How two blind brothers encourage shoppers to buy something you cannot see

• Bradford and Bryan Manning are losing their sight and they are the founders of Twoblindbrothers.com.
• Their company sells super-soft shirts and other items online through a mystery box.
• The proceeds of the mystery boxes help fund eye ailments research for a cure.

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Even if two brothers who are losing their sight to a macular degenerative disease called Stargardt, are not losing sight of a worthy cause.  That is to help fund research on retinal eye ailments like the ones that they have.

Bradford and Bryan Manning are the two brothers behind Two Blind Brothers— the clothing brand with ultra-soft shirts.  They came upon the idea to produce these shirts when on a shopping trip at Bloomingdales, they got separated.  But when they met up after, they both purchased the same soft shirts.

Bryan said, “It was the feel of it. It felt so soft and comfortable that we both keyed upon it, and then we had this idea, well what if we could take this sense of touch to a different place, make super comfortable clothing” and turn over the profits to researchers at work on eye diseases.”

Twoblindbrothers.com now has a casual line of super soft polos and T-shirts for men, women, and kids, henleys, socks, hoodies, and even sunglasses. Their products are made from sustainable bamboo mixed with cotton and spandex. Blind clients get to know the color of the items as indicated in Braille.

The brothers selling strategy is also a big hit— mystery boxes from $30 to $200 of an assortment of their ultra-soft shirts, knit beanies, cozy socks, and sunglasses. It has now helped raise more than $700,000 for retinal eye ailments research like the Foundation Fighting Blindness group.

Bryan said, “We just wanted to try and help and raise awareness, and just do something good.”

Aside from being a sales hit and raising funds for a cause, it also has created quite a stir on social media as clients who are both blind and seeing have been posting unboxing videos on Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok.

Included in the mystery box is a special thanks from the brothers and their story of how Twoblindbrothers.com. came to be.

They write, “When someone shops blind, they prove something remarkable. They prove that genuine trust is real.”

Source: AP News