The Wisdom of StupidHurts.me

admin    T-Shirt News     Charity T-Shirts, Kiva, Stupid Hurts, charitable t-shirts, charity tees, micro banking, micro credit

Now before I get any complaints I won’t be featuring any t-shirts in this post once you read what I have to say I’m sure that you’ll all be most understanding. StupidHurts.me is a new t-shirt site with a difference, this brand new brand is still in beta and so I can’t show you what they’re offering right now, but I will give you a clear idea of their aims and objectives.

StupidHurts.me have developed a revolutionary way of offering an alternative to charitable donations to the most deserving across the world, not only have they opened their doors to budding t-shirt designers on the net, but they’re offering $1 to each artist and $2 to the micro credit organisation Kiva.org on every sale of every winning tee. So for all you t-shirt designers out there, old and new, come and help the world by submitting your own designs here.

If you’re not sure what micro credit is, well let me just spout my personal opinion for a moment here, it’s a system that will most likely save the world one day, or at least provide a real safety net for billions of people living in capitalist democracies across the world. What much of the West forgets is that charity alone will not provide all the solutions, or at least not effectively in the long term, to help the poor and needy around the world. It might buy them some food, or help them grow it, or a pump for a regular water supply, or even clothes and shelter, but what it doesn’t do is deal with the underlying problem of poverty and inequality.

This is a two way street by the way, imagine if an African bank or an Indian corporation had the wealth to buy out failing banks and companies in Europe or America, imagine if there was far more trade across the world, a higher income for every inhabitant of the planet, a thriving geo-global investment market that could self-repair from the ground up. Well with micro credit and micro banking it might just happen. Lending to the poor never made so much sense. Businesses start small, all businesses, relatively speaking, have to start from scratch. If I’d had the funding a few years ago to set up my own t-shirt label, I’d most likely be employing staff by now, who would be paying their taxes, buying products, paying bills and generally contributing to the world economy. Yet I am from a relatively wealthy Western nation.

Try and imagine the same predicament for a farmer, engineer, merchant, artisan, or in fact anyone of any skill in the poorest regions of the world. It’s even more difficult getting a business off the ground when one has to worry about how to feed one’s children, or repair the roof of a home many in the West would consider squalid. The fact is that in the poorest countries, the most infitessimal amount of finance can change a region from a 3rd World to a 2nd World economy within decades, the trickle-down theory actually can work, given the right circumstances, an appropriate vision, and patience. Micro credit has proven that.

Read more about how Stupid Hurts t-shirts might just help save the world by contributing to Kiva here. Sign up for Stupid Hurts’ newsletter and get previews of their latest t-shirt submissions (when available) here. Stupid Hurts, not so stupid after all.

Some Comic Relief From Wornby

admin    T-Shirt News     Comic Relief, Gorilla in Manilla, Muhammed Ali, Red Nose Day, Wornby t-shirts, charitable t-shirts, charity tees

Life eh? You’ve got to laugh, the laughs run a little thin amongst certain communities of the world though. I’m sure you don’t want to be bombarded with a humanitarian message, I mean, many of us suffer from charity burn-out these days. All those ads on TV, miserable ads depicting every kind of sufferance you can imagine. That might be why the people behind Red Nose Day conjured up the idea in the first place, it first appeared shortly after Band Aid (the original 80′s version – with that awful Xmas song that I won’t repeat here).

Comic Relief‘s Red Nose Day took the idea in a more comedic direction, something unimagined before then, basically humour and suffering didn’t mix, it was seen as bad taste, but they pulled it off, mainly by constantly recruiting the top names in British comedy every year (or almost), sometimes it can be a little grating, a sort of emotional roller-coaster, first a funny sketch with Little Britain or some old Python, and then a series of traumatising images of Third World suffering. Still they have to get the message through somehow. The monies raised will be used by the charity to provide aid and support throughout Africa and the UK benefiting a number of causes including malaria, education and maternal and mental health. read more

Ethical T-Shirts Supporting Communities Worldwide

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Charity T-Shirts, charitable t-shirts, ethical t-shirt designers, ethical t-shirts, fair trade tees, organic screen printers, t-shirt donations

I’m going to feature a few t-shirt stores that stretch their budget just that little bit further than your usual label. Over the last few years more and more charities, progressive arts communities and even businesses have realised exactly how powerful t-shirt fashions can be when you have a good cause or message to propagate. I include businesses in the mix because they too know it makes sense to align themselves with worthier pursuits than the mere accumulation of wealth and power. The consumer is more savvy than ever, the choice they face, especially when shopping online is almost insurmountable. Charities used to sell second-hand goods for pennies in most rundown high streets throughout the eighties and nineties here in the UK.

Things have moved on and nowadays you’ll find many major charities have branched out into all sorts of merchandising. Forget Christmas cards and gift tags, we’re talking desirable bang up-to-date underground fashion here, not smelly old sweaters and handbags in a bargain bin, you could almost say that the idea of charity itself has become fashionable. We’ve moved a long way since those first Live Aid t-shirts of the eighties, not everything can be summed up in a slogan and some of the following sites may offer you a surprise or two, think glamour on a budget, subtle persuasion, and a growing underground appeal and you’re halfway there. read more