In 2020, Jim Mann, a record-breaking fell runner known for his passion for endurance and the outdoors, had a simple yet powerful idea.
After years of competing in and attending events, Jim began to notice a troubling trend: the vast amounts of waste generated by promotional merchandise, especially the ubiquitous event t-shirts. While the intention behind these freebies was always to celebrate participation, Jim realised that many of these shirts ended up discarded or forgotten, buried at the back of drawers and wardrobes.
It takes an astonishing amount of resources to produce just one cotton tee - roughly the same amount of water a person drinks in two and a half years and over 2kg of carbon emissions. All for an item of clothing that often goes unused.
Jim sought a solution. What if there was a way to replace wasteful, single-use merchandise with something far more meaningful? What if event participants could opt out of receiving a t-shirt and instead sponsor a tree in their name, a living contribution to the environment? And so, Trees Not Tees was born.
