April 20, 2020
Distributors Give Back to Communities in Need
From critical PPE to signage for local businesses, distributors are lending support wherever it’s needed.
Joe Favre is the sales manager at Vanguard Direct (asi/350665) in New York City, the country’s primary COVID-19 hot spot. He started his new position with the distributor about a month ago, just as virus cases in the region started to climb exponentially.
But in just four weeks, Favre has seen his new employer quickly adapt to the reality of the coronavirus. They’ve leveraged supply chain relationships to be able to procure and donate more than 20,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) masks to healthcare facilities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
“These circumstances provide an opportunity to be compassionate, which is so much more important now than the traditional client/vendor relationship,” he says. “I’m happy to see that this sort of ‘do good for your neighbor’ behavior has become much more the norm than the exception, in our industry and globally. Hopefully, it’ll continue once we hit the reset button after this crisis.”
From providing frontline workers with PPE, to helping companies with their marketing efforts (much of it pro bono), to designing and selling merchandise for worthy causes, distributors are getting creative in figuring out ways to help their communities in this challenging time.
Providing much-needed PPE
As traditional promo business plummeted starting in the beginning of March, firms geared up to meet another need: sourcing and/or manufacturing PPE for both frontline workers and the public.
Vistaprint, the largest division of Top 40 distributor Cimpress (asi/162149), has announced that it’s shifting production to face shields, with plans to ramp up to 100,000 shields a week by the end of April. They also plan to donate to 100 healthcare facilities in rural areas, which will each receive 1,000 shields.
MidWest Sportswear (asi/269901) in Saskatoon, SK, is usually busy at this time of year with apparel orders from Bible and sports camps getting ready for the summer months. Many of those orders have been canceled or at least postponed, so the distributor, in consultation with a healthcare client, is now making masks for the most vulnerable members of the population.
MidWest Sportswear in Saskatchewan is using its custom manufacturing capabilities to make reusable masks.
“It’s a small contribution,” says vice president Murray Poulsen, “but hopefully, it’s a way to make a difference.”
As part of its new Stop the Spread (by) Spreading the Love program, Culture Studio (asi/700559) in Chicago now repurposes T-shirts into face masks for community use, says chief revenue officer Carlo Oviedo. A percentage of the proceeds goes to small businesses in the Windy City.
In Surrey, BC, Full Line Specialties (asi/199688) has instituted a food drive for the community; for every two pieces of nonperishable food items donated to Full Line on behalf of Food Banks Canada, Full Line will give a cloth mask made by the team. “It’s allowed us to continue employing certain departments involved with the project,” says President and CEO Sam Singh. “We want to minimize the temporary layoffs as much as possible during these challenging times.”
Others have become virtually full-time procurement teams for end-buyers. Robb Fine, CEO of Fine Promotions in Indianapolis, tapped into his overseas contacts to source PPE; as of early April, Fine had already sold 2 million masks, 50,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and 15,000 thermometers.
“We’ve been working diligently to find masks and sanitizer in the industry,” says Jim Robertson, general manager and controller at Trademarks Promotional Products (asi/346070) in Houston. “We’ve also worked to keep pricing as low as possible. Clients can order smaller quantities that we’re keeping in inventory or they can order in larger quantities that we’ll drop-ship.”
Pia Gold, owner of Promotional Innovative Advertising Vero Beach, FL, direct-sourced shoe covers from China and face shields in the U.S. She also bought bandannas as an alternative to masks, non-medical-grade masks for non-essential employees at two local hospitals and clear zipped bags for employees to protect their personal belongings.
Mad Hatter Promotions in Findlay, OH, bought 100 8-ounce bottles of sanitizer and started calling nearby nursing homes and assisted living facilities to gauge need; all but one were running low. Owner Rick Tidd had all the deliveries sent to his home and cleaned all the bottles with 99% alcohol. “I delivered the sanitizer to all 10 facilities,” says Tidd. “They were very grateful for the donation.” Meanwhile, Gwynn Advertising (asi/216680) in Wheeling, WV, happened to have 300 bottles of sanitizer in inventory from before the virus crisis; senior vice president Gary Gwynn gave it all away to firefighters, police officers and sheriff’s deputies.
Helping with marketing efforts
Distributors are also helping local businesses get the word out about their adjusted hours during the pandemic. In addition to donating sanitizer and doctors’ caps for healthcare facilities in her community, Harriet Donnelly, president of e5 Marketing (asi/342618) in Peapack, NJ, launched a website for businesses across the country to let customers know they’re open.
“It’s free for them to post and for people to search by ZIP code,” says Donnelly. “Real estate agents and an accountant on the site are also giving out imprinted pens to promote their presence on it.” Donnelly also sends out weekly marketing emails reminding businesses that she’s available to help them with signage to let customers know they’re open for business and to thank essential workers.
Danielle Center, customer experience and account manager at International Minute Press in Plymouth, MI, says the team put together 5,000 care packages for local families. “They include coloring pages and fun activities for the kids, and a list of all the open restaurants,” she says.
Dustin Meador, owner of Diehard Designs LLC in Indianapolis, noticed that local eateries were in desperate need of quality signage, but also recognized that many aren’t in a position to buy marketing materials at the moment. So, Diehard created and donated variations of its stock “We Are Open” signs.
Diehard Designs LLC printed and donated these “open” signs for cash-strapped restaurants.
“Many restaurants didn’t have time to prepare for what’s happened to them,” says Meador. “So, they were hanging hand-written, sloppy posters or pieces of paper in the windows. They were trying to save money, but we knew we could help them change that image. They were elated that we thought of them.”
Designing T-shirts for a cause
T-shirts sold on e-commerce sites have been a popular way to raise funds for businesses and community organizations. In Montgomery County, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia, DJB Specialties (asi/173932) joined up with the nearby Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board (VFTCB) to design #MontCoStrong T-shirts that benefit the county’s COVID-19 Response Fund. In a time when donations are at all-time lows or have stopped altogether, the Fund will help shore up area organizations that serve low-income and food-insecure residents, senior citizens, veterans, the homeless and the homebound.
The Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board in Montgomery County, PA, partnered with nearby DJB Specialties to create these T-shirts; proceeds benefit community social services.
“The health and well-being of our residents remains our top priority, and we wanted to do something to show our support and a sign of solidarity to help rally and unite the community,” said Mike Bowman, president and CEO of the VFTCB. “We want everyone to know that they’re not alone. We are truly all in this together, and we will pull through.”
In Ventura, CA, David Schmaeling, president and CEO of Proforma Color Press, launched the Stronger Together California e-commerce store; local companies that sign up as partners can make $10 on each $20 T-shirt sold that advertises their business. Another Proforma franchise, Proforma Printing & Promotion (asi/300271) in Boston, helped nearby restaurant Steel & Rye with a charitable project called #WeEatTogether in conjunction with the local school district: to donate hot meals to needy families.
“We sold out in four sizes,” says vice president William Resnick. “The first order was 2,000 pieces, and they just ordered almost 500 more. All of the proceeds to go making and delivering the meals.”
Trademarks in Houston helped a customer bring in a little money after their event was canceled. The distributor had printed, shipped and billed the shirts before the event was canceled, but the company usually relies on in-person sales to help pay for the apparel.
“We had them ship the shirts back to us, and we set up an e-commerce site to sell them instead,” says Robertson. “Orders are coming in steadily from would-be attendees.”
Pete Bolsoni, president of Same Day Tees (asi/466828) in Frankfort, IL, wanted a special item to recognize and thank frontline workers. So, he designed T-shirts and has been shipping them, along with thank you notes, to police stations, fire houses, emergency services facilities, hospitals, grocery stores, and drivers for UPS, Amazon, Instacart, Grubhub, DoorDash and Uber.
Pete Bolsoni of Same Day Tees has been sending these solidarity T-shirts to frontline workers.
“Basically, I want these to go to anyone I can think of who’s fighting the fight for us locally,” says Bolsoni. “I knew that it had to be special. Whatever I did needed to be the best artistic and meaningful shirt I ever did in my career.”