PPB May 2020

Lott said, “Companies that are friendly competitors in normal times understand how important it is to band together and collectively be much stronger. And more companies are coming onboard. This is a story of an industry coming together. People who have the ability to do so are reaching out to help. This is us answering an urgent humanitarian need and our greatest hope is that they put us out of the mask business very soon with the development of a vaccine.” Industry Companies Retrofit Manufacturing To Provide Critical Supplies As the coronavirus spread in March, the demand for personal protective equipment to protect health-care workers spiked, threatening to exhaust available supplies. In response, companies across the promotional products industry stepped up to help fill the critical void. Hanes, which does business in the promotional products industry as Hanes/Champion based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is working with a consortium of companies including suppliers Sanmar (whose factory in Tennessee is shown here, in photos by Ryan McGill), Fruit of the Loom and AST Sportswear (part of Bayside Made in America). Together, the consortium worked to produce five to six million masks weekly using HanesBrands’s design and patterns. “This came together really fast,” said Jeremy Lott, president of Sanmar. “Our first conversation about it was on Thursday, and here on Tuesday, we’re beginning production on a product none of us had made before. It’s a tremendous level of effort. Whatever it takes to get this done, let’s do it right now. While we’re also fighting this challenge to our business that is existential, nothing is more important than this effort as the need is so dire.” 74 | MAY 2020 | CONNECT