Sweatsuits for Social Impact
In today’s climate, we are more aware of how our daily perspectives and actions contribute to movements related to social justice, climate change, public health, and personal wellbeing. COVID-19 has further revealed how our personal decisions contribute to a collective society, such as wearing a mask in public spaces or supporting small businesses. One key way people can make an impact is through ethical and impactful purchasing decisions. According to a report by Nielsen, 56% of consumers are willing to pay more for products from brands that demonstrate a commitment to social impact. Gen Z and Millennials especially, choose brands that align with their values and ask more from companies, beyond the traditional responsibility to create jobs or deliver value through their product or service.
Back in 2015, I appreciated the first brands that wove social impact into their mission and product design such as Ivory Ella, a t-shirt company that donates 50% of their net profits to prevent elephant hunting, and Lokai, beaded bracelets of different colors that donates 10% of profits to a handful of environmental and human rights charity partners.
Since then, the market of social impact brands has grown rapidly, and the products being offered have adapted with fashion trends. Sweatsuits have been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic, with purchases of sweatpants up 80% in April 2020. Many loungewear brands have offered a unique value proposition by centering their core brand identity around social impact, promising a charitable contribution for their purchase, while printing messages on the products to help a consumer express their ideals and support causes they care about.
Brands such as CHNGE are disrupting the entire fashion industry by maximizing the amount of transparency and interaction they have with their consumers. They published factory tours to show their ethical working conditions and an educational page about the environmental impact of the fast fashion industry and how their company is making operational choices to minimize their own impact. They also built a viral Instagram following to interact with their GenZ and Millennial audiences to educate on important social justice topics. Their products, such as sweatshirts that say, “all power to the people” or “growth is a process,” are offered at a relatively high price, with sweatshirts starting at $79. This is the premium people are willing to pay for a brand that aligns with their values and is doing more to disrupt the fashion industry and impact the world on a larger scale.
Examples of CHNGE sweatshirts and t-shirts advocating for social causes and ideals
Each brand selling a product in the social impact space must balance their product offering with their brand values and the perceived social benefit of a purchase. It can be difficult to get this right, especially when a high quality, environmentally friendly product is more expensive to produce.
Madhappy is another brand in this social impact loungewear space, selling luxury items with a mission to create optimism and promote mental health. I started noticing my peers wearing sweatshirts from Madhappy around campus at University of Michigan in Fall of 2020 and was instantly curious about the brand from its eye-catching name. I only recently realized the brand’s mission to promote mental health awareness, which may indicate that Madhappy has adopted a different balance of product, brand values, and perceived social benefit compared to CHNGE.
The first words in the bio of their Instagram page, are “A Mental Health Brand.” I can definitely get behind this message, as mental health awareness and advocacy has always been a passion. However, after visiting their website, I struggled to see where mental health awareness fit into their brand. Their website homepage currently features a grid with puffer jackets, limited edition Beats headphones, and even Madhappy-branded skis, coinciding with the recent launch of a third store in Aspen, CO. When I started scrolling through their products, I was shocked to see that the cheapest sweatshirt was $125, and had cashmere crewnecks as high as $295. All I saw was upscale luxury streetwear, not far off from Supreme..I began to wonder: where was the mental health awareness that they claimed – at least on Instagram – to be the core of their brand?
Featured products on Madhappy’s homepage
…I gave them the benefit of the doubt and dove a little deeper into the website.
I finally saw mental health references displayed on their clothing products, with short, catchy snippets such as “local optimist,” “treat yourself like someone you love,” and “one step at a time.” On the About page, I found their core brand mission statement:
Okay, there we go.
But I was still not convinced, considering the exclusive status that arises from high price points and luxury branding of a company that centers on mental health awareness. Madhappy seemed like another example of how brands and media glamorize mental health, and sending a signal that their advocacy is only meant for a certain group of people – upper class GenZ and millennials – ignoring disparities that exist in access to mental health care, and exacerbating how mental health care is viewed as a luxury few can afford, rather than a basic human right.
I did consider that the price of their products could be justified by the charitable contributions they are making. Two weeks ago, they announced the Madhappy Foundation through an Instagram post, and have pledged to donate 1% of their proceeds to supporting mental health causes consistent with past partnerships, such as The JED Foundation, Project Healthy Minds, and The University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center. While this is a sign that Madhappy can financially support these important causes, there were several skeptical comments on their launch post:
I am also curious why their website has not mentioned the Madhappy foundation, and is only focused on their sweatshirt launches and opening of the pop-up store in Aspen. From my point of view, their website indicates that they are prioritizing sales with mental health social impact as a “side project,” as one of the comments above mentioned.
Not all hope is lost for Madhappy. I did discover they have a second website and Instagram handle called the Local Optimist, where they share valuable mental health and wellness content, including podcasts with celebrity guests such as Logic and Emma Chamberlain, which helps carry out the second part of their mission statement: creating experiences to promote optimism. The Local Optimist website is also equipped with helpful toolkits, blog posts, and Spotify playlists. I see how they are building a community through this page, and there was a lot of time and effort that went into it.
The only thing that put a bad taste in my mouth from this initiative was the Local Optimist Hotline:
While it’s fantastic that they are providing this service and living up to their brand promise by having important conversations about mental health, it is not their place as a clothing brand to offer a mental health “hotline,” especially since it is only available for two hours, three days a week (when many people may be at school and work during that time). It sends the message that, we are here to chat, but only when we have a little free time in our work schedule. It was even more off-putting that they made a $165 crewneck with an official Local Optimist Hotline logo. The whole initiative seems more like a marketing ploy for a collection drop, rather than a mental health initiative. The premium price of their products intertwined with mental health advocacy sends a message that mental health awareness is only accessible to a certain group of people who can afford and buy into this lifestyle.
For a disrupting brand bringing positivity to streetwear, I challenge Madhappy to connect the dots between their products and mental health impact, especially through the Madhappy Foundation launch. I’m not asking Madhappy to lower the price of their products, but to be more transparent about how they are supporting mental health for all people – through both monetary donations and making free resources more accessible from their main page – to create a more holistic experience for consumer, who not only see the value in a high quality sweatshirt, but a clear idea of what they are supporting with their purchase. All in all, the product and brand values are there, but I believe adding more on the social benefit will tie the entire Madhappy experience together, that even more people would get behind.
Even now, I do see a potential for a purpose-driven initiative for Madhappy to use its resources to disrupt how people talk about and experience mental health awareness. They have built a supportive community of Local Optimists, who feel the messages on their Madhappy sweatsuits that remind them of growth and healing.
