I was talking to D. Nachnani of Coastal Edge who told me about how his stores approached Volcom’s Give Jeans a Chance campaign that I thought was worth sharing.
I also talked with Floris Gierman, Volcom’s Senior Director of Retail Marketing, about how the overall program turned out and plans for the 2011 campaign.
Handing out jeans on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of Volcom.
Give Jeans a Chance collects used jeans from shoppers at local stores around the world and donates them to homeless shelters.
Volcom brainstormed the idea for the program after launching a campaign to recycle boardshorts a few years ago. About 30 different retailers collected approximately 1,500 used boardshorts. Those boardshorts were then donated to those in need in Nicaragua, Floris said.
Floris had already been working with some homeless shelters, and learned that the homeless need clean jeans without holes to keep warm in winter months.
In 2009, about 80 to 100 stores mostly in the U.S. and Canada got involved. And while the program was successful, the collection happened in November and December, which was a bit late because cold weather had already set in.
The program in Puerto Rico.
So in 2010, Volcom started earlier so the jeans could get in the hands of those living on the streets earlier. They timed the drive to the back to school season when kids are cleaning out their closets.
Volcom provided donation boxes to 300 retailers in 12 countries, along with information about the program, flyers for customers, a window poster, and stickers, hats and buttons.
Schools, churches and even Best Buy asked to be a part of it, Floris said. In all, 13,000 pairs of jeans were collected around the world. Volcom Japan, for instance, collected 1,638 pairs in 16 participating stores.
See Page 2 for how Coastal Edge supercharged the campaign in Virginia Beach
Boxing jeans at Coastal Edge.
D. Nachnani of Coastal Edge ramped up the program even more in Virginia Beach.
This year, D. was trying to think of a way to “supercharge” the campaign in his area, and decided to approach the local school district.
The district embraced the idea, and about 11 high schools got involved, including not only the students, but teachers as well.
In three and a half weeks, the kids collected 6,800 pairs of jeans. (That figure is in addition to the 13,000 collected program-wide.)
“It really blew my mind,” D. said.
Coastal Edge awarded $500 to the school that collected the most.
Trend Cellar in Illinois collected 1,340 pairs of jeans at one store.
He and the school district were so excited about the results, D. hopes to involve the middle schools next year.
One sobering thing he learned in the process is that its not just middle-aged men who are homeless, but teenagers as well.
For 2011, Volcom is making a few tweaks to the program. It will be expanded to include jackets. Volcom will involve fewer stores this year so the company can work more closely with stores to help them ramp up the impact by involving the community and the media just as some stores like Coastal Edge and Trend Cellar in Illinois did.
Give Jeans and Jackets a Chance will run in August and September.
Here’s a video from Coastal Edge that shows how they got the schools involved and a video from Volcom that shows the overall program.
