Wednesday’s mass shooting at a Molson Coors brewery, in which a disgruntled employee shot and killed five workers, made for somber mid-week news. Today, though, we have restored a bit of our faith in humanity, as a Milwaukee T-shirt company created tees it hopes to distribute to Molson Coors employees and raise money for a victims’ fund.
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Brew City Brand commenced its apparel tribute yesterday morning, printing 1,000 T-shirts adorned with a “Miller Strong” design and seeking a way to distribute it to brewery employees. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, once the Molson Coors hires have their shirts, Brew City Brand will look to sell the products as a way to generate a memorial fund for the victims, whom authorities identified yesterday.
“While we are planning on donating 1,000 Miller Strong T-shirts to Miller next week for employees and families, we have no immediate plans to sell this shirt,” the company wrote in an Instagram post. “We did this out of love for the victims families and employees of Miller, who have supported us for over 30 years. It was our opportunity to give back, in our small way.”
“It’s been overwhelming how many people have said they want to buy them,” George Keppler, co-owner of Brew City Brand, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “If we do sell them, Brew City Brand doesn’t want to profit from it.”
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The screen printing efforts are helping Brew City Brand process “the senseless loss of life” and represent a great reminder of the power of decorated apparel. Yes, such goods have often served as means to make money, but they also can have an admirably altruistic element to their existence, too.
Such is the case with the nod to Molson Coors and its connection to Brew City Brand. Since the latter completed the T-shirts only yesterday, we will be eager to see how swiftly it will market the products if and when Miller gives it the go-ahead. Brilliant as branded items, the T-shirts are even more valuable as evidence to counter the assertion that “swag” is just junk and that promotional products have a limited scope in the commercial world.
“We promise to work with Miller to explore an avenue where we can sell these shirts in a way that benefits victims’ families,” Brew City Brand wrote. “We’ll update you all when we can.”
