Collaboration leads to much-needed underwear donation
SOME of the most vulnerable people in Glasgow’s homeless community are set to benefit after a social enterprise teamed up with a charity to donate underwear.
Smarty Pants, a social impact business that sells good-quality, eco-friendly underwear on a “buy to donate” basis has recently formed a partnership with Kindness Street Team.
Now thanks to a donation of £1000 from Rutherglen Rotary Club, it is able to support even more vulnerable people.
Smarty Pants co-founder Paul Johnston, who runs the business with Martin Burns, said: “Working together with Rutherglen Rotary Club, we were able to donate £1000 worth of male and female underwear to Kindness Street Team.
“They had got in contact and asked if there was anything they could do. It was very nice. I had worked with the rotary club before in the past. They helped out at the beginning of the pandemic, so I had a contact and we were in discussions when they asked, ‘how do we go about getting this money to a local homeless charity?’.
“And that’s how it came about.” Operating since January 2020, Smarty Pants sells underwear and donates a pair after every purchase to a homeless charity.
Since it launched it has expanded and now has men’s and women’s underwear in store.
The business says that underwear is often overlooked when people donate clothes, but is extremely important for vulnerable people.
Before starting out, Mr Burns and Mr Johnston researched organisations that specialise in this specific kind of clothing and found that there were none.
Assessing the need, they started Smarty Pants, which runs entirely online.
Despite the success of the joint initiative, the men are worried for the future of the enterprise as the cost of living increases.
Due to the rise in prices, they expect the number of donors to decline as people struggle to pay their bills.
Mr Johnston said: “There is more bulk buying and less individuals donating. We noticed there is less discretionary income.
“We don’t look at pants as a luxury product but if you are looking to tighten your budget, a pair of pants for £9.99 is too much when they can go to a supermarket and get one for a lower price. Once the new energy hike comes up, we definitely expect there to be fewer one-off purchases from individuals. We will probably look to collaborate more with other organisations.
“We will definitely see an impact. “What we have now is similar to 2007 to 2008. It’s the uncertainty that’s the biggest problem. People may have the money but they don’t want to spend it because they are not sure what is around the corner.”