Three years ago, Tyler Patterson and Hughie Hughes had three jobs apiece.
While working in retail, at vitamin shops and inside gyms, they and three others also ran a grass-roots organization called Povertees.
Born in 2007 inside a Hope International University dorm room, Povertees made solid-colored shirts with patterned pockets.
They sold like wildfire.
Patterson and co-founders Trevor Smith, also a Hope student at the time, Matt Donahue and Gianna Persico used whatever money they accrued from sales to purchase food and other novelties for Los Angeles’ homeless communities.
“When we started Povertees we were really just looking to build relationships with people and learn about their experiences,” Patterson said in an email. “We didn’t have plans to start a business. We just wanted to help people in any way we could.”
Hughes, another student at the small Fullerton university, joined the effort in 2009.
“Very early on, we realized that our friends on the street valued the fact we began relationships with them,” he said. “It was about more than the provisions we were giving them.
“We began asking: ‘What do you need? How can we help you?’”
Still a local upstart in 2013, Povertees held a spring fundraiser. A supporter challenged Patterson and Hughes to raise $10,000.
“If you do,” he told them, “then move to L.A. and start this as a nonprofit,” Hughes remembered.
On little more than word of mouth and its loyal following, Povertees raised $11,800.
Patterson and Hughes eventually quit their jobs and moved to Los Angeles.
Povertees became a nonprofit in March 2013, and has since grown exponentially.
No longer does it operate out of a three-bedroom apartment. No longer does it just make shirts.
Instead, Povertees is what Hughes called “a social enterprise,” an organization not only invested in getting homeless people off the street, but in employing them, supporting them and involving them in their communities.
“We’ve never forced anyone to try and get off the street,” said Hughes, 26, a Yorba Linda native and alum of Whittier Christian High in La Habra. “The best thing you can do for those individuals is respect their autonomy. But as we continued to visit them, they started asking for help. …
“We thought to ourselves: What can we do? How can we make our outreach tangible, quantifiable and, more than anything, beneficial in peoples’ lives?”
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Povertees merchandise is easily recognizable.
Known for their simplicity, the shirts are Patterson’s brainchild.
“We started making pocketed shirts because they would be fairly easy to make out of our dorm room,” he said. “We were buying fabric in the same area that we were meeting people living on the streets, so it was nice to keep everything in L.A.”
During its infancy, Povertees built inventory with American Apparel shirts as the base. Patterson and Hughes sewed on personalized pockets.
They had a Kickstarter page and a website that didn’t run as smoothly as it does now.
“We launched our organization … with very little money,” Patterson said, “so even staying afloat that first year showed us that we had a steady base of support. We really felt like we were finding our place when we transitioned into wholesaling clothing as a social enterprise.”
In August 2014, Hughes said he and Patterson sought a way to get men and women off the street permanently.
“Over six and a half years,” Patterson said, “we saw a lot of people graduating rehab then returning to the streets because that’s where their community was. We wanted to be a place for people to feel that same sense of community.”
Patterson and Hughes approached the Downtown Women’s Center, a Los Angeles nonprofit that advocates ending homelessness for women.
They shared Povertees’ mission to help transients find work, and the two groups partnered.
In November 2014, Patterson and Hughes hired Qwing Reed, a candidate for employment the center offered to them.
From sewing pockets onto shirts, to helping with sales and inventory fulfillment, to serving as Povertees’ customer service representative and brand ambassador, Reed became as integral to daily operations as Patterson and Hughes.
After two years with Povertees, Reed moved east this winter to be near family.
“To us, it was more than a paycheck,” Hughes said. “It was more about being supportive. We wanted to help her help herself.”
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Patterson began selling shirts at Hope International for $15.
Now, Povertees’ most expensive shirt sells for $30.
Proceeds go toward a number of things: payroll, administration costs, business expenses, inventory and printing costs. Hughes said profits have increased annually. The company does a couple of large community meals for homeless in their area.
Patterson, Hughes and Ian Consoli – a college friend who recently joined the cause – work full-time out of their shared Highland Park home. They’ve hired two more women from the Downtown Women’s Center and a couple of interns.
Povertees is teaming with the Vans Warped Tour, which begins June 22 and has August dates in San Diego and Pomona.
The company’s highest-profile partner yet, Povertees had 500 custom shirts made for the tour, and Hughes said a team of employees will travel city-to-city “sharing our story” with concertgoers.
Povertees also helps other groups with their fundraising, holding private pocket parties with the proceeds going to the cause.
At these, attendees personalize pockets for their shirts. Patterson and Hughes regularly host them at Hope International.
Hughes said Povertees attends more than 50 events a year.
Saturday, for its near 130 donors, it’s hosting the fourth annual Povertees Spring Fundraiser. Hughes expects to raise $30,000.
The company is selling more merchandise than ever.
It recently launched a “living room athletic” line and now sells shirts with a sewing machine logo on the left breast.
In 2015, Povertees grossed $119,000, its most profitable year to date.
“When I started in 2009,” Hughes said, “I didn’t foresee (Povertees) being a nonprofit like this – us doing this full time as a living. In the retail industry, in the fashion industry, there are so many hands in the pot that the constant question is how to separate ourselves and get our product out so people know about it.
“It’s a constant struggle and effort,” Hughes continued. “But what really separates us is we can offer people the chance to be part of social outreach.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-7724 or bwhitehead@ocregister.com
