Royal View Elementary partners with Chance Apparel to help those in need: Talk of the Towns

Royal View Elementary partners with Chance Apparel to help those in need: Talk of the Towns - cleveland.com

Royal View Elementary partners with Chance Apparel to help those in need: Talk of the Towns - cleveland.com
Local Cycling Apparel Company Begins to Produce Reusable Masks - NET Nebraska
Santa Rosa apparel maker made famous by 'Survivor' getting rush of orders for face coverings - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Easton apparel company shifts production to face masks with coronavirus pandemic - Enterprise News
Nike Is the World's Most Valuable Apparel Brand - Motley Fool

Royal View Elementary partners with Chance Apparel to help those in need: Talk of the Towns - cleveland.com

Posted: 17 Apr 2020 08:14 AM PDT

NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio -- Families from Royal View Elementary School have partnered with a local company to give back to those in need during the coronavirus crisis. The company, Chance Apparel, is owned by North Royalton resident Patrick Sweeney. It sells T-shirts with the hashtag #InThisTogether inside an outline of the state of Ohio.

#InThisTogether is a fundraiser conducted by Chance Apparel as a way to aid members of the community who have been compromised due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All of the proceeds from the fundraiser will go toward purchasing resources for disabled veterans, children in foster care and students identified as being in need.

Proceeds from the T-shirts have already been used to purchase personal protective equipment (PPE). Chance Apparel has bought 400 gloves for the Cleveland VA Incident Command Center.

They also held a no-contact food and toiletries drive, resulting in 21 bags of food that will be donated to the Parma VA, which has a dedicated food pantry. Two boxes of goods were also sent to the Broadview Heights Food Bank.

These donations were possible in part because of the funds that came from Royal View families. The North Royalton T-shirts that include the state of Ohio outline and #InThisTogether are purple, and Chance Apparel hopes to have a virtual North Royalton Spirit Day featuring the shirts.

To order a shirt, go to https://www.chance-apparel.com/collections/ohio-inthistogether and visit the fundraising Facebook page.

Tri-C online classes: Encore 55+ Learning at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) will begin offering online classes as the college works to maintain community programs while adapting to challenges created by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Encore On-the-Go features virtual sessions three days a week to enrich the minds and lives of those 55 and older. Classes begin April 21 and take place every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday through May 29.

The 90-minute sessions start at either 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. Classes cover a wide variety of subjects, including fitness, history, music, religion, science and more. A full list with dates and times is available at tri-c.edu/encoreonthego.

Instructors will teach the classes via Webex, an easy-to-use online meeting platform. Assistance is available for those unfamiliar with Webex, and the Encore team is offering test sessions on using the app.

Enrollment cost is $8 per class. Visit tri-c.edu/encoreonthego to sign up any time before each individual session.

Tri-C launched Encore On-the-Go after the COVID-19 outbreak closed campus sites and forced the cancellation of in-person classes, including the popular Encore Campus Fridays program scheduled for this spring.

Help for Ronald McDonald: Everstream, a business-only fiber network, has announced that it is providing local Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) chapters with a daily meal in seven of its markets for 30 days (beginning April 13).

Everstream will support the following seven Ronald McDonald House locations in cities where the company has local offices. This program will serve an estimated 295 meals daily, feeding between 8 and 100 people at each house, including families and staff.

· Cleveland: Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland

· Chicago: Ronald McDonald House near the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital

· Columbus, Ohio: Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio

· Grand Rapids, Mich.: Ronald McDonald House of Western Michigan

· Indianapolis: Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Indiana

· Milwaukee: Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern Wisconsin

· St. Louis: Ronald McDonald House Charities of St. Louis

Ronald McDonald House programs provide comfort, support and resources to families with ill or injured children being treated at nearby hospitals and medical facilities. Stays can range from one night to several months -- and sometimes extend to a year or more.

There are more than 375 Ronald McDonald House programs globally. Each program compassionately addresses and directly improves the well-being of the diverse children and families they serve.

"This is our opportunity to give back to the communities we serve in a meaningful way at this very difficult time. Everstream is considered an essential business because we deliver and maintain the infrastructure our customers need to remain productive. The impact to our business has been minimal, and it's our responsibility to help where we can," said Everstream President and CEO Brett Lindsey.

To further support these seven communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, Everstream will order meals from local restaurants exclusively to assist as many businesses as possible. Everstream's local office managers will coordinate the daily order and delivery process. Everstream will provide lunch or dinner for a total of 30 days. Meals and dates will be determined by donation availability and location.

Everstream selected Ronald McDonald House Charities as its corporate beneficiary for 2020, with plans to help RMHC through several regular initiatives and volunteer opportunities across its Midwest footprint.

For more information, visit everstream.net.

Let the Brecksville, Broadview Heights and North Royalton communities know what is going on with your organization, church, school, business or family. Email me at shirleymac48@att.net.

Read more from the Sun Star Courier.

Local Cycling Apparel Company Begins to Produce Reusable Masks - NET Nebraska

Posted: 17 Apr 2020 03:58 PM PDT

by Allison Mollenkamp, NET News

Allison Mollenkamp, NET News

April 17, 2020 - 4:51pm

A Lincoln cycling apparel company is using its manufacturing facility to make reusable masks.

Champion System's business relies largely on cycling events where teams want custom apparel. Those events have all been canceled.

Jay Thomas, the owner of Champion System, said they pivoted their business to masks partly out of necessity.

"We really want to try to give back as much as we possibly can," Thomas said. "And we don't want common, everyday people wearing medical-grade masks, so we really wanted to build a reusable one that people going to the store, going back to work, could use. So that was really kind of the impetus behind what we're doing."

10% of sales will be donated to the Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence.

The masks are made of a material like that used in cycling clothing. They also have a pocket to hold a five-layer filter.

Santa Rosa apparel maker made famous by 'Survivor' getting rush of orders for face coverings - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Posted: 17 Apr 2020 06:41 PM PDT

Surely you've seen them on "Survivor," the reality TV show whose contestants wore these simple,versatile garments to identify their tribes.

They are products made by Buff, tubular bandanas made of stretchy fabric, which can be worn as headbands, neckerchiefs, balaclavas and tube tops, to name just a few of their uses.

Buff is short for bufanda, the Spanish word for scarf. Headquartered in Spain, with its Buff USA subsidiary in Santa Rosa, the company was founded in 1998 by Joan Rojas, a native Spaniard and motorcyclist who sought to protect his head and neck from the elements on cross-country rides.

Popular with runners, anglers, cyclists, skiers and other outdoor enthusiasts around the globe, Buff's "multifunctional headware" products have long been associated with "adventure and athletic pursuits," said Kevin Walker, marketing manager of the Santa Rosa office, which employs 20 people. Lately, those "multifunctional" items have a new function.

The beginning of April brought a "significant increase" in demand for Buff products. That rush coincided with a directive issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Protection. Responding to data showing many people carrying the coronavirus were "asymptomatic," the CDC recommended that people wear cloth or fabric face coverings in public. Shortly after announcing the new federal guidelines, President Donald Trump memorably added he had no intention of wearing a face covering, himself. (Sonoma County health officials made it mandatory as of Friday to wear face coverings inside buildings, other than home, or outside when people can't keep adequate social distance from each other.)

Perhaps Trump might feel differently if he'd seen Buff's stylish array of options, including items named for National Parks, with colors ranging from Anira purple to Hatay blue and Ionosphere. Or he might prefer the Buff product named for his recently adopted state of Florida.

While the best way to prevent transmission of the virus is to practice physical distancing of at least 6 feet, the CDC said face coverings can slow the spread of the virus. They can be especially helpful preventing transmission from people who have the virus but don't realize it.

While all face masks help decrease exposure to the coronavirus, good old-fashioned cotton fabric is more effective in this role than a synthetic material like polyester, according to a recent article on Outside.com. Most Buff products are made from a breathable, moisture-wicking polyester microfiber blend.

Buff officials said in a statement on the company's website that, while its head and neckware protects against nature's elements, "they are not scientifically proven" by the CDC to prevent wearers from contracting the virus, or passing it on.

That hasn't stopped a rush of phone calls and online orders for Buff headwear since early April. Walker and his colleagues are dealing with significantly increased demand while working from home — a challenge that previous natural disasters, such as floods and wildfires, have helped prepare them for, he said.

The shipping efficiencies put in place during the previous calamities have "helped us navigate this and work as a team" during the COVID-19 outbreak, he said.

Coronavirus or not, they've got their customers covered.

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at 707-521-5214 or austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com.

Easton apparel company shifts production to face masks with coronavirus pandemic - Enterprise News

Posted: 17 Apr 2020 04:55 AM PDT

Since 1972, Pop Tops Sportswear in Easton has made custom apparel and uniforms for colleges, sports teams, first responders, fundraising events and more. Now, they've shifted operations to manufacture three-layer face masks with built-in filtering material and are on pace to produce roughly 10,000 masks a week.

EASTON — When it comes to custom apparel, Pop Tops Sportswear has been the go-to manufacturer around the Easton area for nearly 50 years.

Since 1972, the family run business has made custom gear for organizations around New England, and even across the country, varying from high school sports uniforms to fundraiser T-shirts to New England Patriots gear when the team was declared the AFC Champion in January 2018.

Now, in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending wearing masks when out in public, Pop Tops Sportswear has shifted gears to put its manufacturing equipment and personnel to work to meet the demand for protective face masks.

They started taking orders from the public last week, Jonathan Fine, vice president of marketing and sales, said Wednesday, and they started production on Monday, on pace to churn out roughly 10,000 masks a week. Fine said staff are wearing personal protective equipment, such as masks, themselves as they work.

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"We had orders for 10,000 the first day," he said. "... But we're looking at more people, more machines and scaling up to meet demand."

The masks are all hand-sewn, Fine said, and they're washable and reusable.

(Editor's note: This content is being provided for free as a public service to our readers during the coronavirus outbreak. Please support local journalism by subscribing to The Enterprise.)

"It's a wicking antimicrobial polyester with a filter material sewn in the middle of it, so it's triple layer," he said.

And with their typical business of making custom apparel, they're also able to customize the masks with logo stamps for businesses, he said.

Masks start anywhere from $10 per mask on the high end, he said, though the price per mask can go down to as low as $5 a mask depending on volume ordered. For customers looking to place orders, they're quoting two-week lead times and trying to do them faster, he said.

And while the bulk of production right now are the masks, Fine said they're still doing uniform orders for first responders and businesses on the front lines of the health crisis.

"There's a need out there and I'm glad we're able to help," he said. "I'm glad we have the equipment and the staff that's able to rally around this time."

Mask orders can be placed by contacting sales@poptopssportswear.com. Staff writer Corlyn Voorhees can be reached at cvoorhees@enterprisenews.com. You can follow her on Twitter at @corlyn_ENT.

Nike Is the World's Most Valuable Apparel Brand - Motley Fool

Posted: 17 Apr 2020 06:36 AM PDT

Business valuation consultancy Brand Finance recently released its annual rankings of apparel brands according to brand value, and Nike has retained its top spot with a value of $34.8 billion, a 7% increase over last year.

A strategy that works

Nike (NYSE:NKE) delivered an excellent third quarter report at the end of March just prior to the shutdown in the U.S. caused by the coronavirus. However, the numbers were lower than usual thanks to store closures in China. China is the company's fastest growing market, so those closures put the brakes on high growth, but the recent reopening spells some good fortune for Nike as it will have to absorb losses from store closures in the U.S. and other markets.

Image source: Getty Images.

Many other apparel brands will have to deal with decreases or losses, but despite slowing growth, Nike is still on top.

Outdoing its peers

Nike's value is almost double that of second-place Gucci, which moved up this year with a value of $17.6 billion. Adidas, Nike's biggest competition, slipped to third place with a value of $16.5 billion.

Levi's, the always-cool jeans company, is back in style and is the fastest growing brand on the list with an increase of 38% to $4.1 billion. Valentino and Gap saw the biggest declines on the list, both falling 39%. Rolex is tagged as having the strongest brand value, according to the Brand Strength Index.

The Brand Finance report suggests the retail sector in general could lose up to 20% of its value due to COVID-19. This decrease could affect several industries including restaurants, airlines, apparel, and auto parts, all of which are expected to fall in value.