The team behind the seams.

Meet some of the women who are working hard to make your clothes. So they can have a chance at achieving their dreams, too.

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Kavita

Making clothes for you means I can learn tailoring and start my own shop for women in my community.

Preethi

Making clothes for you means that I can leave my job as a house maid and build a better future for myself.

Sunita

Making clothes for you means that I can make sure my children stay in school and don’t have to work.

Sunita

Making clothes for you means I can work closer to home, earn more, and spend time with my family.

Kashi

Making clothes for you means that I can support my two daughters and give them a better life.

Manisha

Making clothes for you means that I can learn a skill and become independent, and not just sit at home.

Jyoti

Making clothes for you means I can use my skills to earn more money without travelling from home.

Mohan & Maruti

Making clothes for you means we can train and employ more women and build our NGO.

 Twelve Years in the Making

Edward Francis, Co-founder

After 12 years of voluntary work in India, I’ve learned that parental and peer support for educating girls in low-income communities is key.

And if mothers are earning and independent, their attitude towards educating their daughters is likely to change for the better.

When girls go to school and older women are in stable, dignified employment, they begin to create change. And I’ve seen with my own eyes how powerful this can be.

  • I’ve visited India regularly for 12 years. For professional work, voluntary work and leisure.

    In Kolkata, three of the kids I sponsor are at university now. Education is helping them change their own lives, far beyond the classroom. But others are falling behind. Some out of education completely.

    Of all the memories, two really stick with me.

    In Mumbai, I’d taken one young woman to the dentist. Her first ever visit at 21. On the ride back, we made a study plan together. She was struggling at college, and it soon became clear why.

    Her parents weren’t at all invested in her education. She was put to work for eight hours each day fetching water, cooking, cleaning and contributing to the household income.

    12 million girls in India are out of school, and it was at this point that I realised parental and peer support is key to changing this.

    At a charity fundraiser in the UK, we were offered some laptop bags. Produced by women from a low-income community in Mumbai. They were crudely designed, but well made. 

    That was the lightbulb moment.

    They can sew because they must mend and make do. Maybe if they’re earning and independent, their attitudes to education may change?

    So that’s really where Thumbprint came from.

    A simple study plan, a handmade laptop bag, and 12 years getting to know some incredible young women, determined to change their own lives.

    I can’t wait to see where this journey takes us.

Evgenia Baydikova, Co-founder

My own immigrant story led me to Panama where I increasingly felt that businesses need to drive social change and make a positive impact.

Thumbprint is an opportunity to rekindle the role that commerce can play in supporting, even regenerating, communities.

  • After 10 years of working with start-ups and corporates in Australia and Europe as a product manager and business developer, life took me to Latin America.

    While finding my bearings in Panama, I became increasingly conscious of the need for business to drive social change, the need for less products, and more impact.

    The pandemic hit the world by storm, and many of us looked to entrepreneurship as a more meaningful way of making a living. Just as I was starting out with freelance work, the idea of co-founding Thumbprint found its way over to me.

    Growing up in Australia as a young migrant woman, I was reminded of how easy it can be to take literacy and a chance to go to university for granted.

    Thumbprint the brand, is an opportunity to give back, to rekindle the role of commerce in supporting communities, pursue more purposeful growth and define a more re-generative way of doing business.

We’d love to hear from you

If you’re keen to learn more about Thumbprint and the impact we seek to make, or if you’d like to chat to us about merchandise or workwear, then drop us a line.