Bare Kind Charity Impact Report 2021

We want to save every endangered animal with bamboo socks.

We love animals as much as you do.

They're beautiful and fierce, strong yet gentle. They've endured for centuries, and many have been around since before the dinosaurs!

We owe it to them to keep them alive and well, unexploited. And we can only achieve this together!

Our mission is simple; to leave the world in a better place than when we found it, saving the animals one pair of socks at a time.

Hi everyone!

I’ve known for a while that I wanted to do a report like this.

2021 is the first year I have been full time on Bare Kind, so the purpose of this charity impact report is to shed more light on the charities and how your sock donations are helping them do what they do best - save animals.

When I first started my bamboo sock range I began with turtle socks. The Turtle Foundation were my very first charity and they loved the idea. You all also loved the turtle socks and asked for more, so I launched Orangutans, Penguins, Bees and Leopards.

The range has increased even more this year, with a further 12 animals being added (and more to come in 2022!)

The mission of Bare Kind is to save animals with our socks. The purpose of this report is to show that this truly is possible. Our socks are such humble little things, almost an after thought in the mornings. I want them to be a masterpiece of happiness and good karma. Everyday I want you to look forward to putting your socks on because they look and feel good, AND you are saving animals you care about.

Well now you can know exactly what your socks are doing. There are some pretty incredible figures in here…

And so read this with pride, because all of you have contributed to this impact. I am very grateful for your support so far, and I want to deliver bigger and better things for you in 2022.

Here’s to the animals, Happy New Year!

We have a section for each charity, told from the perspective of your fave animals themselves! So if you have one charity in particular that you’d like to know about feel free to skip to your chosen section using the contents page.

When we donate, we use each charity’s donation figures to work out what impact our socks have. So for example the Orangutan Foundation tell us how much it costs to protect an acre of forest for 1 year, and we convert that into socks!

It gives you a better idea of how your money can help, and the true impact you are having on these charities. A full breakdown of our ‘ sock currency ’ is available on the Bare Kind website.

So these figures are based on standard calculations, this is not to say the charity chooses to spend our money as specifically as this report says, but every penny is put to good use -

saving our animals.

essential food and medication for an or phan rhino

an acre of tropical forest protected for a whole year

an education pack at a school to teach kids about hedgehog welfare

Hey! My name is Olive and I am an Orangutan from Borneo.

In May 2017, there were estimated to be 57,000 of my species living on this island, and my biggest threat is habitat loss.

Without our homes we will very quickly die out as a species, which is why we rely so heavily on the work of The Orangutan Foundation.

Currently the Foundation protects over a million acres of forest and more than 4,500 Orangutans.

donated to

Hey dude! I’m Trevor, a sea turtle chilling out in the beautiful Sumatran waters. Six out of seven turtle species are classified as endangered but here I am protected with the help of The Turtle Foundation who work hard to prevent damage to me from human activity such as pollution, fisheries, illegal consumption and coastal degradation.

By protecting our nesting grounds we have a stronger chance of survival and replenshining our numbers. Since 2017, not a single leatherback turtle has been killed on Buggeisiata beach. This is because the Foundation has trained rangers to supervise Buggeisiata beach during the nesting season to care for hatchlings. That’s where Bare Kind comes in! 10% of profits on the Save the Turtle socks are donated to the Foundation, and the funds are used to rescue and nurture hatchlings in Sumatra.

You guys help our little ones start life beautifully and safely!

Hi, I’m Beatrice, but you can call me Betty! I’m a Bumblebee in the English Midlands: you’ll normally find me zooming through gardens and fields from May to August! Unfortunately, two of my cousin species have become extinct in the last century: Callum’s Bumblebee hasn’t been seen since 1941, and the Short-Haired Bumblebee was officially declared extinct in 1988.

Agriculture and public demand for lower cost and more volume food, and decreasing demand for ‘wonky’ foods means we ’ve suffered from huge habitat loss. This reduced our own food as bumblebees since we largely feed on flowers. Since our colony’s last around 7 months, we need that food to reproduce new individuals (males and queens) at the end of our lifecycle. That’s where Bare Kind comes in! Bee socks help fund the planting of wildflower seeds on land the size of rugby fields! That means, we can sustain ourselves and our land is protected!

Hello! I’m Rafiki, a young rhino living at the Zululand Rhino Orphanage in South Africa! My mother died two years ago due to poachers looking to take her horn. The rangers patrolling the region were too late to arrive and she bled to death, the poachers had run away as soon as they had ripped it from her. I was too scared to move after they left and eventually Helping Rhinos found me.

Now, the carers at Helping Rhinos take care of me and the other orphaned rhinos. We’re all kept in a secret location, well nourished and cared for, so we’re protected. I play with Zimi, another orphaned rhino. Your rhino socks have helped keep this new home for us running and treat other rhinos who have been attacked by poachers. Not only that, but your socks help fund community programmes and anti-poaching teams and dogs.

With your help, I can live a long life with my friends.

Hiya! I’m Pepper, a South African penguin chilling around with the humans from SANCCOB’s Cape Town centre.

This year has been tough for our species: a heavy storm jeopardised the survival of African Penguin chicks and eggs and 400 litres of fuel oil spilled into Eastern Cape Algoa’s Bay. However SANCCOB launched right into action, containing and cleaning up the spill, and trying to rescue and heal the damaged birds.

In June, SANCCOB took a huge step forward in re-establishing a colony of African Penguins to the De Hoop Nature Reserve: 58 fledglings were released! The donations from Save the Penguin socks meant SANCCOB could fund these rescue initiatives, support treatment with quality equipment and fund more projects in penguin conservation around South Africa.

You help us keep our chicks alive and nurtured.

Hiya! I’m Hadley, a British hedgehog crawling through people’s gardens in the suburbs.

I’ve noticed in recent years that more humans are willing to make a dedicated space in their gardens for us little hedgehogs. I reckon that’s because of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society!

They’re a small society and work as a distributor of both information and our transport. That’s why Save the Hedgehog socks are so important to us, because they help the Society develop educational material and workshops that show people how to help us and preserve our species. Thank you so much for supporting us with your hedgehog socks, and keep an eye on us in your local garden, maybe you’ll catch sight of one of my cousins in the evening!

Hello, I’m Ebun, an Elephant in Zambia. I often see humans from the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation patrolling our grounds, and in 2008, they funded the Elephant Orphanage Project, which helps care for our orphaned elephants. Once they’re healed, they release them back into the wild, and they can grow to be strong, healthy elephants.

The Foundation helps rescue lost and attacked elephants, ones harmed by local humans for illegal ivory trade or poaching, and they fund rehabilitation projects across the continent for us. Not to mention, they engage with local governments for law enforcement programmes that focus on our protection. Bare Kind’s Elephant socks donates valuable funds to them to help protect our dying species. Because of your help, more of our little ones will never know the fear and trauma of a stolen tusk.

Hello, I’m Wahyu, a blue baleen whale. We migrate annually from cold waters used for feeding to warmer waters used for breeding, but we face a number of risks from whaling agencies around the world because of this. I’ve been told that despite declining demand, the whaling industry in Norway and Japan has killed hundreds of my brothers and sisters.

The Whale and Dolphin Conservation works hard to protect us and keep the fishing industry away from our meat. They have been able to raise awareness about whaling, captivity and deaths from fishing nets, encouraging more people to come together to protect us.

That’s why Save the Whale socks have been so valuable to us. Because of your support, we are more protected from fishing nets, can travel more safely around scandinavian waters, and are less likely to be held captive around the world. We’re so grateful that your socks have helped fund all these initiatives.

Hey, I’m Felix. I live on the outskirts of London, where there’s a decent combination of bushes, national rail embankments and lots of dips. My skulk consists of my partner Felicity, and our son, Fynn.

The urban folks are ruthless, the majority of our cubs don’t survive beyond 18 months: the traffic kills them. I often see the folks from The Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital rushing to the motorway or a train track, after a kind human has called them to help an injured fox.

Bare Kind’s Fox socks are an incredible helping hand to us because of that. Your contributions as a result of warming your feet mean my son has a higher chance of surviving into adulthood. I don’t want to confine him to the burrow, or he won’t become strong. You, by supporting us with Save the Fox socks, keep us confident that we can survive and thrive together.

Hi there, I’m Gia, a giraffe in Mozambique.

There’s less than 300 of my species left in this country on the brink of extinction. Habitat loss is our largest threat and in the last 3 centuries, we’ve lost 90% of our land.

However, the Giraffe Conservation Foundation are working hard to help protect us, by reintroducing the species around the continent in places where we’re locally extinct, or only appear in very, very small towers. In five years time the plan is to reintroduce 350 giraffes in four key regions here in Mozambique, which would establish the southern giraffe species in over 3 million acres of land to thrive! My brother, Gyasi, leads us, and he tells me that Bare Kind’s Save the Giraffe socks help fund conservation projects to protect us! Thank you so much for all your help, I’d like to tell you all about our increased population next year!

Hello, I’m Lucas. As an Amur Leopard, I live in the furthest north-eastern regions of Asia: between Russia and China. We tend towards Russia as the climate suits us, but you will not often find many of my kin in the wild.

We suffer from extreme deforestation and habitat fragmentation, illegal wildlife trade and climate change. Our thick, luscious coats and tails make us highly desirable to certain humans, either as pets or bounty. We’re solitary and nocturnal, so conservationists have a hard time estimating our populations, but I hear they’ve set cameras around the forests to help, and it appears like our numbers are increasing.

It’s true that I happen to see more little ones around, curiously digging into the snow or climbing a great tree trunk.

Hey there, I’m Sloe, a Brazilian Three-Toed Sloth. Rainforest Trust and their local partner Instituto Marcos Daniel in Brazil recently protected 705 acres of forest where I live. Protecting rainforest canopies from agricultural expansion means that other species reliant on these trees are protected – such as a rare bird called the Cherry-throated Tanager, which was at risk of extinction.

My species likes to hang around tree canopies for protection against predators - our arm strenth has evolved to support this (we’re about three times stronger than the average human)! However, because humans expand their territories, much of our land is lost. Sometimes we fall to the ground and end up on roads where we're vulnerable because of our speed. We can’t protect ourselves from oncoming traffic or poachers looking for our capture as pets or our paws for folklore medicine.

That’s why we hide in our trees. Bare Kind’s Sloth socks have helped protect us. So many of us arboreal creatures need rainforest trees and protected habitats for survival - and the donations towards Rainforest Trust UK help make that possible. Thank you so much for all the effort.

donated to

Hey, I’m Remi! My breed of rabbits will often be found at shelters after being abandoned by an owner. Maybe people are scared of our eyes, but the reason behind our pinkish eyes is that we inherited a recessive gene from both our parents that dilutes brown pupils to a reddish/pink one - though not all of us will have albinism.

I don’t remember how long I was bouncing from shed to shed but eventually I was rescued by someone at One Bun at a Time. I heard from one of the folks here that they receive funding from Rabbit socks at Bare Kind, and that helps them vaccinate us, treat our wounds and skeletal problems, like my friend Mallow. She had a deformed front foot - the vet treated it and we’re optimistic about her recovery.

I’m so happy to have made it here, and Sandra, a fosterer at One Bun at Time tells me someone’s coming to adopt me soon! Thank you so much for helping fund our recovery and treatment, it means the world to me to be able to live with fellow rabbits in a loving home!

Hey there, I’m Soleh, a Sun Bear resident of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. My friend, Ronnie, has been living at the Centre since 2014. Like me, he has a heart condition, so the Centre gives us a great diet of rice, fruits, vegetables, eggs and more! Not to mention that we get treated with honey very often. I love the people here and I can relax as much as I like in my den, with my hammock. Our dens also include environmental enrichments to aid our development and help us adjust to being released into the wild again.

After my injury is healed, I’ll be back out, basking in the Indonesian sunlight.

Save the Sun Bear socks have helped us here with enough food, toys and hammocks! It’s a safe haven for us, protecting us from illegal trade, poaching and attacks from the locals looking for bear meat and bones for medicine and delicacies.

Your socks have helped protect and rehabilitate us.

Human! Hello, I am Preston, a glorious British pug. I live with a human that loves dogs, her name’s Elizabeth, and she’s a big supporter of Paws2Rescue, a charity focused on improving living conditions for all breeds of dogs in Romania. They also try to transport some of them over the UK, into loving homes, thereby taking them away from traumatic life in ‘shelters ’ that are, in my privileged opinion, just dog prisons.

So, Elizabeth took in a couple dogs over winter, their names are Ralph, a Bucovina Shepherd and Unger, a Mioritic. They’re both traumatised, but we’ve become good friends and I play around with them often.

Pug Socks funded for their vaccinations, passports and transportation fees, that’s what helped them start life anew, in a fresh country, a loving home and with friends.

Thank you for saving my friends with your socks and giving them a chance to live life again.

Just popping in to give you a little background on all the stories from our animals. So let's rewind a little... You're here because you love animals as much as we do, and you feel for them. Our world must retain its rich and diverse species, ecosystems- endangered animals, especially the ones most close to extinction, need our help. A lot of them started suffering, to begin with, because our species mishandled them: from exploitation to ignorance to unsustainably taking from them. It's only right, and appropriate, that we take it on ourselves to correct our mistakes overall and save them. That's why you helped us with your BK socks!

I wanted to make sure you felt like your socks genuinely helped your favourite animals, so I pawed through all the charities we work with and found stories and news from their websites. Remember Ronnie the Sun Bear? He's an actual bear at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. Sandra the Fosterer at One Bun at a Time?

She's a real fosterer at the charity! All our stories have several elements of truth from the real world in them, including rescue and conservation projects! Your socks have indeed helped save animals, and I wanted you to truly feel that as you read their stories.

Thank you so much for your continued support, everyone. It means the world to so many hearts across continents and oceans, human and animal alike.

There are two takeaways from this report that make me really proud. One is of course how much of an impact we have had in 2021. It’s so wonderful to be able to say we have donated money to charity, but it makes it truly special to see it written in terms of how it will help the animals. And secondly second is seeing the amount of hard work the team has put into getting this report ready, everyone has stepped up to the plate and collaborated on different aspects of this. A year ago it was just me working on this business and now I have a team achieving incredible things. I can’t wait to see what 2022 holds, thanks for reading!