By Anja Trenkwalder
Elm Staff Writer
In 2012 Ryan Westberg and Jeff Steitz were just two college students with a dream to make the world a better place. The two returned from a study abroad program with a desire to give back to developing communities. After some thought and planning, they developed an idea for their own business: fashion with a purpose.
Westberg and Steitz connected artists from a multitude of different countries with charitable organizations all over the world. Their idea was to have artists design and produce fabrics that their newly founded company would use to create stylish and customizable pieces of clothing. The artists would receive fair compensation and a part of the profit goes to the partnering non-governmental organization.
Little did they know that what started out as a small-scale project in their dorm room would soon evolve into a flourishing company. Today artists all over the world produce a variety of different styles of fabrics. They are all featured on their website, and customers can choose any fabric they like either by style, country of origin, or noble cause. Once the customer selects the fabric, they get to pick from a nearly boundless pool of styles, colors, and cuts and custom-design their own T-shirts, tanks, sweaters, headbands, purses, headphones, and more. The product portfolio is constantly growing. Serengetee’s design team routinely adds new styles, and they routinely feature limited edition designs, staff picks, and rare fabrics. 
Serengetee takes pride in offering comfortable clothing, high-quality materials, and flattering styles. They feature women’s and men’s apparel as well as unisex pieces. Their shirts look great on any body type and one can wear them as casual Netflix-and-chill apparel, to class, the gym, or even for a hot date night. You can get a classic crew shirt for $30, or a headband for $22. Note that Serengetee frequently holds promotions on their website and gives new customers a 20 percent off discount.
What is even better is that when you make your purchase, you automatically support an NGO in one of 32 developing countries. A part of the revenue from each sale goes to one of many charitable organizations. Each fabric is linked to its individual NGO like human rights organizations, education projects, agricultural development, HIV/AIDS outreach, and many more. If there is a specific cause you are passionate about, simply click the “select by cause” option on Serengetee’s website and select the NGO you wish to support. You will then be able to view all fabrics that support this particular cause.
Nowadays, Serengetee is known throughout the U.S. as a fair-trading company that abides by high ethical standards, treats their workers fairly, and gives back to communities both locally and abroad in developing countries.
If you care about what you wear and want to be both stylish and support a good cause, check out their website at www.serengetee.com.
Photos courtesy of pinterest.com, hercampus.com, and thecultureist.com