though, they wanted a "fashionable" beanies ... not the ones from the sale rack at Wal-Mart. Here's a couple of sentences from the initial email that really sold us.

"Wouldn't it be cool if they could wear something that everyone else was wearing on the street, rather than hand-me-downs and discards.  Something that shows a sense of place, of belonging, much like the t-shirts and hats you guys are producing..."

The initial project had a tight timeline because Addison was working with the Urban Ministries Center and wanted to get the beanies in time for them to go out with their Christmas bags. This was more difficult than normal because the beanies we wanted to use had to come from Europe, but we were determined to make it happen anyway.

Addison managed to raise $1500 and we got them done in time for those Christmas bags by the skin of our teeth. Here's Addison wearing the first 704 Shop beanie after she picked them up to deliver to Urban Ministries. 

That being said, we want to keep this project going indefinitely. So, for every beanie we sell, we're going to donate one back to people that need one ... right here in Charlotte.