.specials
SHOP LIKE YOU GIVE A DAMN
*A Department Store for the Future of Compassion
written AMANDA MORTENSON
The idea of Shop Like You Give a Damn began with a refusal to overlook the small decisions that shape the world. Founded by Alex Jansen, Kim van Laar, and Stephan Stegeman, the platform has become Europe’s largest 100% vegan online department store for fair and sustainable fashion, cosmetics, and home essentials.
Within its growing catalogue of over twenty thousand items, the brand builds a quiet revolution rooted in clarity, responsibility, and care. Stephan speaks with composure and focus, describing the company as a living structure guided by values rather than trends. “We wanted to prove that business can be an act of empathy,” he says. “That every product we offer should reflect the respect we owe to each other and to the planet.”
The rhythm of the platform feels architectural — modular yet human — designed to filter choices by ethics, materials, and certifications. Shoppers move through an ecosystem that speaks the language of transparency. “We give people tools to shop more mindfully, to slow down consumption without giving up the joy of beautiful things,” Stephan explains. The platform’s success feels less like growth and more like accumulation of intention, each decision forming another layer of meaning.
Shop Like You Give A Damn
brand: Kings of Indigo
Shop Like You Give A Damn
founding team: Kim van Laar, Stephan Stegeman, and Alex Jansen
Amanda Mortenson
What was the first spark that led you to create Shop Like You Give a Damn?
Stephan Stegeman
It started with the realisation that shopping consciously often felt like navigating a maze. You’d spend hours trying to find brands that aligned with your values, only to discover hidden compromises in materials or production. We wanted to change that. The goal was to build a space where people could find everything they need — clothing, cosmetics, home products — knowing that each choice respects both humans and animals. It’s not about perfection, it’s about creating access and clarity, and proving that compassion can be part of commerce.
How would you describe the essence of the platform today?
It’s a digital department store built entirely on ethics, but it’s also a growing community. We bring together consumers and brands who share the same mindset: wanting to make a positive impact without losing sight of style, comfort, and emotion. Our filters and categories help people align their purchases with their personal values. It’s a tool for awareness, but also for enjoyment — we want people to feel good about what they buy and to understand the story behind it.
What guides your team when choosing which brands to include?
Our curation is grounded in five ethical and sustainability values. We study each brand carefully, not only for certifications but for how they treat people and the environment. We talk with founders, we read between the lines of their production processes. Trust is crucial, because transparency can only exist when both sides are genuinely aligned. We want brands that live their values every day, not only talk about them in marketing terms.
How do you see the role of design in ethical consumption?
Design is language. It communicates who you are and what you believe without words. When used responsibly, design becomes a moral act — it helps people connect with values intuitively. It’s not only about making something attractive, but about making it meaningful. Good design doesn’t preach; it offers presence. It reminds us that what we hold and wear carries consequence.
Your catalogue is large and diverse. How do you keep coherence across so many products?
By holding on to clarity in our criteria and culture. Everything we add must resonate with our mission. The coherence comes from conviction. We created a system where every product, no matter how small, passes through the same ethical framework. That consistency allows us to expand while keeping our integrity intact. Even when we introduce something new, the foundation remains the same — it’s built on care, responsibility, and honesty.
Shop Like You Give A Damn
brand: Saye
The structure of Shop Like You Give a Damn moves like a living organism, layers of product, purpose, and technology work together in balance. The catalogue now includes fashion, cosmetics, and home essentials, forming a world where beauty is measured by impact as much as appearance. Each page reads like a quiet manifesto of possibility, where the act of shopping becomes a reflection of belief. Stephan describes the process of building the platform as analytical and emotional. “You need to keep your system clear enough to scale, but soft enough to feel human,” he says. The filters, the certifications, the storytelling — all function like organs inside a single body, each serving the same ethical pulse.
The brand’s message—Shop with compassion, no more than you need—acts as its rhythm. It sets a slower tempo for digital consumption, one grounded in curiosity rather than excess. Every collection moves through this calm consistency, their products are not staged as symbols of virtue but as evidence that empathy and commerce can coexist without contradiction.
In the end, Shop Like You Give a Damn creates an atmosphere of quiet confidence, it offers not an alternative, but an evolution — a model for how values can take shape through practice and precision, through what Stephan calls “a persistent attention to the small details that make life fairer.”
Shop Like You Give A Damn
brand: Avani
What does compassion mean to you in a business context?
To me, compassion is about seeing the full circle of impact — how your actions affect people, animals, and the planet. It’s not an abstract idea; it’s a practice of awareness. Compassion requires discipline. It means asking hard questions, taking responsibility when things go wrong, and staying open when change is needed. In business, compassion means creating systems that value wellbeing over speed and choosing partnerships that strengthen that mindset.
How do you maintain motivation in an industry that still relies on fast production?
We stay motivated by focusing on progress rather than frustration. Change doesn’t happen through confrontation but through persistence. Every time we collaborate with a new brand, every customer who makes a conscious choice — it proves that the shift is happening. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by how big the system is, but when you zoom in, you see thousands of small, positive steps being made every day. That gives energy to keep going.
What role does education play for your customers?
Education is everything. But we try to approach it in a way that feels empowering, not moralising. People want to make better choices; they just need clarity and trust. That’s why we designed our platform to be intuitive, to help them understand materials, origins, and certifications in a visual, accessible way. Education works when it feels like discovery — when people realise they have the power to influence the world simply by adjusting their daily decisions.
What makes you proud when you look at what you’ve built so far?
The community, absolutely. Seeing so many people connecting through shared values gives me a deep sense of hope. Each order, each message, each new brand that joins — it’s proof that empathy has a place in business. I’m proud that we’ve created something that feels kind without being passive, a space that encourages action and curiosity. The real success is seeing people take ownership of the idea and make it their own.
How do you imagine the future of Shop Like You Give a Damn?
The future is collective. I imagine a network of people, designers, and brands working together toward the same goal — reducing harm while amplifying beauty. I see our platform expanding in reach and depth, but always staying grounded in its values. Growth only makes sense when it strengthens connection. I want the company to remain a living example that kindness and business can share the same language and thrive within it.
Shop Like You Give A Damn
brand: KUYICHI CORE
Shop Like You Give A Damn
brand: Botma Bennekom
Shop Like You Give A Damn
brand: Arze
SHOP LIKE YOU GIVE A DAMN
www.shoplikeyougiveadamn.com
based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
offering over 20,000 vegan, fair and sustainable products
Shop Like You Give a Damn stands as platform and practice, a framework for mindful consumption that invites people to move through the world with clarity and care. The company builds a slow architecture of ethics — not through grand gestures, but through steady repetition of values. What Stephan and his team have created feels less like a store and more like a living proof that responsibility, when practiced with patience, becomes design itself.
Shop Like You Give A Damn
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Shop Like You Give A Damn
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