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.
Free school uniform community rails 9
Total marketplace users
1400
Items of uniform have been rehomed
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
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.
We have increased the number of users of our marketplace by 248 - this 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
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 network of grassroots
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
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
