Madhappy Is Spreading Mental Health Awareness Through Fashion

Remember high school cliques? The jocks wore letterman jackets; the goths wore fishnets; the nerds wore chinos; the skaters wore beanies.

We assumed we could tell a lot about a person based simply on their clothes (the jocks were charismatic, goths were unbothered, nerds were clever, and skaters were rebellious). Similarly, we carefully considered what our own fashion choices said about us. And though most cliques fade once we leave the walls of high school, fashion remains a big part of our identity and how we identify others.

Undoubtedly, fashion speaks. And, today, it yells, as fashion has almost become a passive form of activism to support brands tackling climate change and other issues. Similar to trends in broader retail, people are no longer simply buying shoes. Rather, they are buying shoes — hoodies and jeans — that say something more. If clothes could speak, Madhappy is holding a bull-horn to the mouth of fashion, spreading an optimistic message about a global issue: mental health.

Madhappy was founded in 2017 by Peiman and Noah Raf, Mason Spector, and Josh Sitt. Initially an apparel company introducing something new to the fashion industry, positivity and optimism, it has since evolved into a community of local optimists driving forward a collective conversation about the ups…