Kultwear tees to raise awareness

Kalyan Srinivas, founder of PebbleBay Clothing, a retail apparel-maker from Tirupur has started

an initiative Kultwear to raise awareness about social causes through unique messages on the T-shirts and also through the sales generated by selling message tees.

If one buys a hip T-shirt with a message from Kultwear, Rs 100 from the price goes to a new charity every week. The cause and the charity with their links are also listed on the website, with the amount raised that week as well as the total amount raised by Kultwear. For instance, the company was able to generate Rs 1,100 in a day for Bal Utsav, an education initiative of the Child Empowerment Foundation of India. Sometimes, the cause chosen is that of an individual not an organisation. For instance, one week, Kultwear raised funds for Chanchal, a 19-year old acid-attack victim from Bihar through an NGO called Video Volunteers. Chanchal, mutilated beyond recognition, needs help for her expensive medical treatment. Another week, Kultwear raised funds for the medical treatment of PM Sahay, a retired banker, who struggles to sell puppets on the streets of Delhi to earn a living.

Another important aspect the company focuses on is encouraging artistes from around the world to promote their work in T-shirt design. Kultwear invites submissions from artistes on a fee-plus-royalty-basis. More importantly, it tags the name of each artiste on every T-shirt that is shipped and posts the details on Kultwear.com. In turn buyers get three new designs every week, which are available only for that week, that is, 150 designs to choose from every year.

Srinivas started Kultwear.com in March 2013 and now he wants to grow it into a brand that will work for social good and provide cheerful, value-for-money clothing. It has already helped a range of charities including Akshay Patra, Aham Bhumika, New Ark Mission, Red Paws Rescue, classical musicians and Braille books for children. It plans to run impact features on how the funds raised each week have been utilised and how, just by buying one T-shirt, one can bring about a significant change.