Teens take a stand against sweatshops

Seeing your classmates wearing a sweatshirt you designed is an exciting moment.

For one group of high school students it’s becoming a common experience.

Sam Lee, Jamie Shaw, Kaitlin Lee and Sharon Jang are the force behind Street 16.

The new ethical women’s street wear label combines their love of fashion and business.

The year 12 students from Albany Senior High School established the brand as part of their business project for the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES).

Each chipped in some cash to get their idea off the ground.

Beginning with a batch of sweatshirts, the girls are hoping to fill a gap in the market.

They have been selling their clothing online and at school market days.

‘‘It’s so cool seeing people around school wearing our hoodies,’’ Jamie says.

‘‘This has definitely given us real life experience of running our own business.’’

All clothing is sweatshop-free and sourced from ethical suppliers.

The company donates $2 from every sale to the International Labor Rights Forum.

Sam says they want to change the way their peers and target market think about clothing.

‘‘We chose to spend more on something good quality that’s not made in a sweatshop,’’ Sam says.

‘‘So many teenagers don’t realise all the things they’re wearing are made in sweatshops,’’ Jamie says.

YES is a programme for students in year 12 and 13 to set up and run a business, creating a product and taking it to market.

Students then pitch their business to a panel of judges as part of a Dragon’s Den competition, which the Street 16 team made the Auckland finals of.

It’s taken a lot of hard work and determination for the girls to get Street 16 off the ground.

They each put in about $100 of their own money to help kick it off and have spent months developing the company.

They’ve made it part of their school Impact Project and they plan to continue it next year.

‘‘Some people don’t believe in us, some of our teachers didn’t believe in us,’’ Jamie says.

‘‘We’ve all had moments where we don’t want to do this anymore.’’

‘‘That just made us work harder to show we can do it,’’ Sam says.