April 8, 2021

The Nizamuddin sisters want you to be courageous like a lion and resilient like a hummingbird. And they want you to wear these traits on your back.

“We’ve taken treasured animals and their characteristics to help people relate to them,” said Sabrina Nizamuddin, who along with her two sisters, Sophia and Simra, recently launched Spirit Redefined, a streetwear line inspired by animals and designed to support mental health and wellness.

Spirit Redefined combines the sisters’ love for fashion and passion for helping people experiencing mental health challenges.

Sabrina and Sophia are both graduates of Seneca’s Business Management – Marketing advanced diploma program. Together with Simra, they bring professional experiences in marketing, content strategy, branding and social media — skills they are happy to put to use for a good cause.

“Things have been getting worse with the pandemic,” Sabrina said. “We’ve been seeing a lot of news stories about increases in suicide, depression and anxiety. We asked ourselves, ‘What can we do?’”

The sisters chose images of lions, bears, hummingbirds, eagles, tigers and gorillas to use on T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, jackets and accessories. The idea is to empower people to embrace traits such as courage, bravery, resilience, strength, liberty and willpower.

Proceeds from apparel sales will fund an online service platform to help Canadians have better access to the mental health care they need.

“We’ve seen people in our lives who live with mental illness, and we’ve seen how difficult it is for them to access services,” Sabrina said. “There’s a lot of information out there, but when you actually seek help, it’s not easy to find what you are looking for. We want to change that.”

Part of the Spirit Redefined initiative has the sisters conducting research and working with clinicians to understand the mental health system and barriers.

“It can be intimidating to ask for help, and we want to make it easier for people,” Sabrina said. “We are really passionate about being able to support others. With COVID, we all need a little bit of resilience to get through our day and resonate with the inner fighter in all of us.”