Apathy Attire co-owner Ben Bennett says the clothing company is serious about environmental, social and corporate responsibility.
Apathy Attire helps spread the net
Windsor natives part of the effort to save African children from mosquitoes
By Jennifer Hoegg
The Hants Journal/NovaNewsNow.com
Despite their business’ name, the co-owners of Apathy Attire are anything but apathetic. Recently, the young entrepreneurs appeared on CBC’s Rick Mercer Report as part of UNICEF’s Spread The Net campaign, raising money to buy malaria-fighting bed nights for African children.
Apathy Attire donated design expertise, time and buying power to provide the Dalhousie University fundraising team, winners of Mercer’s Spread The Net challenge, with low-cost, high-quality T-shirts.
Windsor native Ben Bennett, one of three partners in Apathy Attire, says the company provided the campaign with an initial batch of 67 shirts. “We donated design time and came up with a logo that reflected the national campaign, but tailored to Dal. We kept the price low enough that if they sold one shirt, they could buy two nets.” Each net can protect one or more children from malaria-carrying mosquitoes for up to five years.
When the Dal team raised $17,000, winning the national challenge, the university pitched in to buy a second batch of 36 shirts. More shirts were sold when Mercer visited the campus in January, helping to raise the team total.
Bennett is no stranger to entrepreneurism or activism. He previously co-owned a skateboard shop in Windsor and was involved in the building of Windsor’s now-displaced skate park. Now the Dal Commerce grad owns Apathy Attire with another former Windsor resident, Andrew Chow, and Truro’s Adam Hartling. Founded in 2006, Apathy specializes in skate- and snowboard apparel, geared to the 12 to 30-year-old market.
The company’s name is an ironic spin on their mission – to sell socially, environmentally and corporately responsible T-shirts. Now selling to several Nova Scotia board shops, Apathy is gearing up for a larger product launch in 2008/09, and developing an apparel catalogue for distribution to those enterprises nationally.
Apathy Attire is serious about social responsibility. Their T-shirts are sweatshop free, made in North America and several of their designs feature organic cotton. In addition to their help with the Dalhousie Spread the Net campaign, the partners make charitable donations a company priority. “It’s on our personal priority list, so there is no reason why it won’t be on our business priority list.”
So far, Bennett said, “business is good, for the amount of time we are able to put in.” The young men also have day jobs: Bennett, 23, works with a Halifax-based marketing agency; Chow, 24, owns a photography company; and Hartling, 23, is a graphic designer. Their individual specialties mean their business is quite self-sufficient, Bennett said. “We have everything we need internally. We all design, but we have our own niche.”
