Save the Oceans With Your Thong: How to Get Your Social Cause to Match Your Underwear

Posted by Tara Lohan, AlterNet at 12:16 PM on August 26, 2009.

It used to be that people just blazed their cause across their T-shirt or threw a few pins on their backpack. But times are changing, thanks to the new company PACT, which is helping undergarments have their say, too. Yes, now you can put your favorite social cause on your undies. How many people actually get to see that, I guess really depends on the activities of the wearer. And if you like thongs, hopefully your cause is, um, really small. As Greenerdesign reports:

PACT blends social and environmental values throughout its materials, supply chain, packaging and more. The company offers a range of men's and women's underwear styles in three designs. Each design is aligned with a nonprofit organization, with 10 percent of each design's sales -- yes, sales, not profits -- going toward its associated organization. The underwear ranges in price from $22 for a thong to $28 for boxers.

[Designer Yves] Behar made the initial three designs for the underwear, creating images to sync up with the first three nonprofits with whom PACT is working: 826 National, ForestEthics and Oceana. PACT plans to add more nonprofits with new designs from other artists and designers, topping off at about eight, [co-founder Jason] Kibbey said.

The company itself aims to be enviro-friendly, having all the components of their supply chain -- from the cotton growing to the dyeing -- in one place (Turkey!). And there's more:

PACT is now investigating its options for disposing of its underwear when customers are done with it, batting around ideas such as deep cleaning them for use as rags. "We'll break it down and make pillows or some other cool idea," Behar said.

Right, because what could be better than a few throw pillows on your couch made from old undies. I love that green is now chic.
 

Tagged as: pact, social causes, underwear

Tara Lohan is a managing editor at AlterNet.