For what seems like ages, if you wanted to buy a piece of clothing while also giving back to the wider world your only mass-market option was Tom’s footwear. Those cloth slippers were you’re sole (forgive the pun) way to assuage your 1st world guilt while also topping off on the latest season styles. And this trend of altruistic consumerism has permeated so much of the rest of our lives. Gyms, restaurants, taxi cabs, and even grocers are letting us give something back to the world while also pursuing our materialistic desires. This is now a movement and a regular facet of 21st century life. With all that said, why has this not spread to more clothiers? The fine folks at Givedon thought this was crazy, and have stepped into the fray.
The Givedon brand is based around the sound idea that as long as you are going to dress like a gentleman, you had better act like a gentleman as well. They have partnered with various foundations in Central America to provide toys and charitable gifts to children in need, including orphans in Ecuador. And the gift provided with your shirt purchase isn’t just some ephemeral thought for you – no, you are provided with a photo of the unique contribution your purchase was responsible for, smiling child and all. You can hang that up on your fridge and guilt trip all your friends about how their shirts didn’t help any children in need at all.
And as for the shirt themselves? Givedon sells two cuts, Regular and Slim. Being blessed on the skinnier side of humanity I tried out a Slim fit and found it to nicely contour my body without making me look like a stuffed sausage. There is plenty of room in the shoulders and the sleeve length just perfectly kisses the back of the hand. The strip containing the buttons (what am I, a tailor?) is reinforced to reduce the chances of wrinkling and folding over on itself. Anyone who, like me, has bargain shopped for inexpensive button-downs knows what a pain in the ass it is when the section retreats upon itself and enjoys showing off your bare chest every time you make the slightest movement.
All in all it’s a fine product I’ll enjoy wearing to the office and on dates. Even better will be the smug look on my face when I get to explain that the purchase of this shirt helped a child in need. This is the kind of smugness that comes with all these altruistic consumer models. For too long all you could do was point to your Toms or a maybe a locally made bracelet, but with more companies like Givedon coming out everyday soon your whole wardrobe will come Nobel Peace Prize approved. And really, you can’t put a price on that…