Tieks Launches #SewTogether Campaign to Create Much-Needed Masks for Healthcare Workers

As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across the United States, taking an unprecedented toll on the nation’s medical community and resources, the beloved Los Angeles-based shoe manufacturer Tieks by Gavrieli launched an online campaign to provide masks for COVID-19 medical providers.

Tieks by Gavrieli, a leader in online fashion marketing, mobilized its manufacturing resources — along with its millions of customers, followers, and supporters — to produce protective face masks for frontline medical personnel in hospitals facing extreme shortages.

Tieks CEO Kfir Gavrieli said his company immediately sprung into action to set up a mask production assembly line at the company’s production facility in Los Angeles after learning about the urgent need for masks for medical personnel across America as the pandemic spreads aggressively. After purchasing a fleet of sewing machines and the necessary materials, Gavrieli had his staff re-trained to sew masks that could be donated immediately to local hospitals.

In tandem with their in-house effort, the company also launched Operation #SewTogether, an online social media campaign that encourages Tieks customers and supporters around the world to join the company’s life-saving mission by sewing along and joining the mask-making effort. The goal of Operation #SewTogether is to produce hundreds of thousands of masks and donate them to frontline healthcare workers across the United States who need them urgently.

In exchange for their fans’ collaboration, Tieks is giving out gift cards that provide discounts on its highly coveted line of luxury ballet flats, which are made of sumptuous materials and designed to fold and fit into a purse. To incentivize customers to help in its effort to produce large quantities of masks, Tieks is giving away $50 gift cards for every 25 masks sewn by customers, and $100 gift cards for every 50 masks.

The company created an ​online resource​ that provides its followers with detailed instructions on how to make the protective masks at home, and is asking for donations of the homemade masks, with detailed instructions on how to deliver the masks in exchange for a gift card.

Operation #SewTogether has taken social media by storm, providing support and guidance, as well as motivation and sewing instructions, to thousands of followers who have committed to joining the fight to produce masks together for healthcare workers fighting COVID-19.

And fans are stepping up. Beloved by customers for their stylish, comfortable, durable, and portable design, Tieks are considered the most versatile flats in the world, and are touted as being among the most comfortable shoes a woman can wear for any occasion. In exchange for those discount gift cards toward the highly regarded Tieks merchandise, customers are stepping up to the challenge of coming together to make protective face masks for front line medical personnel.

Since its launch, Operation #SewTogether has reached millions of people and more than 500,000 masks have already been donated to hospitals and medical centers across the country, where shortages of protective gear for hospital personnel have been a major challenge. Thanks to Tieks' popular social media channels, within 24 hours of launching the Operation #SewTogether campaign, thousands of followers were already motivated to sew masks for hospitals and clinics and were building a rapidly growing supply of masks.

"Overnight, we have managed to create a work-from-home factory with thousands of amazing members of our Tieks family, who have mobilized to pump out hundreds of thousands of masks," Gavrieli said. "As soon as I learned of this coming shortage, I knew we had a responsibility to reorient our business to get masks into the hands of those who need them most. We've seen the tremendous power of our Tieks community many times before, but the response so far has been beyond anything I could have imagined. There is an overwhelming desire to help. We are merely mobilizing and facilitating this effort. By sewing together, we can and will save lives together."

Gavrieli learned of the critical shortage of protective masks that hospital personnel are experiencing through a friend whose sister is a frontline medical provider, aoctor. He also became aware that some medical personnel were spending their free time sewing protective masks themselves, to protect themselves and their loved ones, while also preventing the transmission of the virus in the hospital environment.

As part of the #SewTogether campaign, Tieks will also be making a significant cash contribution to purchase additional masks from overseas suppliers, and get them into the hands of frontline medical personnel as quickly as possible.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes