The Real Spirit of the Season: Community, Care & Showing Up for Each Other

Every year, the holiday season rolls in with the same pressure: buy more, spend more, prove your love through things. But for so many of us, especially in trans, queer, and disabled communities, this season has never been about stuff. It’s about surviving, connecting, and finding the people who make us feel safe enough to exhale.

At Origami Customs, we’ve always believed that care is something we build together. This time of year just makes that truth shine a little brighter.

Why This Season Can Feel Heavy 

For our community, the holidays can stir up complicated feelings. Family dynamics, financial strain, and isolation can weigh heavily. But we also know that queer and trans folks have a long history of creating our own light. Chosen family, mutual aid, shared meals, community drop-ins. These are the things that keep us going.

We want this season to be a reminder that you’re not navigating it alone. We’re here with you, not as a brand asking you to buy more, but as a community member showing up in the ways we can.

Our Free Product Community Program

Our Community Program provides free gender-affirming garments, like binders, gaffs, bras, and swimwear, to trans and gender-diverse people who can’t afford them.  This program exists because we believe that everyone deserves access to gender-affirming garments, regardless of their financial situation. 

Throughout the years, I noticed that many trans and gender diverse folks faced systemic inequalities and barriers to accessing our products. Since every product is made ethically by our highly-paid Montreal team of makers, the price point was out of reach for many folks. 

I started our Community program to bridge this gap. It enables us to give away our products for free through a network of organizations around the globe. Most of our partners work at the intersection of homelessness, immigration status, race, age, HIV/AIDS status, and more. These layered intersections represent the overlapping ways in which TGD people often face multiple barriers to life-changing gender affirmation products.

With our company, it’s simple: No need to prove your struggle. If you say you need support, you get support. Simply choose a program that meets your needs and submit your info. Several of these organizations even ship worldwide, so you don’t even need to find one in your area. 

This program is fueled by mutual aid, pay-it-forward generosity, and the belief that access to affirming clothing shouldn’t be a luxury. The program has grown far beyond us. It’s become a network, a living ecosystem powered by community care.

The profits of our company go directly to the livelihoods, gender-affirming healthcare, and transition options for our staff members. All we ask of the community partners is that they pay the cost of these staff's wages. We don't make a profit from this program. 

Honouring the Partners Who Carry This Work With Us

Throughout the year, our donation program and our incredible community partners help us reach people who need affirmation the most. Today, we want to spotlight just a few of our largest partners:

Point of Pride

Point of Pride is by far our biggest partnership, and with them, we’re able to give away hundreds of free compression gaffs a month! Their binder and gaff programs reach people all over the world, as well as the Annual Trans Surgery Fund, HRT Access fund, Thrive Fund for one-time or time-limited needs, and much more.

Chroma

Chroma NB is a non-profit in the Saint John region dedicated to supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals through community-building projects, social connection, education, and advocacy. They run programs like free chest binder distribution, youth drop-ins, legal name/ID change navigation, entrepreneurship support, and inclusive-allyship workshops.

Rainbow Resource Center

Based in Winnipeg, the Rainbow Resource Centre is Canada’s longest-running 2SLGBTQ+ community hub. It offers counselling, youth programs, education, gender-affirming garments, and social support for people of all ages. 

Union for Gender Empowerment

UGE is based at McGill University and is a trans-positive, anti-racist, feminist collective offering free and pay-what-you-can resources. They offer gender-affirming items, safer-sex supplies, an alternative library, a drop-in safe space, educational workshops, and many other practical supports for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Montréal. 

These are just four of our largest partners, but we now work with well over 100 NGOs on five continents. Check out our community page for a program near you!

Our December Commitment: Giving Back, Together

When you support Origami Customs, whether through a purchase, a donation, or simply sharing our work, you’re helping sustain this network of care year-round. Every binder, every gaff, every custom piece that goes out through the Community Program is a reminder that someone out there is affirmed and valued.

But this December, we’re upping the ante and dedicating ourselves to a month of even more collective giving. We’ll have two “give-back” initiatives you can participate in.

Buy 2, Give 1 (Dec 4-17)

We’re introducing our new Ready-To-Ship gaff! We’ve been able to stock our Cheeky Gaff in all standard sizes, so you can get them without the custom wait time. So for two weeks, if you buy 2 pairs of the Ready-To-Ship Cheeky Gaff, we’ll donate an entire product to someone in need. You’ll get an email letting you know which product we sent and to which community program.

Donate and Discount (Dec 18-31)

If you have a gently-loved gender-affirming garment that you no longer need, donate it! It doesn’t matter to us what type of garment, what brand, or which community center you donate it to. Send us an email letting us know what product you sent to whom, with a touch of proof (a photograph of the mailing label and the product), and we’ll send you a coupon code to get 10% off a gift card in any amount.

Other Donation Options

Don’t forget-  you can also donate to this program directly so that we can send even more free gender affirming gear out to those who need it most. Many organizations want to be part of the program but don’t have the funding, and we rely on your donations to provide them with the affirming products they so desperately need.

Right now, we’re working to send a box of gaffs, binders, breastforms, and educational materials to the Feminist Inclusion Leadership Center in Uganda, a trans-led, grassroots organization.

Thanks For Being Here

We want to be transparent: this year has been challenging for us, too. Supply chain disruptions, rising costs, political instability, and the ongoing need for gender-affirming care have stretched us thin. But we believe that when things are the hardest, that’s when we need to come together the most.

This season, we invite you to choose connection over consumption, in whatever way works best for you. Check in on a friend. Support a local queer org. Donate if you can. Share resources. Hold space. Rest.

And remember: you’re part of a community that believes in you, celebrates you, and is committed to building something better together. We’re so grateful you’re still with us.