I picked an interesting time to talk to Peiman Raf. When we spoke last week, Simone Biles had withdrawn from several Olympic competitions citing her mental health, putting a global spotlight on the issue. Despite the fact that we're in an era nike tn 1 that purports to be "open" about mental health, amid the overwhelming support Biles received there was still a fair amount of resistance to her statement, with critics invoking hurtful terms like "quitter."
At 27, Raf is relatively young, but old enough to remember a time long before the words "mental health" were appearing in ESPN headlines, when talking about these topics was shrouded in shame. Madhappy, the brand he founded with his brother Noah and his friends Mason Spector and Joshua Sitt, is a fairly straightforward line of bright, sporty loungewear and athleisure pieces with sunny graphics: think rainbow-colored motifs and Alice nike tns in Wonderland-sized blossoms. Fuzzy bucket hats are involved. But in the way brands increasingly seem to be these days, it's also a platform. The quartet envisions Madhappy as a way to draw attention to emotional wellbeing through projects like a text hotline; a blog, The Local Optimist, that features stories about topics like eating disorders and setting boundaries; a partnership with The Jed Foundation, a mental health and suicide prevention nonprofit focusing on teens and young adults; and a freshly-launched podcast featuring guests like Ramy Youssef and Emma Chamberlain. |
