How does one measure transformed lives? How does one quantify hope? At Forgotten, we know that impact is impossible to quantify. But we still like the idea of using numbers to talk about how Forgotten Shirts changes people’s lives for the better.

Take the number 3, for example. Three represents the 3 individuals who work on each Forgotten shirt that we produce - a farmer, a production worker, and a screen printer.

A cotton farmer in northern Uganda makes $800 per year selling Fair Trade cotton for our shirts. This may not sound like much, but it is almost 3 times as much as he would make for his cotton on the open market.

A young woman who lives in the slums of Kampala, Uganda has very few job options. Unemployment in these neighborhoods can reach 90%. But she has a job at a clean, safe factory where she produces t-shirts and earns enough to support her children and send them to school.

A teenager growing up in a poor neighborhood of urban Minneapolis thinks that there is no way he could go to college. But he got a job working for Forgotten shirts as a screen printer. He now has a support system, he gets tutoring after work, and he is beginning to believe in himself. He now plans to get a business degree from a local university.

3 is a very important number for us at Forgotten Shirts. So is the number 74. The number 74 represents the number of minutes of employment that are created each time someone purchases a Forgotten Shirt. With each shirt sold, we are able to employ a farmer, a factory worker, and a screen printer.

The impact is real. Join us as we seek to transform lives through numbers like 3 and 74.