Donation of Old Michigan Gear - An Ethical Dilemma
This offseason I ran into an interesting problem regarding my Michigan gear accumulated over the years. I've bought many t-shirts, sweatshirts, a few hats, etc., over the years and received several others as gifts. The bottom line is I have too much, and only wear three t-shirts and maybe two sweatshirts while the others just sit idle.
Here's the question - what's the best thing to do with the excess gear?
With all other surplus clothing, my family finds suitable charities to whom we can donate clothes, etc. It's a family ethic to put unused items in the hands of the homeless and disadvantaged, and we do what also we can to help financially too through solid local and national charities.
So why not donate Michigan gear the same way? For context, I live in a large urban area with a fair (unfair?) amount of crime and substantial homelessness. If I give away 40+ articles of Michigan gear to the homeless shelter, our downtown grifting areas will look like a downtrodden Michigan alumni convention within a week or so. I have been propositioned by one drug-addicted homeless person wearing another school's colors which was both enormously sad on the human level and a tiny bit funny that the propositioner was wearing a well-known school's gear. (I won't disclose the school, because it would not be fair to Ohio State for me to do so.) I've also been hit up for spare change, etc., by others in college gear.
Adding to the problem is the fact that I'm a grown-ass man. I've thought about donating the gear to a children's center since there are teens my size or bigger, and the gear might get good use from a teen in need. There are also some refugee organizations that might get good use from the gear, so that's an option but would involve a drive into the 'burbs.
So should I just bite the bullet and put the gear in the hands of the local homeless shelter? (I honestly can't tell if I'm just being vain in worrying about this, or if a donation of a chunk of gear like this does Michigan's reputation a smidge of incremental harm.) Should I direct the donations so that the gear ends up in the hands of folks less likely to grift or end up in a mugshot?
What say you, board?
Upvoted for this:
(I won't disclose the school, because it would not be fair to Ohio State for me to do so.)
A shirt is a shirt is a shirt. Sports is entertainment.
Dude, just donate it. Who cares what the haters think?
Of course on the pure human decency scale you're right. I know what the purely altruistic answer is - donate it blindly w/r/t whether it's Michigan gear or something else.
But on the other hand, if you've ever been offered ... oral services in exchange for a modest sum by someone wearing a sweatshirt touting the losing team's participation in the 2013 Orange Bowl (I won't disclose who that was!), you might think about directing the donations of Michigan gear. I don't like to give haters too much ammunition - our recent football record has done enough.
The gear's going to charity either way. That's plain. I'm just trying to figure out whether it's worth it to direct it away from the general homeless sites to teens-in-need or refugees-in-need.
I hadn't seen this topic broached on the board before, and with the switch from Adidas to Nike I suspect others here will be facing the issue fairly soon.
There will always be people who need clothes. I wouldn't worry so much about the mugshot or the crime that would be associated with it. We already are associated with the Unibomber and the availability of Michigan clothes isn't exactly limited or exclusive. Plus a lot of homeless people are just down on their luck, and not necessarily bad people.
If you really don't want to donate them, here are some ideas: If you do work around the house, you can turn them into oil rags, or towels to dry your car after you wash it, or to clean your dog's feet when they've been running around the house. Or cover up spots that you've treated when your drunk friend Brad gets slapped by his wife and she drops her cranberry vodka.
Suprisingly this isn't the worst apparel thread this off-season. Just donate it and get past over thinking things.
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I'm going to donate them so they can get real use by someone who needs it. I couldn't cut up the shirts because it would be a waste of good clothing.
Let me put it this way - I know I'm being petty even asking the question. The obvious "right" answer is to give the clothes to charity solely based on need. The problem is that in my city, a substantial percentage of those folks are grifting and panhandling.
I may end up giving the clothes to St. Vinnie's or The Salvation Army, both of which seem to be good at clothing distribution (or sales of used clothing, directing sales to needy people).
First world problems, to be sure.
When you wear it, it's personal expression. When a homeless guy wears it, it's clothing. Let it go.
If it is worth the extra effort to you maybe send them to a charity in South America or the Caribbean. They still get used by people in need but you don't have to worry about the grafty graftersons on your walk home from work. Maybe you make a new fan.
Not everything that gets donated to the Salvation Army and Goodwill ends up as clothing for the needy.
I once worked for a small firm doing cleaning of restaurant and industrial air-handling systems. Messy work.
We got all of the rags we used from the Salvation Army's and Goodwill's donations.
I think a lot of donations are just junk someone doesn't want or already worn/worn out. Goodwill is a non-profit but idk about giving away to charity, they do job training etc, but less of the give to homeless etc compared to others(unless I'm getting them mixed up with another).
Maybe create a Michigan fan.
You must protect the brand.
The Brand, the brand, the brand
- Dave BRANDon
Donate them. There are people who actually NEED this stuff because they don't have much else. Not wanting a homeless person to have Michigan stuff just feeds the stereotype that Michigan folks are arrogant, that this stuff is too good for the likes of "those people." I know you don't mean it that way, but it's a silly thing, if you think about it.
Take care of those closest to you, the homeless in your city. Don't worry about the brand, in fact take pleasure in it if you see someone wearing a shirt you may have donated. Besides, to most people the homeless are practically invisible.
So totally classless to post a thread bragging about how great you and your family are, and actually asking a QUESTION about whether to donate unused junk. You really need this much ego soothing?
should be treated like a flag and be burned or buried when it is no longer of use or is worn out?
Seriously though, just donate it. If anything, having homeless people wearing Michigan gear is good for "the brand". Shows that we're charitable.
First world problems!!
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I am leaving for Colombia next week (Bogota/Cali-Wifes Fam) and look to give my old Michigan gear to some awesome people and share photos with the board.
Rich people problems.
Maybe you could donate it to WD. He probably has an already-established grave yard for old Michigan gear with a hourly Changing of the Guard ritual and a daily Tomb of the Missing Sock ceremony.
They are just clothes. Donate the Nike stuff to WD and the rest to Goodwill or something.
by donating clothing so that he doesn't freeze to death, let that clothing have a block M on it.
If some rival fan wants to mock the guy and Michigan, well fine. Fuck the rival fan.
Pay it forward, man...someone else in need can use that stuff.
I just gave about half a bag of old Michigan tees - some of them years old - to Easter Seals in the latest of the Purges Of Crap (as my wife calls them) happening around my house, the main focus being to not have 2500 sq. ft. of stuff in a 1500 sq. ft. home. No qualms about donating those as most of them no longer fit but there's always someone out there that can wear them and hopefully will do so. The more Michigan shirts out there, the better.
As someone who has dedicated my life to helping the underserved, I'm really, really taken aback by this post.
I don't think you realize how privileged and elitist you sound.
Relax, it's only a discussion topic, and I've mentioned repeatedly that my concern is petty. It was meant to foster discussion, maybe get some people to clear out their gear so it actually gets used, and also to tell a story about a person in OSU gear making an unsolicited proposition for sex in exchange for money.
FTR, I've done a lot myself to support the underprivileged. Goods, money, and considerable services - all done for very little recognition because it's the right thing to do. I take that stuff seriously.
Put another way, I get that it's a "Shallow Hal" sort of concern, but I also don't take myself so seriously that every topic is a deep moral issue. The clothes are going to go to someone who needs them. It's just that in this instance I was considering directing them away from my go-to charity.
Because it seems every time someone who has sex with a picnic table or masturbates in a library wearing Ohio State gear there's a post about it. It occurred to me that donating this gear to my typical source could well result in a similar bit of unwelcome publicity for Michigan.