Best Of 2019.
Twenty-nineteen: another year done and dusted.
It’s been another wild year of the good, the bad and the ugly. At Afends, we took major steps forward in our sustainability program, utilising more eco-friendly fabrics to expand our organic range and focused on education and exploration.
From a new Grow Your Own initiative, sending out seeded cards to our customers to encourage and educate on the benefits of growing your own food, to a seven-part web series aptly titled 'Helping Eliminate Malicious Propaganda’; opening a new concept store in the beautiful Brunswick Heads outfitted with premium, sustainable materials as we take a lead in eco-conscious retail design and not only running several donation-based activations but putting our money where our mouth is and heading to the beach for a huge clean up.
Peruse through a year past of Afends below. Thank you for all the love and support in 2019 and we can’t wait to kick off the new decade with you all.
Grow Your Own Initiative.
We kicked off the year by releasing the Basil Card, followed by runs of different herbs and vegetables throughout the year. Seeds were implanted into recycled paper cards which were able to be planted just about anywhere.
International Women's Day.
Friday the 8th March marked International Women’s Day for 2019. In celebration of this very important occasion, we held a little get-together at Future Dreamers: a local, safe space for young women to hang, get creative and connect, and released a limited edition Equality Tee. 100% of profits of this t-shirt were donated back to Future Dreamers.
Helping Eliminate Malicious Propaganda.
In a seven-part web series, now also cultivated into a 24-minute documentary, by Dominic Sullivan and Jessekah Forrest, we took more steps in attempting to remove the controversial image that 70 years of hemp propaganda has left behind. Featuring good mate of Afends and all-around legend, watch as Dom himself attempts to navigate the wide-ranging and sometimes utterly confusing world of cannabis and the legal, cultural and environmental systems surrounding it. Take a look at hemp in fashion, medicinal marijuana, CBD, THC, the past, the future and everything in-between.
A New Concept Store.
On Friday the 7th, we held a grand ol' opening party to launch and celebrate our brand new concept store in Brunswick Heads, 'Neighbourhood’, by way of sinking some beers and having a boogie.
More than just a retail space, 'Neighbourhood’ is an exhibition outfitted with premium, sustainable materials as we take the lead in eco-conscious retail design and environmentally friendly fashion.
Plastic Free July.
This Plastic Free July, our goal was to inspire you to throw your middle finger up to single-use plastic by spreading awareness, starting simply and helping to educate with quick swaps & tips. We gave you free tote bags to start your eco-friendly shopping, held a month-long comp to inspire the change in your personal habits and created a t-shirt to raise money for Take 3 For The Sea, a charity fighting plastic pollution through education. We’ve learnt a lot ourselves, and it’d be a bit of a load of bullshit if we didn’t put our money where our mouth is, so we headed to Simuelue, Indonesia, to join the Take 3 movement. With six of our team riders in tow, we hit the beach for an eye-opening cleanup we’ll never forget.
Slab City and Salvation Mountain.
We were lucky enough to send our team to the States this year to meet up with some legends who took us for a road trip around LA, Slab City and Salvation Mountain.
Toys Change Lives.
This year we wanted to kick 12 Days of Good Vibes off on the right foot and put our money where our mouth is. Riding off Zach's notability we decided we wanted to give someone else a voice and platform they wouldn't usually get: enter the local Indigenous artist group, Toys Change Lives.
An employment pathway staffed by Indigenous youth who have been released from Juvenile Justice Detention Centers or who have had a brush with the Justice System and are believed to be 'At Risk', we wanted to support Toys Change Lives anyway we can after seeing the amazing work they do. That's why this year we're kicking it off by releasing a limited run of toys created by TCL themselves online and in-store to help get the word out, as well as giving 100% of sales back to the epic team to help fund art supplies and help them continue their epic work.
