Save Me Save We: A clothing company devoted to improve mental health resources for Canadians

What better time to highlight one of the many businesses in Canada devoted to continuing the conversation than now?

The next small business hitting the spotlight is, Save Me Save We, a clothing company devoted to improving access to mental health resources for Canadians. We were lucky enough to speak with the brain behind Save Me Save We to learn how he uses his online tools to build this community of mental health advocacy, education, and responsibility.

“Save Me Save We” was created by Junior Moaku, a 25-year-old French Canadian. Moaku launched SMSW in 2018 during his final year at Acadia University in response to the poor mental wellbeing of his classmates. To start the conversation, Moaku started selling shirts branded with “Save Me”. This quickly evolved into what is now the full clothing line of, “Save Me Save We”, products. For every sale made, %10 is donated to a charity or cause devoted to improving the mental wellbeing of Canadians.

Shortly after finishing his university career, Moaku created a new line to collaborate with Acadia’s Alumni Association known as Teach Peace. Donations of this collaboration go towards the (BLM/TRC) Black Lives Matter and Truth and Reconciliation Commission scholarship award, designed to encourage African Canadian and Indigenous students to continue to post-secondary education. For every Teach Peace item sold, SMSW will donate $5 to the BLM/TRC scholarship award fund.

Outside of apparel, “Save Me Save We” offers a variety of workshops and online resources offered to high school and post-secondary classrooms. We are proud to feature “Save Me Save We” and we are excited to see what Moaku brings next.

“With your help, our mission is to fight for the right of every human to receive and access superior mental health services that are affordable and immediate.” – Junior Moaku

“Save Me Save We truly believe humanizing mental health is the cure to the stigma. That is why we are on a mission to increase communities mental health literacy and awareness.” – Junior Moaku

Monday, May 3rd, 2021
Name: Junior Moaku
Name of Business & Location: Save Me Save We, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Q: So Junior, how did Save Me Save We originally come to be?

A: Save Me Save We came to be when I was in my fourth year of university and I started noticing that the mental health of my classmates was deteriorating because of social expectations. I realized that a lot of our coping mechanisms were destructive instead of empowering so I really wanted to start a clothing brand that focuses on the mental health awareness part but also focus on literacy which would be the education on mental health.

Q: What online programs do you use for SMSW?

A: Some of the programs I use to run Save Me Save We are Facebook, Instagram, Zoho for my emails, and Shopify for my website.

Q: What were the deciding factors for choosing these programs for SMSW?

A: What I do is I’ll ask other business owners what they are using and their difficulty, what’s It’s easy to use. From then on, I look at the cost. Is it cost-efficient? Will I see a return on my investment? From there, I’ll watch videos to see how easy or hard the platform is going to be to learn and use.

Q: What is your favorite program feature?

A: One of my favorite features from the programs I use is a feature on Shopify that tells me where my customers are coming from. So it will tell me if my customers are coming from Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram or just landing on my website through a direct search or a Google search. It’ll also share which country my customers are coming from so if I ever want to target an ad, it makes it a lot easier to do so with this feature.

Q: What message do you want to send to your customers visiting your website for the first time?

A: The message I want to send is that we do more than just sell clothes. We really try to focus on improving our community and we do that in a variety of ways. Whether it be a podcast, a web series, a social event, or a workshop, it’s all available on the website and more information on our social media platforms.

Q: How do you communicate with your customers online?

A: My favorite way to communicate with our customers has to be through our social media posts whether it’s an Instagram story or Instagram post. Another quick and efficient way for us to communicate with our customers is by sending newsletters to our subscribers.

Q: What is your biggest takeaway from running a business in 2021?

A: So, the biggest takeaway I got from running a business in a pandemic has to be the fact that you have to be adaptable. Before Covid, we used to sell our clothes in-person at markets, art festivals, anywhere where we could have in-person interaction. But ever since Covid, it really pushed our sales online so it meant adapting to online eCommerce platforms like Shopify and getting comfortable with digital marketing.

Q: What do you miss about pre-pandemic Halifax?

A: What I miss most about Halifax pre-pandemic would definitely be the social atmosphere. When the weather gets warm everyone just wants to be outside. Everyone wants to be on a patio, on the boardwalk just enjoying each other’s company.

Q: What is your favorite SMSW product?

A: My favorite Save Me Save We product also happens to be our best-seller, our “Thrive in Peace Not in Pieces” T-shirt. They come in white, black and burgundy. They’re just my favorite T-shirts to wear around and I love the message.

Q: What online mental health resource do you recommend?

A: My top mental health resource to use definitely has to be CMHA, Canadian Mental Health Association. Their website has such a wide variety of resources so that’s definitely my top resource to use.

If you are also having any idea to start your own small business or want to share your views with us, you can call us at +1 902 620 9098 directly mail us to  enquiry@letsnurture.ca