M’sian Influencer Asked Fans To Donate Money for RM24k Shoes, But Here’s What He Actually Did

The old adage ‘never judge a book by it’s cover’ has never been truer in the case of this Malaysian influencer who used the virality of his videos to do some good ol’ fashioned charity work, with a controversial twist.

Harvinth Skin recently received national backlash for a story he posted on his Instagram page, in which he appealed to his fans to donate money to him for a pair of Nike Yeezy 2 shoes that cost RM24,000. Due to his large fan base, he only asked for a donation of RM1 each from his fans, that would be banked into his personal bank account.

View this post on Instagram

This is #OurShoe ?We’re ALMOST there to 24k! ? With your RM 1 we can do this! ONLY RM 1.. If you’d like to help fund me …EH I MEAN US ?? #OurShoe what? ?? Please donate to 7063908668 (CIMB) Thank you to EVERYONE of my amazing fans who have donated so far ?

A post shared by Harvinth Skin ? (@harvinthskin) on May 24, 2019 at 6:49am PDT

As the donations came flooding in, so did the hate and shaming as many were appalled by the fact that Harvinth was taking advantage of his fans for his own personal gain.

Source: twitter

Many even bashed his fans for choosing to donate considering the amount of needy people not only around the world, but even just in Malaysia that could have put the money to good use.

Source: twitter

Source: twitter

Little did people know, his true intentions were to use the donations from his fans to provide shoes for an orphanage. 

The donations totaled up to RM1,044, in which he rounded off to RM1,500 with his own money in order to pay for a list of 32 pairs of shoes from Bata. Hand delivering the shoes to the orphanage himself, he revealed the true intention of his much maligned campaign in a video titled ‘I bought #OurShoe (RM24k)’, showing that he had all along planned to use the donations for charitable uses.

To a certain extent, it is understandable that people were outraged as it seemed like he was asking for donations for personal gain, but if you think about it, how willing would someone be to donate even a single ringgit if they knew it was for orphans who are probably used to being overlooked?

The lesson to take out of this is to always expect the unexpected and to never judge a book by its cover. 

Also read: Begpackers Perform Illegally on MRT and Ask for Donations, Netizens are Angered