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June 20, 2022

The Bright Side: Branded Shirts Raise Funds After Buffalo Shooting

The “Choose Love” shirts have helped three sports teams donate more than $1 million to two charities established to support ongoing community need after the May 14 attack.

By  Sara Lavenduski

On a Saturday afternoon in May, unspeakable tragedy struck Buffalo, NY.

In less than 10 minutes, in a racially motivated attack, an 18-year-old gunman opened fire on shoppers at a Tops Friendly supermarket on the city’s East Side, in a predominantly Black neighborhood. By the end, 10 people were dead, all of them Black, and three injured.

On Wednesday, May 18, more than 100 players and staff members from the Buffalo Bills football team, Sabres hockey team and Bandits lacrosse team converged at the site of the shooting to deliver meals to and engage with community members, in conjunction with World Central Kitchen (which provides hot meals on the ground in response to humanitarian, climate and community crises) and Buffalo-based chef Darian Bryan. While there, volunteers wore black T-shirts with “Choose Love” and their respective team’s logo underneath; the message had been chosen by players on May 16, as their organizations planned that week’s community outreach.

That same day, members of the public began to reach out to the teams on social media, expressing appreciation for their volunteer efforts and asking if the “Choose Love” shirts were for sale.

“The next morning, we met to figure out how we could make the shirts available,” says Jordan McCarren, vice president of marketing for the Buffalo Bills. “We’ve partnered with [local decorator] ADPRO Sports on a number of initiatives, and they were 100% in.”

Choose Love t-shirt

Sales of the “Choose Love” shirts resulted in $1 million being donated to two community organizations less than two weeks after the apparel became available for purchase. (photo courtesy of the Buffalo Bills)

By Saturday, May 21, just a week after the shooting, the Bills, Sabres and Bandits had worked together with ADPRO to have the screen-printed shirts ready to be purchased from the three teams’ respective e-commerce sites and in their brick-and-mortar team shops at the KeyBank Center in downtown Buffalo, with 100% of net proceeds going to two organizations established that week: the Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund, which supports survivors of the deceased and those directly affected by the tragedy, as well as the Buffalo Together Community Response Fund, which addresses longer-term community rebuilding and systemic issues in traditionally marginalized groups.

Less than two weeks later, sales of the shirts had already raised $1 million for the Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund and the Buffalo Together Community Response Fund. Now, shirts with the Bills logo are still available online and at the team shop, while Sabres- and Bandits-branded styles are available in-person at the KeyBank Center. Proceeds continue to be donated to the two charitable organizations.

“The response has been unbelievable,” says McCarren. “Buffalo is ‘the City of Good Neighbors,’ so we felt the shirts would resonate with people and that they’d want to donate to the charitable organizations. It’s a close-knit community, and we’ve just been overwhelmed with support.”

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