Celebrating ‘Make A Difference Day’ with undies that change the world!

This Saturday 24^th October, we’re getting ready to celebrate Make A Difference Day, a fantastic opportunity to focus on the small things we can all do ourselves to have little bit of positive impact in the world.

This day is all about encouraging individuals to take cumulative actions that really do add up to make a massive difference!

How to celebrate Make A Difference Day

Here are some ideas for activities you can do, and changes you can make, to celebrate Make A Difference Day. We’ve chosen them because they’re mostly super-easy and can add up to make a real difference – both to other people and the environment.  

• Buy your next piece of clothing from a charity shop. Read some of our top tips on buying second-hand clothes – both online and in physical stores.

• Get stuck into some volunteering! Read our handy guide on how to get started.

• Repair a garment rather than getting rid of it or buying something new.

• Call a friend or relative who you haven’t spoken to in a while, or who is living alone. Simply checking in like this can make a massive difference to somebody else.

• Try to reduce your single-use plastic consumption by implementing one of the easy steps outlined in our guide to plastic-free July or read up on the principles of zero-waste – it’s not as difficult as it might sound!

• Decide to change your habits! Whether this is around shopping sustainably, or improving how you look after your clothes – both to make them last longer and reduce their impact on the environment. there are ways we can all minimise our impact on the environment by making tiny changes to our routine. Now is a good time to start!

Five ways that Y.O.U Underwear Makes A Difference! 

So how do we create change at Y.O.U Underwear? The belief in the power of small actions is something that’s at the core of our business model, and we’ve developed five core areas where we try to maximise our positive impact. We each have opportunities every day to change the world – you can even do it with your pants!  

Donations to charity 

For every pair of undies we sell, we donate TWO pairs to the charity Smalls for All, who help disadvantaged women and children in Africa and the UK by providing underwear to those who don’t have it. As of October 2020, we’ve donated over 10,900 pairs of underwear – all thanks to the purchases of our amazing customers.
Read more about our buy-one-give-two model

Using organic cotton, a sustainable fibre

Organic cotton is a much more sustainable alternative to non-organic cotton, and has a much lighter environmental footprint in all areas from carbon dioxide emissions, pesticide and water usage and environmental contamination. It’s also super-soft and gentle (making it the perfect choice for underwear!), carrying a number of health benefits for the everyday consumer.
Read more about our use of organic cotton

Working with an ethical manufacturer

We work with one of India’s leading ethical and sustainable manufacturers, so we know that all the people who are involved in the production of our underwear are treated fairly. The factory we work with has a range of measures, such as company sponsored meals and transport, to ensure the wellbeing of its workers. It’s also SA8000 Certified, one of the world’s leading social certifications.
Find out more about our ethical manufacturer

Reducing waste

We’ve got a range of measures in place to reduce waste. We package our underwear in our exclusive and re-usable organic cotton bags, and have recently switched to biodegradable mailers. Sometimes plastic is unavoidable (for instance during the transportation of our underwear) – whenever we do have to use plastic, we make sure it’s recycled and recyclable.

And on top of all this, we’ve signed up to the 2020 Circular Fashion Pledge – as part of our commitment to this, we plan to introduce a take-back scheme for our underwear by April 2021. This will allow us to ensure that our products never end up in landfill, but in fact get re-generated into new, usable fibres. We’re so excited about taking this step towards a more circular economy. Watch this space!

Find out more about our efforts to minimise waste

Committing to ethical marketing and body positivity

Finally, as an underwear brand, we’re aware of the power our images have on the self-confidence of our customers. That’s why we always make sure to use realistic images – this means no airbrushing, and the use of ‘normal’ people (our friends and family!) as models.

It's been difficult for us to organise a photoshoot this year because of the pandemic, so now we need your help! We're asking our customers to send in photos of themselves at home in their Y.O.U underwear that we can use to showcase our products 👙  We're hoping that we will be able to organise a (socially-distanced) photoshoot at some point too, but for now this 'DIY' approach is our best bet and we think it will be a great way to showcase real bodies in all their beauty. We're after as broad a range of bodies as possible - all shapes, sizes, skin tones, ethnicities, abilities and ages are beautiful to us! Even if you think you aren't model material, we promise that you are and we'd love you to be part of our 'Y.O.U at home' series!

If you want to get involved, simply express your interest using this link and we'll be in touch with more details. 

Find out more about our commitment to body positivity