Oshawa start-up Worthwhile Wears, wears its art on the front and its heart on the sleeve

Can’t find anything worthwhile to wear? Brendan Hill can help you. Hill, along with William Biggar co-founded Worthwhile Wears, a clothing company with a difference; they want to be the difference. Worthwhile Wears donate 15% of proceeds to several charities, including Bikes Without Borders, The Canadian Animal Assistance Team and KidsSport Ontario. They work with artists and designers right across the globe for their limited edition photo-print tee shirts
Hill says he started into photography in high school but he is also a musician and that took precedence. He was ready to get acquainted again with his first love.
“For me it was how to bring photography and the charitable element together, how to bring it to people engaged in different causes, different ideas and the first thing that jumped out at us was clothing, tee-shirts, sweaters. For our first line what we have done is we got eight artists, two from the States, one from Japan, Kuwait, Argentina, Sweden; it’s a real mix of people, artists, experiences and perspectives and we wanted to bring all that variety, those flavours. We have that and we have three online charities we are working with. When you pick your size you can pick your charity,” says Hill.
Bikes Without Borders take new and used bikes to places such as Nicaragua where a bike is the basis on the economy, “You can use a bike to go get food, use a bike to get to work. One of the projects in Africa is to pair an ambulance with bikes,” he says.
The C.A.A.T., among its other activities, specializes in being a response unit to help animals lost or injured in disaster areas such as an earthquake aftermath.KidsSports is an organization that makes sports more accessible to families and children who otherwise couldn’t afford to sign up.
The 24 year-old Hill signed up for the Whitby Brass Band for 13 years as a trombone player. He has played several different styles from jazz to pop and he continues to work as freelance musician across the Greater Toronto Area. Biggar, also 24, worked in currency trading before he tried on the clothing industry. He is the production coordinator. Hill handles marketing, finding artists, as well as community engagement.
The shirts are manufactured by Jerico in Toronto; they are ethically sourced and use a blend of 50% organic bamboo and cotton. “We didn’t want to support charities unless the product matched that commitment,” says Hill.
Curiously from a marketing point of view Worthwhile Wears does not brand it self on the clothing. The shirts are solely the canvas for the artist. Their work stands alone and Hill says it was conscious decision to focus on the print not the product.
“We want the art to stand alone. When you look at Cause Marketing so much focus has been that singular brand. Look at Project RED. That kicked it all off. You had brands such as Apple, Nike coming together for AIDS awareness. We really wanted the focus to be on the art, the photography. We feel that by telling the backstory with where the money is going then the shirts tell their own story. We hope when someone buys a shirt and someone says that’s a cool looking shirt then our story can be told as part of the experience,” he says. 
An experience that is unique, artistic and charitable seems worthwhile all round.