Mark Twain once said, “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.” Although the line is worth a laugh, it rings true. What we wear says a lot about who we are, and the idea that our clothes could have an impact on society and the fight against global poverty is no laughing matter.

With that in mind I am proud to announce the new ONE shirt from Edun. Edun is a socially conscious clothing company founded by Ali Hewson, Bono, and New York clothing designer Rogan Gregory. For the second year in a row, this remarkable company has produced a cool ONE shirt that has a powerful story to tell.

The story of the Edun shirt starts with cotton grown and processed in Africa. The fabric then goes to a factory in Lesotho, where people working in fair labor conditions produce some of the best t-shirts in the world. Socially conscious production like this is just what the people of Lesotho need to work their way out of poverty and help jumpstart their country’s economy.

But buying the Edun shirt doesn’t just help provide jobs to these cotton farmers and factory workers. $10 of every purchase goes to ALAFA (Apparel Lesotho Alliance to Fight AIDS), which provides life-saving AIDS treatment to factory workers and their family members. The remainder of the profits go to ONE and help us, among other things, to advocate for programs like ALAFA.

As if that weren’t enough, right now Edun is auctioning off the shirts that were customized by the celebrities who participated in the recent ONE Edun shirt photo shoot featured in Elle magazine. All of the proceeds from this auction go to ONE, helping us to build this movement of millions of Americans demanding more effective action against extreme poverty.

You can bid on one of the shirts customized and worn by Ben Affleck, Ellen Pompeo, Kerry Washington, Laila Ali, Chris Daughtry, Raquel Welch, Kirsty Hume, Donovan Leitch and their daughter Violet, Courtney Love, Gwyneth Paltrow, The Citizens Band, Rashida Jones, Liv Tyler, Michelle Monaghan, Julianne Moore, or Waris on the ONE Edun auction site.

I hope that you enjoy these new shirts and the opportunity to wear your beliefs, quite literally, on your sleeve (and all over the rest of the shirt for that matter).

Thank you for your voice,
Josh Peck, ONE.org