You and Who’sday – 30 Cities in 90 Days – Houston and Austin, on to FLA

This is the eleventh installment of a Tuesday feature documenting Dan Gigante’s nationwide tour on behalf of his Buffalo-based, community-driven apparel company.

By Dan Gigante, President, You and Who

It was bound to happen on the tour and last week it finally did – I got sick. Luckily, it was at the end of the week after I had already visited Houston and had been in Austin for a day. As I’ve said before, after seeing all of the people in need at the many shelters and organizations that I’ve visited, I find it impossible to complain about anything; with that, I worked through it.

The week started out well, as my host in Houston had set up a dinner for other vagabond and transplant-types the night I arrived. It was cool getting to meet so many new people and learn that the Couchsurfing community in Houston is very tight-knit and supportive. While in Houston, I was able to speak with Star of Hope Mission, and have a few other organizations that aren’t officially on board, but are good prospects.

The second half of the week was spent in the Texas state capital, Austin, which was one of the cities I visited last year during You and Who’s official launch. The first-ever You and Who shirt was donated at Trinity Center located in Austin. So in many ways, revisiting Austin holds special meaning for me. It was great to be back, and, this time around, I was able to hand deliver shirts to the three Austin-based organizations we work with: Trinity Center, House the Homeless, and Front Steps. They are all located in the same area downtown, with two of them in the same building called The ARCH (Austin Resource Center for the Homeless). And special thanks to Daniel Townson–a Buffalo expat living in Austin–who designed Get On Up! for our “New Beginnings” theme. The shirt was a big hit at the shelters, and we think you’ll enjoy it too.

On the afternoon of my last day in Austin, I was able to visit Conjunctured, a co-working space in the city and one of the first in the U.S. to be located within a house. Whenever I have down time in between meetings with organizations, artists, and retail stores, I always try to find these type of collaborative work spaces. As I’ve built my life around collaboration, what better place for me to be than a co-working spot? I’ve been able to see several of these work spaces throughout the country – it’s almost been a separate tour within this tour!

Currently, I’m spending the week in Florida, focusing on Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville. After that, it’s off to the Pacific Northwest, where I visit two other of You and Who’s original 8 cities: Portland and Seattle. As always, please get in touch if you’d like to get involved – have a great week, everyone!