TORONTO, Dec. 2, 2025 /CNW/ - UNIQLO, the global apparel retailer, is proud to announce its second consecutive year of "The Heart of LifeWear," a global initiative to support refugees, children, and disaster victims around the world through a donation of one million HEATTECH clothing items worldwide. In Canada, UNIQLO will donate 20,000 pieces of HEATTECH to provide warmth to individuals experiencing homelessness, food insecurities, and other challenges through three partner organizations: Second Harvest, YWCA Canada, and Covenant House.
Jean Shein, North American Director of Sustainability at UNIQLO, stated, "At UNIQLO, we believe in the power of clothing to make a positive impact on people's lives. Through 'The Heart of LifeWear' initiative, we are committed to supporting communities across Canada by providing warmth and comfort to those who need it most during this holiday season."
In the spirit of giving, throughout the month of December customers will be invited to contribute to this campaign by donating at checkout in all UNIQLO stores to support YWCAs inCanada. Customers are also encouraged to donate their gently used UNIQLO clothing through the RE. UNIQLO program, which repurposes these items to further aid communities.
Partnering Organizations
YWCA Canada
YMCA Canada is a national federation of 39 member associations that provides a wide range of community-based services, including health and fitness, childcare, camps, and youth programs. As a charitable organization, its mission is to build healthy communities by fostering a sense of belonging and providing opportunities for personal growth, skill development, and social connection for individuals and families across the country. The national office supports member associations and works on national initiatives, while each association operates with its own local mission.
YWCA Canada is the country's oldest and largest gender equity organization and a secular charity dedicated to improving the lives of women, girls and gender diverse people.
As part of a national and global movement, the 29 community YWCAs across the country provide vital supports in gender-based violence prevention, housing, early learning and childcare, and economic well-being. YWCA Canada is the largest provider of gender-based violence shelters and employment programs for women, and the second-largest childcare operator in Canada. Together, YWCAs in Canada support more than 330,000 individuals each year.
Covenant House
Covenant House Canada is a non-profit organization that provides support to young people facing homelessness and human trafficking. It offers immediate assistance like shelter, food, and medical care, alongside long-term programs for education, job readiness, and life skills to help youth transition to independence. The organization operates 24/7, providing unconditional love and support to empower youth to overcome adversity and achieve stability.
Second Harvest
Second Harvest Canada is the country's largest food rescue organization, focused on rescuing and redistributing surplus food to prevent hunger and reduce food waste. It connects thousands of food businesses with non-profits to deliver edible food to those in need and works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfill waste. Beyond food distribution, it conducts research and uses data-driven approaches to measure impact and raise awareness about food insecurity and food loss.
For more details on UNIQLO's Heart of LifeWear initiative, visit uniqlo.com.
About RE.UNIQLO
UNIQLO is committed to taking responsibility of the clothing it manufactures and sells throughout the lifecycles and has been collecting pre-worn UNIQLO items from customers to be reused or recycled over 20 years. RE.UNIQLO is an initiative that gives the pre-worn clothing new life and new value, providing customers with various solutions for them to appreciate and use clothing for a long time.
About UNIQLO LifeWear
LifeWear is clothing that is made for all, designed to make everyone's life better. It is simple, high quality, everyday clothing with a practical sense of beauty - ingenious in detail, thought through with life's needs in mind, timeless in style, and always evolving.
About UNIQLO and Fast Retailing
UNIQLO is a brand of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., a leading Japanese retail holding company with global headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. UNIQLO is the largest of eight brands in the Fast Retailing Group, the others being GU, Theory, PLST, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princesse tam.tam, J Brand and Helmut Lang. With global sales of approximately 3.4 trillion yen for the 2025 fiscal year ending August 31, 2025 (US $23.16 billion, calculated in yen using the end of August 2025 rate of $1 = 146.8 yen), Fast Retailing is one of the world's largest apparel retail companies, and UNIQLO is Japan's leading specialty retailer.
UNIQLO continues to open large-scale stores in some of the world's most important cities and locations, as part of its ongoing efforts to solidify its status as a global brand. Today the company has a total of more than 2,500 UNIQLO stores across the world, including Japan, Asia, Europe and North America. The total number of stores across Fast Retailing's brands is now over 3,500.
With a corporate statement committed to changing clothes, changing conventional wisdom and change the world, Fast Retailing is dedicated to creating great clothing with new and unique value to enrich the lives of people everywhere. For more information about UNIQLO and Fast Retailing, please visit www.uniqlo.com and www.fastretailing.com.
SOURCE UNIQLO
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