Fikay Fashion: Celebrating The People Behind The Products

Fikay is a multi-award winning ethical fashion brand with a mission to celebrate the people behind their products. They craft contemporary designs and quality merchandise for adventurous individuals in a way which promotes sustainable enterprise across the world. When Aaron Jones took a ten week sabbatical in 2010 to teach children in North India before starting university, the experience affected him profoundly and inspired him to set up his business, FIKAY, which would help support struggling communities.

Aaron developed a business plan to source used, non-biodegradable, durable cement and fish feed bags from deprived nations and work with local suppliers to turn them into fashionable bags and wallets for students and young people. For every Fikay product sold, bricks are donated to the local school building programme. This makes a huge difference to the local community and brings about real change for the future.

By 2012 Aaron was working with the supplier to make fashion items from the recycled bags. “Our design inspiration comes from the rather normal day to day sights and colours we see in the countries we visit,” Aaron explains. “The best part is we’re recycling materials that aren’t always bio-degradable, so it’s great for the environment too.” He adds “Fikay is about your adventure, a brand for successful living without screwing everyone over”.

Aaron recruited a friend to the business and they began selling the products. The final task was to decide on a name for the company. Aaron recalls; “While we were in Vietnam a little boy from a local village jumped into a pool and shouted ‘FIKAY’. He was so happy, against all odds, that we took his word to mean ‘hope’ and immediately adopted it as our business name.”

Nowadays Fikay equips parents, women and disabled adults in third world countries with the fashion manufacturing technology necessary to earn a fair, regular wage. These members of the community go on to become local heroes and sources of inspiration. They continue to promote education abroad by donating part of every sale to The Fikay Foundation which goes towards buying educational resources and building schools. Fikay also supports communities closer to home. Throughout the UK they create training and job opportunities for adults with severe learning disabilities through knowledge and skills transfer, entrepreneurial fashion training and paid work experience.

Melanie Stockman

Their fashion range is for the millennials on a mission and they want their customers to feel secure in the knowledge that when they purchase a Fikay product they are making a difference. Click here to visit the website.