Two McGill students help Haitian artists by featuring their work on unique, locally-made T-shirts

Haiti and its people left an indelible mark on Matt Brightman and Martin Weiss. Now, they're trying to do something life-changing in return.

The two McGill University students have started a business, Moral Fibers, that features the work of Haitian artists on unique, limited-run T-shirts sold online at their website (www.moralfibers.co).

In addition to paying for the initial creation, their company remits to the artist 15 per cent of the proceeds from every sale. And 10 per cent of profits are pledged to a foundation that runs a school for the disadvantaged in the Carrefour district.

"They make enough from the sale of one shirt to cover food costs for a month.

"It's a way to help change lives for the better. We just got so inspired by Haiti, its people and their resilience," said Brightman, 20, who went to Haiti for the first time as a volunteer in the wake of the devastating earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people in January 2010.

He came back determined to do more.

That's when the idea for Moral Fibers began to take shape.

Brightman, a U.S. native studying agricultural economics at McGill's Macdonald campus in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, conceived the basic plan for a course project last fall.

After he outlined it to friend and fellow student Weiss, 19, he had an enthusiastic collaborator who got even more motivated after visiting Haiti himself with Brightman during their reading week last February.

They worked for months on the concept, researching T-shirt fabrics, enlisting friends with artistic flair to help with the creative decisions and website production, recruiting a manager in Haiti to help find and communicate with the artists (all of whom are identified on the website).

Their man in Haiti, Erick Frazier, photographs and scans the submitted art and "we tell him what we like," Weiss said.

The selected works are reproduced on no more than 250 polycotton shirts, which sell for $49.99.

"It's free-trade fabric, made in anti-sweatshop conditions, and they're the coolest T-shirts you'll ever see, with the coolest backstory," said Brightman. "Really, you're wearing art and investing in an artist."

Weiss, also majoring in agriculture at the Macdonald campus, admits it's been difficult at times to focus on school.

"We put our heart and soul into this. We've worked on it every day for six months, going over every single detail."

"But," adds Brightman, "we made a pact not to drop out, no matter how big it gets."

It's already won the Dobson Cup, a judged entrepreneur competition hosted annually by McGill's Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies, and the $15,000 prize that goes with it.

"That almost got us out (on startup costs)," Weiss said.

Brightman sees Moral Fibers eventually broadening its reach to include artists from other developing countries. They've got 15 already in Haiti, but the goal is to have 100 from around the world on the roster as soon as possible.

"Ten or 15 years from now, I see us still doing this," Brightman said.

Read full article: The Gazette, July 4, 2011