Y.O.U Underwear

I’m Sarah, and I’m trying to change the world one pair of pants at a time! I never thought I'd end up running an underwear business! It all started when I travelled out to East Africa in 2016 and did some community volunteer work as part of the Uganda Marathon. I was shocked at the number of women and children I met who didn't have access to something we take for granted every day – underwear. I believe that underwear should be universally available to people in all communities. To take steps towards making this a reality, I decided to create a business that sells underwear on a buy-one-give-one model. It’s really quite simple!

Clothes are among the items most at risk of being produced through modern slavery. This is serious given that the fashion industry involves up to 40 million people – mostly women – worldwide. At Y.O.U Underwear, we work with India’s leading sustainable and ethical manufacturers, producing knit and woven organic cotton products. We know that the growers, spinners and makers who produce our underwear are paid and treated fairly. In 2019, 2023 and 2024 we even visited the factory for ourselves. Our manufacturer employs approximately 1,000 workers across 3 factories. They operate under SA8000 certified social standards. This includes no child labour, working hour compliance, minimum wage compliance, overtime compensation and incentives, rights of Freedom of Association, and no discrimination for race, age, sex, political opinion or religion. Additional benefits include transport to and from the job site, company sponsored meals, a health plan, and funding for workers’ children’s education. Our manufacturer uses only GOTS Certified Organic and Fairtrade cotton, supporting small organic farmers, including those involved in the Chetna Project. Our manufacturer uses low-impact, fibre-reactive dyes that are safe and GOTS certified.These dyes use less water, less heat and produce less waste runoff than regular chemical dyeing processes. They contain no heavy metals or other known toxic substances and meet all EU criteria for eco-friendly garments.

Our buy-one give-one model means that every time you buy a pair of Y.O.U underwear, we donate one pair of underwear to Smalls for All! All our donated underwear goes to Smalls for All, a Scottish charity that collects and distributes underwear to vulnerable women and children across Africa and the UK. If you’re interested, you can read more about them! Through this arrangement, we have been able to supply underwear to thousands of vulnerable women and children in Africa in the UK. So far, Y.O.U Underwear has donated over 60,560 pairs of underwear to Smalls for All and Maasai communities in Kenya, beating our target of 23,000 donations by 2023 over a year early. We're not stopping there though! We've set a new target of donating 100,000 pairs of underwear by 2027.

• Impact: Our goal is to donate a total of 100,000 pairs of underwear by 2027, which would impact the lives of 33,000 women and girls • Synthetic Fibres: We currently use 5% elastane in our underwear for stretch but we hope to find a more sustainable alternative the reduce reliance on crude oil derivatives. • Recycling: In 2024 we recycled more textiles than we produced through our community underwear recycling programme. In 2025, we hope to find better solutions for underwear recycling to continue saving textile waste from going to landfill. • Emissions: We aim to be Net Zero carbon by 2030 and calculate a more detailed carbon footprint across our business. In 2025, we also recertified with our B Corp certification. Having originally certified as the highest scoring B Corp in the UK in 2021, we are very proud to have increased our score, reflecting our commitment to striving to be a business for good.