Well, kind of.

I started Worthy Cause Apparel to fulfill two interests of mine:  entrepreneurship and volunteer work.  I’ve always wanted to go overseas and volunteer in developing countries, but the Peace Corps was too much of a committment and ‘voluntourism’ was too expensive ($1,800 for 2 weeks in a 3rd world country!?  I know it goes to help the neady, but come on – if it were cheaper more people could volunteer).

How much does it actually cost to eat in Kenya?

Anyway, I got the idea back in December ‘09 to create a business where I hire designers from around the world to create some amazing t-shirts.  Each t-shirt is associated with a given ‘worthy cause’ and then half the profit of the shirt goes to charity.  So far, we are working with designers from Norway, Malaysia, Singapore, and Michigan.



What have we done so far?

Over the past three months I’ve been in contact with about a half dozen designers.  Two designs have been created so far – view them here – with 3 more due to be complete within the next week or so.  I plan on having at least 6 designs done before I officially ‘launch’ the site and I’ve been working with a fulfillment company that will be handling the shipping and customer service as well as the t-shirt production.  All of the designs will be printed on 100% organic American Apparel clothing.  Look for other products in the near future!



I plan on using this blog to introduce various worthy causes, such as the Nu Nu Project, interviews with people who spend their time volunteering overseas, as well as updates about Worthy Cause Apparel’s newest designs.



So, if you haven’t already, sign up for our fan page here and let us know what you think of those designs!  We can really use all of the support we can get.  You can also join our twitter feed here and subscribe to our blog by adding our rss feed to your favorite reader.  Also, don’t forget to sign up for our mailing list so you can be updated when we launch the site and be the first to see our product range!



Richard Riley