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    Dutch Designer

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    soggy waffles
    A Dutch fashion designer named Bas Timmer felt guilty for not helping a homeless man he saw on the street one night. After a friend's father died of hypothermia while homeless, Timmer designed a "sheltersuit" that functions as both a parka and sleeping bag to help homeless people stay warm and safe on the streets. The sheltersuit is waterproof, portable, and good for sleeping. Timmer has now distributed over 12,500 sheltersuits across multiple countries. His goal is to open small factories around the world to produce the suits and provide jobs to help as many homeless people as possible.

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    Dutch Designer

    Uploaded by

    soggy waffles
    73 views1 page
    A Dutch fashion designer named Bas Timmer felt guilty for not helping a homeless man he saw on the street one night. After a friend's father died of hypothermia while homeless, Timmer designed a "sheltersuit" that functions as both a parka and sleeping bag to help homeless people stay warm and safe on the streets. The sheltersuit is waterproof, portable, and good for sleeping. Timmer has now distributed over 12,500 sheltersuits across multiple countries. His goal is to open small factories around the world to produce the suits and provide jobs to help as many homeless people as possible.

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    A Dutch fashion designer named Bas Timmer felt guilty for not helping a homeless man he saw on the street one night. After a friend's father died of hypothermia while homeless, Timmer designed a "sheltersuit" that functions as both a parka and sleeping bag to help homeless people stay warm and safe on the streets. The sheltersuit is waterproof, portable, and good for sleeping. Timmer has now distributed over 12,500 sheltersuits across multiple countries. His goal is to open small factories around the world to produce the suits and provide jobs to help as many homeless people as possible.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    73 views1 page

    Dutch Designer

    Uploaded by

    soggy waffles
    A Dutch fashion designer named Bas Timmer felt guilty for not helping a homeless man he saw on the street one night. After a friend's father died of hypothermia while homeless, Timmer designed a "sheltersuit" that functions as both a parka and sleeping bag to help homeless people stay warm and safe on the streets. The sheltersuit is waterproof, portable, and good for sleeping. Timmer has now distributed over 12,500 sheltersuits across multiple countries. His goal is to open small factories around the world to produce the suits and provide jobs to help as many homeless people as possible.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 1

    This Dutch Designer Is Keeping Homeless People Safe on the Streets By Turning Snowsuits 

    Into Sleeping Bags 


    Aryn Baker @arynebaker Oct. 8, 2020 
    Regrets can derail a career. For Bas Timmer they were a turning point. A young Dutch fashion 
    designer just out of school in 2014, Timmer was embarking on a promising direction as a cold 
    weather-gear specialist when he stumbled over a homeless man one cold night. He thought about 
    giving the man one of his signature fashion hoodies, but—to his lasting shame—paused for fear of 
    diminishing his brand. A few months later a friend’s father, also homeless, died of hypothermia. “I 
    felt guilty,” says Timmer. “I had the opportunity to help, and I did nothing.” 
    To make up for it, he dedicated his brand to helping others. Rejecting his first idea of hoodies for 
    the homeless as not good enough, he designed around the requirements for life on the streets: 
    waterproof, warm, portable and good for sleeping. Part tent and part parka, Timmer’s “sheltersuit” 
    featured a detachable sleeping bag that could be zipped off and easily stored during the day. He 
    presented his mashup to a local homeless man, who was enchanted. “He said, ‘I have two friends, 
    can I share my jacket with them?’ And I said ‘no, this one is yours. Let me see if I can make two 
    more.’ And that’s when the whole Sheltersuit idea started.” 
    Six years later, Timmer, 30, is still handing out Sheltersuits. So far he has distributed 12,500 to 
    homeless people in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, the U.S. and to refugees in Greece. 
    He has adapted his designs to local conditions, with less insulation in warmer areas. He has 
    inserted Velcro closures at the foot of the sleeping bags so that wearers have more freedom for 
    their feet (important in areas where the homeless are routinely harassed by police and often need 
    to run). The suits are made out of donated and upcycled materials, and manufacturing costs are 
    covered by donations. To bring costs down further, Timmer is expanding to South Africa, where 
    he has partnered with UNICEF to produce the suits for worldwide distribution at much lower 
    costs—around $30 a piece. His goal is to open similar small factories all over the world, 
    empowering local communities by teaching people to sew the designs and giving them a livelihood 
    in the process. Timmer is aware that his invention is no solution for homelessness, which he 
    knows is not going to go away anytime soon, especially in the wake of economic devastation 
    wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, he says, it’s better than doing nothing. “It is a band-aid, 
    but it’s a good band-aid. People want a house; they want a job. Until they have that, let’s at least 
    protect them while they are on the streets.” 
    Timmer hasn’t entirely given up on his dreams of designing for a commercial brand. Eventually, he 
    says, he wants to create a company as big as North Face, but with a twist: all the profits will fund 
    his Sheltersuit foundation. Donations alone can’t help the world’s 100 million homeless, but a 
    globally recognized brand might. “By selling beautiful products that keep people warm and dry 
    and protected, I can help others warm and dry and protected.” 

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