Newspaper-insulated jackets for the homeless

A Toronto-based advertising agency is donating thousands of its sub-zero coats to the homeless. The jackets, when filled with newspaper, are as protective as a down-filled coat.

The jackets are the brainchild of a Canadian designer:  a state-of-the-art jacket just waiting for newspapers to insulate the wearer.  Steve Mykolyn came up with the idea to help the homeless; he is the creator director for the ad agency TAXI, and he is donating 3,000 of these coats this season.

To test the jacket, Mykolyn actually spent some time in a meat locker.  "The first four hours was at about 20 below zero, and then the last hour was at 40 below zero in the blast freezer," he says.

The idea came from an encounter with a homeless person on the street after watching a basketball game from free courtside seats.  That encounter got them thinking about how they could creatively give back to the community.

"There was a bit of irony in creating the whole thing:  a jacket that could be insulated with newspapers.  Of course, we do advertising, and I thought, 'Wouldn't it be funny if our ads were the insulation?' That way, they would work twice as hard."

To avoid the jackets being a conspicuous indicator of who is homeless and who is not, they have been designed in a discrete black windbreaker style.  It is waterproof, has two liners, 15 pockets, and converts into a backback for the summer.

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