Check On Your Homies: How One Collection Started a Movement

In September 2022, on the ten year anniversary of her brother Te Kakahu Whero's passing, Rutu King-Hazel did something she had been carrying for a decade. She relaunched Hope Is My Homeboy.

Whero was a vibrant, creative force. A flamboyant and openly gay fashion designer, he had a rare talent for turning ordinary materials into extraordinary pieces, entering work into the World of WearableArt and winning multiple fashion competitions along the way. He was also bullied relentlessly for who he was. The weight of that contributed to his death, and left a hole in everyone who loved him.

Hope Is My Homeboy was founded in his memory back in 2012, born from a whānau turning grief into something that might help someone else. But grief needed space too, and the brand went quiet for close to a decade while the family focused on healing.

Ten years on, Rutu was ready. Not to reopen a clothing tribute, but to build something bigger. Check On Your Homies was the collection that brought Hope Is My Homeboy back, and it became the start of the movement it is today.

A simple message, worn out loud

The idea behind Check On Your Homies was straightforward. Reach out to the people around you. Ask if they are okay, and mean it. It sounds small, but for a lot of people it is the hardest sentence in the world to say first.

The collection was shaped through conversations with Iwi and whānau about how mental health and suicide prevention are actually talked about in Māori and Pacific communities, so the message and the garments were designed to feel real and accessible rather than clinical or preachy. Comfort clothing that people genuinely wanted to wear, carrying a message people were proud to be seen in.

Every dollar of profit from the collection was donated to the I AM HOPE Foundation, continuing a relationship that goes right back to Hope Is My Homeboy's very first collection in 2012, when Mike King wore the brand on his first national tour.

What happened next

The collection sold out within a week.

Word spread fast, first through Nelson, then across the country. Radio interviews. Newspaper articles. A national feature in Stuff on how a fashion label was launched to tackle mental health. A profile with the Centre of Māori Suicide Prevention. All from a two person team, Rutu and her partner Jono, working with the support of whānau, friends, local Nelson businesses and anyone who believed in what they were building.

But the numbers were never really the point. What mattered was what came with them. Hundreds of messages arrived from people who had been personally affected by suicide, and hundreds more from people who just wanted to say the message had landed, that it had made them feel seen, or reminded them that someone was thinking of them.

That response is the reason Hope Is My Homeboy kept going. It is the reason community workshops started not long after, and the reason the brand has grown into workshops, events, podcasts and partnerships across construction, sport, schools and community spaces ever since.

What it built

Check On Your Homies was never just a t-shirt drop. It gave people a reason to start a conversation they might not have started otherwise, and it gave Hope Is My Homeboy a community that has stuck around ever since. People who bought that first collection are still part of this kaupapa today, through the workshops that followed, the events, and every collection since.

It also taught the team a hard lesson early. Demand outpaced what a two person operation was ready for, and getting production right became one of the first real challenges of running the brand properly. That lesson shaped how Hope Is My Homeboy builds everything now, from apparel drops to workshop delivery.

The recognition that followed spoke for itself. In 2023, Rutu was named in Te Rau Ora's Top 100 Māori Leaders, a direct line back to the collection that put the relaunched brand on the map.

Why it still matters

Whero's story is the reason Hope Is My Homeboy exists, and Check On Your Homies was the moment that story found its voice again. It proved something simple but powerful: when you give people a real, human way to check in on each other, they will use it. And sometimes that is the thing that changes everything for someone.

About Hope Is My Homeboy

At Hope Is My Homeboy, we are dedicated to shining a light on the often taboo subjects of suicide and mental health. Our goal is to create a unified banner under which everyone can come together to form a supportive network committed to combating suicide. Our approach includes creating apparel with purpose, facilitating mental health workshops, public speaking, unique collaborations, running special events and capturing the journey as we do it through eye-catching media.

You Are Enough.

If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out. Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 anytime. Lifeline: 0800 543 354. Youthline: 0800 376 633 or free text 234.