A few weeks ago, Fanatics halted production on its Major League baseball uniforms in its Easton, Pa., factory and began using material intended for Phillies and Yankees uniforms for masks and gowns for medical professionals in the surrounding area.
Now, the company is appealing to medical professionals/baseball fans in Cleveland, after donating 15,000 masks made from material originally used for Cleveland Indians uniforms.
Material set aside to make @Indians jerseys is now being turned into 15,000 masks for Cleveland Clinic. (via @clevelanddotcom)https://t.co/xYKYoTSCuY
— ClevelandClinicNews (@CleClinicNews) April 22, 2020
The original agreement between Fanatics and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred included plans to expand beyond the PA/NJ/NY tri-state area, and this is the first we’ve seen of that plan coming to fruition. Since there’s no baseball to be played right now, Fanatics is using the time to still keep its machines running and make a real impact on health care professionals dealing with the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic every day.
“We hope this effort can play a part in coming together as a community to help us through this challenging situation,” Manfred said in a statement to Cleveland.com.
It’s a nice act of altruism by the MLB and Fanatics, which are both absorbing the $3 million manufacturing cost. Fanatics is hardly alone in its decision to shift from apparel manufacturing to PPE. But for MLB, whose revenue couldn’t even screech to a halt because the season couldn’t start anyway, it’s a nice gesture.
Fanatics sent the masks from its Easton facility to its Frazeysburg, Ohio, distribution facility outside of Columbus. From there, the masks went to the Cleveland clinic.
Now, the question is which MLB team uniforms would make for the most stylish face masks and gowns. The obvious answer is the erstwhile Arizona Diamondbacks uniforms. You know the ones—that purple/gold/black they wore when they won the World Series. The A’s and Orioles would also look great. Maybe Fanatics can send some black and orange ones (with the Maryland flag patch) to Johns Hopkins.
Jokes aside, this is a great program to bring together the world of sports, apparel manufacturing and the crucial work the medical community does every single day. While we’re interested to see more uniforms-turned-masks, we hope the demand for them goes down every day.
