Dutch fashion designer Bas Timmer has been designing clothes since he was 16, turning his bedroom into a sewing room and attending a vocational school in the Netherlands.

He designed a hoodie with a scarf, which became famous in the Netherlands. Then, doing a fashion internship in Copenhagen, Denmark, and noticing many homeless people, he thought of giving the hoodies away. But his mother worried that people would stop buying his hoodies if he gave them away for free.

Then he received the shattering news that his friend’s father had died of hypothermia jn the Netherlands while sleeping outside in 8 degree weather, next to a homeless shelter that was closed for the night, and he knew he finally had to do something.

He pulled some materials together (an old sleeping bag and a tent) and in five hours, made a jacket with an additional piece that turned it into a sleeping bag –  the first ever Sheltersuit. He took it to a shelter and approached a man sleeping nearby, offering him the suit.

When the man asked if he could share it with two friends, who were living in even worse conditions, Bas promised to return with more. And he did, returning with the first 100 Sheltersuits after gathering the materials, resources and donations required.