PPB April 2021

back, the company still had sewing machines packed away. Gabel says, “We called one of the sewers who had been furloughed and asked, ‘Do you think we can make a mask?’” “She said ‘Let’s give it a shot,’” Gabel recalls, so they took a piece of microfiber and bought some elastic at a nearby fabric store. “We knew we could do this,” he says. That was on a Friday and Gabel asked Kooistra to put together a guerilla marketing campaign over the weekend because, starting Monday, Toddy Gear was going to be selling masks. Kooistra and her team designed the campaign, and emails were sent to customers on Monday morning at 8 am. “At 8:05, we started getting orders,” he says, and the phone kept ringing. As demand for masks swelled, their initial capacity of about 2,000 masks a day grew to about 16,000 a day. Before long, the company had a two- month back order. Gabel brought back all furloughed employees and hired about 90 new 1099 workers to keep up with the orders. He also bought new equipment including a high-end laser cutter and more sewing machines. Among the early orders was one for the City of Chicago for 30,000 masks. “I was driving to the United Center every other day with 5,000 masks to fill that order. It was a crazy time for us,” says Gabel. There were so many orders coming in that the company began pooling sales commissions. “It was all hands on deck and the salespeople worked as a team,” he says. Toddy Gear went from a company with one shift to three shifts working 24 hours a day. To keep workers safe, they found a local company that sold plexiglass and built workstations to separate those working on the factory floor. Most other employees worked remotely. The company also conducted temperature and blood oxygen checks of everybody upon arrival at the factory. “We got a few COVID cases,” Gabel says, “but we had protocols in place and sent people home immediately. We followed the rules. We knew we were doing the right things. We took care of everybody.” In time, as other suppliers began offering masks and Chinese sources lowered their order minimums, Toddy Gear’s sales leveled off, but the strategy to quickly pivot to manufacturing a dye sublimated mask (an improved version with three layers, a nose bridge and adjustable ear loops eventually replaced the original model) created a momentum that kept the company humming along and people employed during a year when the industry definitely struggled. In the second quarter of 2020, suppliers and distributors reported sales down 78 percent compared to the same quarter in 2019, according to PPAI research. By the fourth quarter of last year, 20 percent of suppliers reported that sales decreased by up to 20 percent compared to the third quarter and 15 percent reported decreases of 20-40 percent. For distributors, 12 percent saw sales decrease by up to 20 percent compared to the previous quarter. Eight percent reported decreased sales of 20-40 percent. Likewise, in the first half of 2020, PPAI research showed that 25 percent of companies on both sides of the industry “We got a few COVID cases, but we had protocols in place and sent people home immediately. We followed the rules. We knew we were doing the right things. We took care of everybody.” Todd Gabel CEO Toddy Gear Chicago, Illinois FEATURE | Resilient And Resourceful 28 | APRIL 2021 |