Clothing and apparel company Only Human launched their in-person retail store on Friday last week in downtown Phoenix. This organization, “fueled by kindness,” partners with nonprofits to create apparel that donates 10 percent of profits to specific causes.
Bree Pear, who founded Only Human in 2016, uses her own struggles, combined with her skills in design to create apparel with a positive message that sparks conversation about topics like bullying, suicide awareness, and LGBTQ+ issues.
Mental health and suicide awareness became an important cause for Pear after she lost an acquaintance to suicide. She created the “Stay” campaign, which focuses on mental health and suicide awareness.
“It’s all about community and human connection and not just following each other online but finding each other in the real world. Apparel became that tangible way,” she said.
This cause campaign launches every September and runs all year long, instead of a month like most other campaigns. The stay campaign is personal to Pear, who has the logo tattooed on her hand.
“It’s not just clothing. It’s sparking conversation surrounding that clothing,” She said.
It was that tattoo that sparked Vanessa Holden’s interest in joining Only Human in order to make the largest impact on her community. She is now the Head of Customer Experience.
“The ‘Stay’ campaign is what made me find them in the first place,” she said. “I lost my uncle to suicide and I was looking for tattoo ideas, and I saw Bree’s arm, which led me to find Only Human.”
Holden’s story is just one way of the many to get involved with the community at Only Human.
One way is showing up to events and sharing your personal story, or you can join the community by becoming an “advocate” through their website.
“To become an advocate, you just have to apply. There’s really nothing that wouldn’t get you accepted. Once you’re in this community, you can build your way up through volunteering,” Holden said.
The advocate community spreads awareness of the cause campaigns, special behind the scenes looks and can vote on potential apparel designs.
Only Human has made numerous life-long connections through their advocate group, from friendships to marriages.
Another way to get involved with Only Human is to join them on a Give Trip. These are trips where 20-30 strangers come together and participate in community service, personal reflection, meditation, and community building wherever they go.
“Historically a lot of give trips or mission trips are very faith-based, being huge in the LBGTQ community, most people don’t feel comfortable going on that type of trip. We always want to do good and give back, ” Holden said.
Most trips are normally 3-4 days and the schedule changes depending on who they’re collaborating with, or what country they’re visiting. However, with COVID-19, their in-person events had to be canceled or moved.
“Typically we are traveling to in-person festivals all year long, especially during pride season. We had almost 80 events planned and then everything ground to a halt and shifted to next year,” Holden said.
One event that wasn’t stopped by COVID-19, was their ‘Stay’ campaign this September. Only Human partnered with Sounds of Saving, a non-profit that ‘explores the connection between music and mental health in the name of suicide awareness’.
This campaign was a favorite of co-owner and Head of Content Chrissy Saint-Massey, who lost her father to suicide in 2011.
“It’s something that every human can relate too, we all have mental health issues and we all listen to music in some form. It’s a cool way to bring those two ideas together,” Saint-Massey said.
However, while the majority of their in-person events have been stopped, the community support they gathered encouraged them to focus on other plans like opening and launching an in-person store in downtown Phoenix as well as their own warehouse in August.
“Going to events, getting to hug people, and hear their stories is something that fuels me, so I’ve been missing that human connection and energy,” Saint-Massey said.
Even with the launch party of their new retail store downtown, social distancing and capacity limits prevented the physical human connection Only Human is used to.
“We started on Instagram and have always been a global platform for good and community and really wanted to enrich and strengthen the downtown community,” Saint-Massey said.
While the launch party focused on a major accomplishment of Only Human, they still found a way to give back to the Downtown Phoenix community by partnering with a local non-profit to donate all leftover food from the event to the homeless.
“With everything going on in the world there’s a lot of division. I just want people to know that they’re always humans out there if you’re feeling alone. You’re not alone and you have somewhere to go that will be accepting.”
Contact the reporter at stlee9@asu.edu.
