As I was browsing through my blogroll today, I came across a post from the “Denimology” blog that sparked my interest. The post was about a denim company called Privacy Wear that donates a percentage of all its retail sales to breast cancer research.
What’s especially neat about this company is that it has become a popular brand in the fashion industry and has many celebrity clients. On their Web site, Privacy Wear uses a range of celebrities to promote their product. Virtually anyone in Hollywood, from Akon to Brooke Holgan, can be spotted in the company’s signature jeans, hoodies and t-shirts displaying the pink breast cancer awareness ribbon and the words, “United We Cure.”
In their mission statement, Privacy says, “The Privacy label is more than a fashion statement; it is a statement of values. The driving force of our organization is to bring breast cancer awareness to the fashion marketplace. We believe in quality, for our apparel and for human life. We pursue a ‘double bottom line’: people as well as profit. “
What Privacy calls a “generous” portion of their sales goes to providing free mammography screening for underprivileged women and funding for breast cancer education and clinical trials.
Privacy’s success brings up an important point, which I believe is that promoting your company as being motivated by more than money can end up paying off more. Maybe if more companies followed Privacy’s lead and started to re-think their motivation for designing clothing, they would actually end up making more money. In short, giving money to a good cause always appeals to people.
