September 09th, 2020

#dashingmasks4india update!

It has been a while since we updated the progress of our campaign. Things got really SO SO busy at Vanguard HQ, we have been working round the clock to keep up with demand for our #dashingmasks4india.

To date we have sold over 6000 masks (!) and donated over 32,000 meals from the proceeds of dashing masks.

Throughout the summer as countries have opened up we have been shipping our masks all over the world. From New Zealand to Botswana, Trinadad & Tobago to the Philippines our campaign has really gone global and we are humbled by the response to our small idea which grew into something much bigger than we initially conceived.

As with anything that scales rapidly there were some hurdles to overcome...
Scaling up the meal donations in the way were doing them at the start of the campaign - volunteers visiting poor areas & busy transport hubs around the city, became impossible to manage on scale. So we enlisted the help of a network of local NGO's that shared our vision. Our #dashingmasks4india campaign is now funding a number of projects providing meals to those in need. At the moment this includes lunches for children in slums in Mumbai, soup kitchens outside hospitals in Delhi & a meals on wheels van that visits slum areas in and around Delhi.

While we couldn't find a way to continue to support street food vendors, this change came at a time when Delhi was opening up and moving again so our support was less critical. As the NGO's we work with were better organized in this sector our average meal donation per mask has now gone up to just over 6 meals per mask - which is pretty awesome!
We also had to double the size of our factory. Mighel (Vanguard founder) quite literally got moved into the broom cupboard to make way for more craftspeople to have space in our workshop to make our dashing masks. He did manage to turn this into a compact & cozy office!

Along with more tailors we have taken on 2 apprentice women, one in tailoring and another in admin which are doing brilliantly. Working with another partner NGO Vanguard is aiming to provide training to women from our local community to help them gain skills & financial independence.

Our distribution in the UK got a little more organized last month. While we were (and are) eternally grateful to the volunteers who helped us overcome direct distribution hurdles by packing envelopes, the time came where the amount of orders were too much for 3 volunteers to handle. So we have now switched to a packing and distribution warehouse, enabling us to ship even more masks in a quicker time!

A designer collaboration with long time friend and very talented designer Manish Bansal was launched exclusively on Etsy last week.
We have updated our standard design to include a bendable nose bridge and internal filter pocket as standard. Many new colours and designs have been added to our ranges.
Including:
The disco ball mask
Some limited edition exclusive prints on silky bembergs & linens
Ikat cotton 3 packs
Pastel linen 3 packs
Madras check 3 packs
A blue camo vote mask - Trump leave the veterans alone!

And as of today you can customize any of our masks with an initial, a heart or 5-6 letter word. Using studs, springs, chains, sequins (& anything shiny!) this new addition adds a personal unique touch to our masks which we love.
Head over to our Etsy store to see all the fun stuff!
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/VanguardBespoke