How do you go about sourcing/creating the ties and cufflinks? Do you have a group of designers coming up with new ideas?
Firstly, design in extremely important to us. It is vital that we put high quality, fashionable items into the marketplace, or otherwise people won’t want to purchase our products. Our ties are silk, our cufflinks are stainless steel, and our socks are cotton.
Every product is individually designed to ensure it is both fashionable, but also relates in some way to the charity at hand. This can be by design or colour. We review new designs and range options on a monthly basis, adding products where we see value to our customers.
Why do you feel that men don’t speak up about personal illness?
There is no doubt that speaking about personal illness is confronting. For men, I don’t think it’s necessarily a conscious decision to avoid speaking about illness, but rather I think it’s just not knowing what to say, or indeed how to start that conversation.
Of all the causes we support, mental health is probably the one that has the most stigma attached to it. However, in recent years there has been a lot of focus given to reducing this stigma and getting people to talk more. In many ways RUOK Day has revolutionized the way in which people talk about mental health by asking a simple question, “Are you okay?”
Our business is set up to try and break down this stigma for all related causes. We want men to be able to wear a great looking product and proudly represent a cause, which might in turn also spark a conversation about the charity. Our goal is not necessarily to get men to speak for hours at a time about our partner charities, but rather to educate those around them with a simple sentence. For example, “did you know that 1 in 8 women will get Breast Cancer in their lifetime?” With every product we sell, we provide a card with 1 fact about the related cause that people can use to help educate others.
For many of the causes we work with, education is just as important as financial support. We want to support both.
How many in the TIED TOGETHER team?
We have 2 co-founders, a chairman, and a marketing assistant.