Shipping & Handling: 2,500-pound bottle of soap to tour US

14-Jul-2021 - Last updated on 14-Jul-2021 at 15:31 GMT

$© Getty Images \ (KeithBinns)$

This week, the Soapbox brand will kick off a 16-city tour and product donation drive in New York City’s Times Square.

David Simnick and Daniel Doll founded Soapbox in 2010 on the buy-one-give-one model of purpose-driven commerce. Using for-profit business as an alternate form of aid work and international development, the brand donates soap and sponsors hygiene projects in and beyond the US.

The tour that kicks off this Thursday (July 15, 2021) is meant to draw attention to the need for and lack of access to basic hygiene products among children in foster care, people who receive food stamp benefits, etc. “In the US,” says Simnick, CEO of Soapbox, “food stamps don't cover personal hygiene products like soap. We hope this tour brings attention to that important issue as well.”

“The COVID pandemic has helped highlight the importance of handwashing, but as mask mandates go away, we can't let our guard down,” he says in a recent press release about the US tour, adding that, “People around the world get sick and die every day because they can't properly wash their hands due to lack of access to soap and water.”

Record setting personal care product donations

Over the course of the US tour, Soapbox aims to (with the help of local charities) donate 147,900 personal care products. Comfort Cases, an organization that works with youth in foster care will help the brand distribute thousands of bars of soap as well as hygiene kits.

If all goes according to plan, Soapbox will set a world record for the highest number of hygiene products donated within a single week, according to the release.

At stops all along the tour, Soapbox will display a 21-foot high 8.5-foot diameter soap bottle at retailers like Walgreens, Wegmans, Sally Beauty, and Rite Aid. The tour will visit Boston, Massachusetts; Manchester, New Hampshire; Buffalo, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota; Bentonville, Arkansas; Dallas, Texas; Austin, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Rockville, Maryland; Virginia Beach, Virginia; Raleigh, North Carolina; Washington, DC; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

And shoppers will have not only a photo op with the giant bottle of Soapbox soap but also an opportunity to assemble hygiene kits for distribution to youth in foster care within their local communities.

“We are honored to be a part of this tour,” says Rob Scheer, Founder of Comfort Cases, in his remarks to the press this week. “Teaching children the importance of handwashing, particularly in under-served communities, can be a lifesaver.”