Apparel company's T-shirt idea accidentally earns over $86G (and counting) for coronavirus relief
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Countries across the globe are working to “flatten the curve” when it comes to newly reported cases of coronavirus. But one company’s unique interpretation of the popular phrase has unwittingly led to a massive COVID-19 relief fundraiser.
Geoff Cunningham is co-founder and art director of Linksoul, a lifestyle brand that sells a variety of golf products. Like most business owners, he revealed to Fox News that he was feeling down and out due to lost business and having to furlough beloved employees. He even snapped at his social media manager, Lauren, when she asked him how should Linksoul respond to the world events.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I snipped at her and said, ‘Nobody cares what we have to say,’” Cunningham told Fox News. “But she knows me better and replied [saying] 'creativity is going to get us all through this,' and that resonated with me.”
In an effort to figure out how his company could get involved, Cunningham created a golf-inspired graphic, writing “this calls for the low stinger,” referring to a low-arching shot. He added a hashtag to the shirts reading #FlattenTheCurve, in an effort to encourage people to flatten the coronavirus curve.
(Linksoul)
“The visual immediately popped into my head of a low stinger,” explained Cunningham. “A golf shot that focuses on keeping your ball flight low and safe from the elements, and you can see the arc of the shot visually in the graph that we're all used to seeing on flattening the curve.”
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The Linksoul co-founder’s graphic design was posted on Instagram and the feedback, as Cunningham described it, was “absolutely bonkers.”
Cunningham told Fox News that he received countless requests to put the graphic on a T-shirt, so he did, but took it a step further: The company, which already makes a variety of graphic tees, decided to step up production and donate 100 percent of the shirt's sales to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP) to help with COVID-19 relief.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to its website, the CDP assists our country’s most vulnerable populations in times of disaster, including hourly wage earners, immigrant populations, older adults and people with disabilities.
At the publication of this article, Cunningham’s T-shirt had already raised $86,100 for COVID-19 relief.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“It’s true, Lauren was right,” said Cunningham. “Creativity and seeing things in a new light is really going to get us through this.”
Emily DeCiccio is a reporter and video producer for Fox News Digital Originals. Tweet her @EmilyDeCiccio.