Who We Are
We are OutsideIn - the purpose-driven clothing brand on a mission to help people experiencing homelessness.
Now, you might be wondering why homelessness? Great question.
Homelessness is a global issue that affects millions of people around the world regardless of race, age, gender, culture, circumstances and more.
In university, our founder, David Johnston, started getting to know people experiencing homelessness through his side-job as a photographer. As he got talking to those who he encountered on the streets, he began to listen to their unique stories and understand the challenges they faced in their situation of homelessness. Immediately, David knew that someone needed to do something to help share these stories and change society’s negative perceptions around homelessness.
As it turns out, that someone became him as well as some helping hands along the way!
Since 2016 when David officially launched OutsideIn, we have remained committed to telling the stories of those left on the ‘outside’ of society, challenging the negative perceptions around homelessness, and acting as a voice of hope to people in need.
But the impact OutsideIn has had on the lives of people in need around the world is only possible because of you.
How do we give back?
Now, it’s all good and well to say that we want to help people experiencing homelessness but how do we actually do it?
We created a concept called 'Wear One, Share One' which means that for every item you purchase, we donate an additional item on your behalf to someone in need.
'Wear One' represents your purchase, and 'Share One' represent the items that is donated as a result of your purchase.
These additional items are always brand-new and we design each item according to feedback from our partnering charities and organisations who work directly with the individuals who receive these donated items. This ensures that the items we donate meet the unique needs and desires of those who receive them.
Since we began in 2016, OutsideIn has donated over 198,000* items to people in need across the globe. This is all thanks to your continued support!
*As of July 2023
Preparation & Packaging
Each month we work alongside our Giving Partners to distribute the Giving Items donated through Wear One, Share One. We prepare and package the products for them based on their individual needs and requirements and then they distribute these items to their service-users.
Customer Involvement
Our customers are vital to the Wear One, Share One process. Through your purchases you make this giving model possible so we ensure that we keep you in the loop with updates on who your purchases have helped each month. You can subscribe to our newsletter to receive these monthly updates.
Dignity First
We believe that every person who receives one of our Giving Items should feel dignified and valued when they wear them. In addition to the high-quality materials and stylish designs of these products, we also add a 'Tag of Hope' which holds an encouragement for each wear, reminding them of their infinite worth.
Our Wear One, Share One model does not only provide people experiencing homelessness with essential items such as thermal wear and socks, but it also acts as two very key reminders:
1. A reminder to the person receiving these items that they are worthy of kindness, dignity and brand-new clothing.
2. A reminder to the person who purchases something from our store that they have made a difference and played a part in the larger story of rewriting homelessness across the globe.
Often donations can feel impersonal and a lot of the time, the products donated don’t actually meet the needs of the people they are going to.
Brand-new, good quality items are often few and far between, and smaller items such as socks and underwear are often significantly underprovided.
Our Wear One, Share One model not only allows us to connect our customers to their impact by giving them insight into who their products have been donated to, but it also allows us to work closely with our Giving Partners (the charities and organisations we partner with) to assess what products are needed and how we can tailor these products to meet the unique needs of the people they help.
The OutsideIn Dictionary
Wear One, Share One
For every item you purchase, we will donate an additional item on your behalf to someone experiencing homelessness.
Giving Partners
These are the charities and organisations we partner with to distribute the items that you donate through your purchases. We work with Giving Partners around the world, ensuring that your support has a global impact.
Giving Items
These are the items that are donated on behalf of each item you purchase. The Giving Item(s) your purchase will donate can be found in the product description of each product.
Experiencing Homelessness
Instead of labelling someone as 'homeless', we say that they are experiencing homelessness. We don't define people by their situation.
Social Impact
Social impact can take on many different forms. For us, our social impact is focused on helping people experiencing homelessness.
How Does 'Wear One, Share One' Work?
Wear One - What You Buy
We are passionate about our social impact and from the get-go, we wanted to create a way for our customers to be a part of this impact too.
However, we discovered that even if others were as passionate about helping people experiencing homelessness as we were, it was often difficult to know where to start.
This is why we created our 'Wear One, Share One' concept and applied it to every product in our store. Not only does it give us an opportunity to work with organisations around the world who are dedicated to helping people in need, but it created a way for you, our customers, to have a direct impact on homelessness too.
When you choose something for you to ‘Wear’, your purchase also ‘Shares’ another product with someone experiencing homelessness. This is no ordinary one-for-one because every additional item that is shared is designed specifically with people experiencing homelessness in mind. By tailoring these products to fit their unique needs we can provide real help that actually makes a difference. We can offer them comfort and confidence through products that make them feel good, and we can give them a sense of dignity and worth through products that are brand-new, well-made and designed especially for them.
Share One - What You Donate
Once you've purchased your product, you automatically donate an additional product to someone in need. This additional item is your 'Share One' item.
Our Social Impact and Operations Teams ensure that the correct products are donated based on each customer's purchase. Once we have recorded all the Giving Items donated over a selected period, we ensure that the items you have donated are distributed to our Giving Partners around the world.
Our Social Impact Team is constantly nurturing our partnerships with our existing Giving Partners, as well as building new partnerships with organisations we can support.
Our donations are allocated according to need, for example, one Giving Partner may be in need of Socks while another may need T-Shirts. Once the items and where they are going have been determined, our team ensures they are delivered safely and ready to be given out by our Giving Partners who distribute these items among their service-users. So, thank you for wearing so that we can continue sharing with those in need. Each purchase counts towards helping someone experiencing homelessness in our society and beyond.
Meet Our Giving Partners
Since OutsideIn first began we have partnered with over 40 organisations around the globe to donate over 198,000* items of clothing to people in need.
These products are always brand-new, designed by OutsideIn, tagged and wrapped. On top of that, we also offer various sizes and colours for some of these Giving Items so that each person who receives them also receives the dignity that comes with having a choice.
If you are an organisation or a charity interested in working with us to help people in need, we'd love to hear from you.
*As of July 2023
FAQs
Is OutsideIn a business or a charity?
We are a profitable business driven by social impact. What we mean by this is that everything we do is done with helping those experiencing homelessness in mind.
Through our purpose-driven ethos and initiatives such as ‘Wear One, Share One’, we strive to make every single purchase count.
We want other businesses to be inspired by OutsideIn and to contribute to making an impact to the world around them. We want to set an example of how anyone can use their business platform to help stir change within our society and its most vulnerable people.
What is OutsideIn?
OutsideIn is a purpose-driven clothing brand with a vision to challenge the negative perceptions around homelessness and to help those whose lives are impacted by homelessness. Since we were founded in 2016, our main way of achieving this is through our clothing and our unique concept called ‘Wear One, Share One’. This is our commitment which ensures that for every item purchased, we will donate an additional item on your behalf to someone experiencing homelessness.
What is 'Wear One, Share One'?
Since homelessness is a global issue, we knew that in order to truly make an impact to it we would need a global solution. That’s why we created our ‘Wear One, Share One’ model. Through it we can help people experiencing homelessness across the world by partnering with global charities and organisations. As OutsideIn grows, we strive to grow our Wear One, Share One donations too, helping us to reach more people in more places in more ways.
What products do we donate?
Our 'Wear One, Share One' model does not follow a one-for-one format and this is a very intentional decision. By working very closely with our Giving Partners we’ve learnt that the needs of people experiencing homelessness are unique and in order to truly be met effectively, they need to be treated uniquely too. With this in mind we’ve designed each of our Giving Products to cater for these needs by taking into consideration factors like style, fit, design, colour and fabric. Each of these elements have been informed by feedback from our Giving Partners as well as feedback from people experiencing homelessness themselves.
P.S. When you click on a product you’ll be able to see what Giving Product is donated through our 'Wear One, Share One' model on behalf of your purchase!
How do you deliver the Giving Items donated by purchases?
Our Social Impact and Operations Teams work together to ensure that your Giving Items get to our Giving Partners and the people they support. Each month we allocate a portion of the Giving Items donated through 'Wear One, Share One' to one or more of our Giving Partners. The number and type of Giving Items donated comes down to the charity's specific needs. 100% of the profits raised through our Thrift Store Pop-Up sales help us to cover the cost of delivery and distribution of these Giving Items, ensuring that they get to where they need to be and help all those they were designed to help.
Is homelessness the same experience for everyone?
Homelessness is difficult no matter the degree to which it impacts a person. It is also a unique experience for each individual and there are so many factors which can influence a person’s experience of it. However, there are several widely known kinds of homelessness that one may face. There are still nuanced differences from person to person but understanding some of the types of homelessness that exist helps us to address these details better. These types include chronic homelessness, episodic homelessness, transitional homelessness and hidden homelessness.
What's OutsideIn's vision?
Our vision at OutsideIn goes beyond just clothing. We are on a mission to turn fashion on its head by using it to reshape how people view homelessness and how they treat the people who are affected by it.
Through innovative products and empowering our customers to reach out to those on the outside of society, we believe this vision is achievable. We are not saying that our efforts alone will end homelessness; however, we are saying that together we can spread hope, we can meet needs and we can bring the Outside of society In.
