Tees For A Cause: Project Repat

Shopping for vintage tees is one of my favorite things.  Along with one of my dearest friends, Annie Rose, I have spent countless hours scouring vintage shops from LA to Seattle to Boston in the hopes of discovering the perfect tee.  You know the kind of tee I mean--broken in to the point of ideal softness, exactly the right fit, sporting some fantastic graphic or slogan that either means nothing to you (my favorite, a "Compton Cheerleading" tee I discovered back in high school) or everything to you (I'm obsessed with my "Wilson Lacrosse" find).  Stumbling upon these pre-owned gems is like the fashion version of buried treasure--and now you can treasure hunt for a good cause!

Project Repat
http://www.projectrepat.org/


Just last week, my lovely friend, Sarah, forwarded an article from Good, "Repatriating Retro T-Shirts from Africa (for a Good Cause)."  The article profiles the work of the Boston-based non-profit organization, Project Repat.  After noticing a rickshaw operator in Nairobi wearing a tee proclaiming, "I danced my a** off at Josh’s bar mitzvah. Santa Barbara, California. January, 2006," co-founders Sean Hewens and Ross Lohr realized that many African people ended up wearing vintage tees that found their way to the secondary market after being donated to Goodwill or the Salvation Army in the US.  Project Repat was born from this inspiration; tees are returned to the US, where they are rebranded and resold at vintage store prices in an effort to support non-profits in the developing world by creating a truly unique t-shirt experience for American consumers and providing a second chance at fame for the t-shirts that got away.  Obviously, it is a win-win.
 

Gymnastics Coach Tee (front view), $25
Repatriated from Tanzania
& now available from Project Repat

Never being one to pass up the opportunity to shop for a good cause, I had to check out the Project Repat Online Store myself.  There, you can shop tees by size or repatriation location.  I am happy to report that I am now the proud owner of a fabulous "Gymnastics Coach" tee, after it was repatriated from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  For $25, I scored a vintage tee with a story--and played a small part in supporting the non-profit organizations improving lives in Tanzania (profits from each tee support initiatives in the specific country where the tee was repatriated from).



Gymnastics Coach Tee (back view)

Next on Project Repat's agenda is a May 22 trip to Nairobi, where they plan to document the repatriation experience in a film entitled, "I Didn't Dance My A** Off at Josh's Bar Mitzvah."  And of course, they will be repatriating tees along the way so be sure to stay tuned for their latest haul and to play your own part in Project Repat's mission.  Happy shopping!