About this project
Who we are...
We
are Arm The Animals and we are on a mission! The mission is to create unique,
witty, ironic, thought-provoking T-shirts and generate funds for small,
reputable, independent animal shelters that are struggling for resources.
Our company was started in December 2010 by me (Matt Heinemeyer) and my friend Danian Rios. We are not a 501C3 charity and are not seeking to raise money for donations. We are a regular company built on a charitable model and donations are generated by the sale of our own items.
We chose Kickstarter as our
funding platform because we too have built our entire company online:
day-by-day, click-by-click, and person-by-person. We believe fully in the power
of the “crowd” and the collective it represents. This technology has given us
all the means to be creative, entrepreneurial and above all, idealistic. We
truly believe that we can fundamentally change the world one project at a time.
You can check out our current collection @ www.armtheanimals.com
Where we came from...
The inspiration for Arm The Animals came from my sister, Karen, who helped raise me and spent her life helping, saving, and fostering unwanted animals; she passed away in 2008 and I wanted to do something to keep her memory and good works alive. After months of pondering how to do this, the words "Arm the Animals" hit me like a bolt! I then thought, "Hmmm... Arm The Animals - that would look kind of cool on a T-shirt".
So, I immediately made a few designs with witty titles, printed a few, put them online, and the positive responses began pouring in! We began receiving orders, emails, and tons of Facebook & Twitter requests.
After creating this momentum online, we began receiving attention from the press. We landed features in magazines like Star, People, Seventeen, and Antenna.
Then, our good friend Travis Aaron Wade reached out to some of his Celebrity friends like Ashley Greene, Shannon Elizabeth, Shiloh Fernandez, Taylor Kinney, Mike Vogel, and many others. They were all kind enough to support us and they started wearing our shirts.
All of this attention led to us getting inquiries from retail stores, which was great, but we couldn't move forward with ANY of them because we didn't have the full line products they were looking for...
Where we are today...
Over the past 12 months we have painstakingly built an infrastructure for our company and have secured large printing & supply partners. We have many new designs in the works, and are NOW ready to take Arm The Animals out to the world!
Where we’re going...
This year we want to present a new, full clothing & accessory line featuring products for absolutely everyone!
We plan to produce 15-20 new shirt designs, including fashion tees like V-necks, boxy tees, scoop necks, tank tops, and burnouts.
We also plan on creating a fleece line featuring hoodies, crewneck sweatshirts, lightweight fleece tops, and jackets. Basically, we want to produce all of the items our fans have been asking us for...
We have also secured several production sources for items that are 100% sustainable and we plan on using these materials as much as possible.
With your help we know we can reach our goal of making ATA a successful brand and save thousands of animals in the process! We hope you will support us!
Arm The Animals Rewards!
In order to give you all the widest selection of rewards possible, we have created a point system that allows you to mix-and-match your rewards so you receive EXACTLY what you want!
You can mix and match the rewards you would like to receive, based on the amount of points your pledge is worth. For example, if you were to pledge $60 you would receive (6 points). With that (6 points) you could choose a T-shirt (3 points) and a Hat (3points), or you could choose a Hoodie (5 points) and a Sticker Set (1 point) and so forth.
Please feel free to mix and match to your hearts content and receive exactly what you want!
ATA Rewards Point System
- 1 Sticker Set ( 1 pt.)
- 1 T-Shirt ( 3 pts.)
- 1 Hat (3 pts.)
- 1 Hoodie (5 pts.)
*NOTE FOR INTERNATIONAL BACKERS - PLEASE READ
Shipping to Canada:
$25-$125 pledge - please add $5
$200-$380 pledge - please add $8
$550 pledge - FREE SHIPPING
$1050 pledge - FREE SHIPPING
Shipping Internationally:
$25-$125 pledge - please add $8
$200-$380 pledge - FREE SHIPPING
$550 pledge - FREE SHIPPING
$1050 pledge - FREE SHIPPING
FAQ
-
We get this a lot... Arm The Animals is a tongue-in-cheek reference to animals arming themselves with weapons in order to have a fighting chance. Some people may not agree with our name, and that's okay, but we know our name raises eyebrows and interest even from those who couldn't care less about animal welfare - that's a win in our book!
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Absolutely not! We are raising money to create a complete line of product to release to the world in spring 2012. Once we release and sell these products, then we will donate out of the revenue generated.
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We have an organized network of animal care organizations that we have vetted for honesty and reputation. We have a in-depth process of approving rescue partners and as our company size grows, so will the number or rescues we work with.
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ALL of our products are made in Southern California by highly reputable companies with clean bills of health from environmental groups and civil right organizations. We did a ton of research and made sure everyone we dealt with was up to the high standard of ethics we uphold ourselves.
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Yes! We took every step possible to make sure we made as little impact as possible when producing our shirts. We use Phthalate free inks and will be printing our designs on 100% recycled cotton stock.
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Our lifelong goal is to generate a lot of money for the small, passionate, indie, DIY rescues that need help more than anyone. Donating to large organizations is awesome, but when we first started, we realized the "little guys" were hurt the worst by the bad economy and our little bit of help went a long way :)
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
Pledge $2 or more Pledge $2 or more
Thank you so much for your support! You will receive an Arm The Animals screen saver and thank you email!
Pledge $5 or more Pledge $5 or more
You will receive a (2) sticker set featuring our Pandemic and ATA Gorilla Logo stickers.
Pledge $10 or more Pledge $10 or more
You will receive (1 point) to select from our rewards offerings. You can mix and match the rewards you would like to receive, based on the amount of points your pledge is worth. * Sticker Set = 1 point
Pledge $20 or more Pledge $20 or more
You will receive a limited edition Arm The Animals 11" x 17" poster and our (4) sticker set.
Pledge $30 or more Pledge $30 or more
You will receive (3 points) to select from our rewards offerings. You can mix and match the rewards you would like to receive, based on the amount of points your pledge is worth. * Sticker Set = 1 point * T-Shirt = 3 points * All Hats = 3 points
Pledge $40 or more Pledge $40 or more
You will receive (4 points) to select from our rewards offerings. You can mix and match the rewards you would like to receive, based on the amount of points your pledge is worth. * Sticker Set = 1 point * T-Shirt = 3 points * All Hats = 3 points
Pledge $60 or more Pledge $60 or more
You will receive (6 points) to select from our rewards offerings. You can mix and match the rewards you would like to receive, based on the amount of points your pledge is worth. * Sticker Set = 1 point * T-Shirt = 3 points * All Hats = 3 points * All Hoodies = 5 points
Pledge $110 or more Pledge $110 or more
You will receive (11 points) to select from our rewards offerings. You can mix and match the rewards you would like to receive, based on the amount of points your pledge is worth. * Sticker Set = 1 point * T-Shirt = 3 points * All Hats = 3 points * All Hoodies = 5 points
Pledge $160 or more Pledge $160 or more
You will receive (16 points) to select from our rewards offerings. You can mix and match the rewards you would like to receive, based on the amount of points your pledge is worth. * Sticker Set = 1 point * T-Shirt = 3 points * All Hats = 3 points * All Hoodies = 5 points
Pledge $300 or more Pledge $300 or more
You will receive (20 points) to select from our rewards offerings. You can mix and match the rewards you would like to receive, based on the amount of points your pledge is worth. * Sticker Set = 1 point * T-Shirt = 3 points * All Hats = 3 points * All Hoodies = 5 points
Pledge $2,500 or more Pledge $2,500 or more
You will receive (1) of every item we offer as a reward and you will also have the opportunity to collaborate with us to create your own Arm The Animals T-Shirt to be released with our Fall 2012 line.
Pledge $5,000 or more Pledge $5,000 or more
You will receive (1) of every item we offer as a reward and you will also have the opportunity to collaborate with us to create your own Arm The Animals T-Shirt, Hoodie, and Accessory to be released with our Fall 2012 line.
Project By
Connected as Matt Heinemeyer
The Mission is Simple:
Arm The Animals creates killer T-Shirts that make a statement, raise awareness, and generate funds for small, struggling animal rescues. We know we can't save every “at-risk” animal, but we CAN save some! By creating funny, unique, witty graphic T-Shirts and accessories, we know we can raise awareness about animal welfare AND make a difference by donating to shelters. We will donate a portion of the proceeds from every sale to reputable, independent animal shelters who need it the most!
