Don’t Eat The Homies, created and founded by vegan activist Jordyn Weekly, has gained fast success in its short time of being on the fashion market for more reasons than one. Don’t Eat The Homies is a street style line that appeals to the new era of fashion forward comfort that was born during the pandemic with hopes of spreading awareness about veganism, a love for animals, the planet we live on and overall sustainability.
When Jordyn started the line, she thought of it more as a fun hobby for her and vegan friends to wear around Los Angeles. However, as more and more people took a liking to the brand, Jordyn decided to turn Don’t Eat The Homies into a full line of street wear that is inclusive to everyone. “At first, it wasn’t my intention to start a streetwear brand. I just made hoodies for me and my friends that said, “Don’t Eat the Homies” and thought we could wear them around LA as a form of raising awareness for animals in a cool way. But then, more and more people started asking for them, so I started making and selling the hoodies. It just snowballed from there – however what motivates me to keep going with this brand is that I truly believe in a vegan future for our world. I believe that streetwear is an excellent way to get this message across and a really effective form of activism. I want to show the world how cool being vegan is,” Jordyn says.
A lot of brands that are built on purpose talk a big game, but the fiscal success of the business takes precedence over the reason the brand was started in the first place. Not for Jordyn Weekly and Don’t Eat The Homies. Jordyn is constantly creating ways to spread not only brand awareness, but also creating safe spaces for people to be welcomed into the vegan community with open arms at their pace. Jordyn explains, “Making this brand ethical is extremely important to me. It is a lot easier said than done and there are a lot of challenges that come with it. However, in the long run, it is the only direction that I see this brand going. Working with ethical manufacturers, and offsetting our carbon footprint are both very crucial factors to being an ethical fashion brand. We mail our clothes in poly bags made out of plants, give the customers the option to plant a tree with every order, work with small businesses in Los Angeles to help with the manufacturing process, and donate a large percentage of our sales to vegan charities. We are a company founded on spreading the vegan message to save animals and help heal the planet – we would be doing something very wrong if we weren’t trying our hardest to be as ethical as possible.”
When it comes to the consumer, Jordyn approaches this just as carefully and open as she does the ethical responsibility she has within the vegan community. While the goal is to attract as many people as possibly, the DETH team loves seeing vegans support and represent the brand with pride. However, the overall goal of the brand would be to help educate animal loving, non-vegans on the importance and overall health of veganism. “Anyone curious to try out a plant based lifestyle, to someone who is trying their best to cause as little harm as possible. We want to spread the vegan message, and help people pioneer this movement into reality across the world. Everyone is welcome to rock our clothing because they will be spreading this message, we just hope they are trying their best to live in alignment with the values on our merch”, Jordyn explains.
The DETH team is constantly working on new drops and new designs for their customers and fan base. As of recently, the brand has focused on creating designs for shirts, hoodies, baseball hats and bucket hats. Now that we are heading into summer 2021, Jordyn is even creating DETH bathing suits. Jordyn says, “We have so many new products coming out in 2021! One of the things we are really excited about is our bikini that we are launching for the summer! We have a whole new collection most likely launching in fall as well with new products like socks, slides, pants, and shorts!”
To purchase your own Don’t Eat The Homies streetwear, check out donteatthehomies.com. Follow them on Instagram @DontEatTheHomies to stay up to date on new drops and news.