A company called Parks Project is selling clothing and other merchandise with the intention of supporting National Parks with the message “leave it better than you found it.”
The concept for the project is the brainchild of the Parks Project founder Keith Eshelman, who was inspired to do his own charity project after working with the company TOMS.
A portion of the sales from the clothing line go towards supporting the parks in some way, like planting trees, organizing volunteer groups, and organizing field trips for kids.
“While at TOMS, I was on paternity leave. My wife and I go up to Big Sur quite a bit, to get some time to breathe—this time, we brought my newborn daughter for a hike behind Pfeiffer Falls. It was closed; there was overgrowth and Caution: Closed signs. I was like, ‘What’s up with this?’”
He started the project with some of his coworkers, and then took things to the next level.
“The idea eventually became to take the TOMS social enterprise model to the outdoors. What better way to do that then find a project, create the products around it, and sell them—hopefully funding the project. Parks Project became a brand.”
