Someone Else’s Shoes

John Dingee lives in a spartan one-room sublet in Harlem. His closets are full of other people’s clothes. That is, clothes donated to his company, 5 Cee Clothing, for which he’s currently seeking nonprofit status. The proceeds of his sales will to go toward building a school in Ghana, along with other projects in the future. He came up with the idea for the company while studying abroad in Ghana during his junior year at Williams College.

Living in Ghana, says Dingee, taught him that he can get by with very few material possessions, and that education “is not a right, it's a privilege.” For those he encountered in the rural area where he stayed, he says, “the options are either to stay in the village and work on the farm and be a villager for the rest of your life, which is sometimes cool, but for a lot of these kids who know that great stuff is out there, is tremendously frustrating—or to move to the city and just hustle.” Following in the footsteps of another former student in the SIT Arts and Cultures program, he decided to raise money for a school and scholarship program for village kids.

He began by setting up a tax-deductible account through the college. Last summer, he worked for Planet Finance in New York learning about microfinance, nonprofits, and tips to run a small business. While there, he thought of organizing a fashion show to raise money, when it occurred to him to start a business selling clothes.

To begin with, he got clothes from the Salvation Army and listed them on his website, but soon moved to asking people to donate old clothes. It took time to display items on the website, so he tried different approaches. He set up trunk sales at the school to bypass the initially complicated online system. During one three-day sale, he decided to give half of his profits to Partners in Health for their work in Haiti – the first such donation he’d made, as, prior, his profits had gone back into the business. He wound up donating $600 of the $1200 from the sale.

Recently graduated, Dingee, along with an intern, Aeyung Kim, has been working out of his New York apartment and selling clothes through his site, on Ebay, and in association with an upscale consignment shop on 125th Street. The store owners, he says, have put special tags on his items and say they’ll try to promote them, and his company’s cause.

“If I keep working hard and doing the right thing,” Dingee says, “the right people will find out about it and support it.”

At present, he’s getting ready to take another trip to Ghana in September to look at the plans for the school. He has high hopes for the school and wants to know exactly how they’ll use his money; he also wants to look into micro-financing opportunities for the future. While there, he’s going to use Twitter and online videos to get some publicity for the company.

Ultimately, says Dingee, “This project is based on the idea of karma in a spiritual and practical sense. I figure, if I'm a young man and I use my contacts and my efforts to move toward this goal, then other good things will come from it. People will respect me and I'll have more joy in my life. I’ve found that to be very much true. I just encourage young people, especially if you come from any sort of privilege, to look outwards; because I think everything that you do to the world will come back to you – not just in a spiritual/karma way but in a very practical way. I figure if I can build a school on my own, someone could support me in a project, too.”

Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes may be the new way into business. If you’d like to try out a pair, you can buy them from 5 Cee.

You can follow the company on Facebook and Twitter.