She was 21 when a homeless woman refused her coat and said: "I don't need charity. I need a paycheck." So she started hiring homeless people to make the coats instead.
In 2010, Veronika Scott had a problem most college students would envy: her design professor's assignment was too easy.
"Create something that solves a real problem," he said.
Most of her classmates at Detroit's College for Creative Studies sketched concepts at their desks. Veronika walked into homeless shelters and asked people what they actually needed.
The answer wasn't complicated: "Something warm that I can carry with me."
So she built a prototype in her apartment—a bulky, ungainly jacket that could transform into a sleeping bag and fold into a wearable backpack. Waterproof. Insulated. Ugly but functional.
She could have turned it in, gotten her A, and moved on.
Instead, she kept making them. Handing them out on Detroit streets. Feeling good about helping.
Until the night a woman took the coat, looked Veronika in the eye, and said the words that would ...