Smarter Uniforms Impact Report 2024

By creating a circle of giving and receiving, Smarter Uniforms is helping families to save money, helping communities to connect and positively impacting our environment.

How does Smarter Uniforms create impact?

We are making it easier for communities to help each other by locating rails of free uniform in busy locations across the city. Anyone can help themselves to uniform on these rails and replace what they take with donations of unwanted uniform This keeps uniform in local communities and means local people can help their local community easily.

Our online marketplace means anyone can request, buy and sell second-hand school uniform and some sportswear items from the comfort of their own homes. Sellers can earn or donate the value of their sale to local schools

We make it simple for people to donate and access second-hand uniform and help to keep uniform in circulation and out of landfill We save families money and help communities protect our environment.

9 IMPACT SNAPSHOT

Free school uniform community rails

What were our highlights in 2024?

We improved our marketplace and added new features, meaning that our customers now have a better experience and the option to donate the value of their sales and request items Our marketplace has become a one-stop shop for everything you need to know about looking after, accessing and donating school uniforms.

Total marketplace users 1400

Items of uniform have been rehomed

We have increased the number of users of our marketplace by 248this is a 72 5% increase since the start of January

We have also made it possible to buy and sell sportswear on our marketplace and will be watching closely how the sportswear pages are used and will expand the marketplace into other areas too.

PARTNERSHIPS & PROJECTS

University of Sussex Internship Student Consultancy Project

Details

3 interns worked with us though the summer

OUTCOMES & WHAT’S NEXT

Intern support with online sales, reporting and social media We will continue to recruit interns in 2025

5 students have conducted research on the environmental and economic impact of logoed school uniforms

We will be sharing the findings of the research carried out by the students and will use this to continue lobbying for changes to school uniform policies across the city

Textile Reuse Hub

Free Uniform Community Rails

With the support of the East Brighton Trust we formed a Textile Reuse Hub with Gladrags and Leftover Threads

And a growing

We are collaborating to reduce textile waste and looking forward to more exciting developments with the Textile Reuse Hub.

We set up 4 new community rails across Brighton & Hove, bringing the total to 9 We plan to set up more in 2025

Pop-Ups

We hosted a free uniform pop up in Whitehawk to support the local community

We supported 25 families at our pop up event in August and are looking forward to more events in 2025