38. Chris Blakeslee

BELLA+CANVAS (asi/39590)

2019 Rank: N/A

Title: President

Industry Experience: 10 years

A super-commuter with a strong sense of moral justice, Blakeslee has been jetting from Chicago to Los Angeles every week throughout the pandemic. Some of those flights have been surreal – he recalls one in particular where he was one of just two passengers on a 757 – but the head of trend-setting fashion supplier BELLA+CANVAS felt duty-bound to lead his team during the crisis and to help the U.S. government supply front-line workers with the cloth masks they desperately needed.

Blakeslee estimates that BELLA has produced upwards of half a billion masks so far – at one point producing 100 million a week. The brand has also donated millions of masks to low-income school children and others in need. “We became the largest fabric mask manufacturer in the world during that period,” he says. “We felt like we had a duty to try to help the general population to be healthy and safe.”

Blakeslee took all this on after being promoted to president of BELLA in January, two years after joining the company. The apparel market is quite familiar to him, having spent several years in senior positions at alphabroder (asi/34063), back when it was still Broder Bros. After the ownership change there, Blakeslee returned to the industrial manufacturing and distribution industry where his career began. However, he says, he kept close ties with the promotional industry during that time. “When the founders of BELLA + CANVAS created my role,” he says, “it was the easiest decision of my career.”

One way it’s been a great match? Wellness. It’s the watchword for Blakeslee, who says he’s “relentless about exercising every day.” He brings that same laser-focus on health to BELLA – a company that offers onsite yoga in a well-appointed gym and built a Zen garden at its headquarters to give employees a calming oasis in the middle of an industrial landscape.

Keeping workers healthy has taken on a new dimension during COVID, and BELLA has gone to great lengths to protect its essential production staff. Company-issued masks and scheduled hand sanitizing breaks were only the first step. The supplier also hired a staff of nine nurses to monitor production employees for symptoms around the clock. Every week, BELLA offers free COVID testing to any employee, even setting up a drive-thru clinic for remote office staff. Blakeslee estimates that the various safety measures cost the company around $50,000 a week, but the expense is worth it. “We’ve been very successful at preventing the spread from happening,” he says. “It’s helped us understand that for any business that has good protocols, it’s totally manageable if you take it seriously.”