Need to get your mask on, Kansas City? Here are some charitable and stylish options
As coronavirus cases surge, Kansas City is now requiring the use of masks or face coverings in public to help stop the spread.
Kansans will have to start wearing masks in public spaces starting Friday.
Area retailers are offering a wide variety of choices in style, color and commentary, and in some cases raising funds for charity in the process.
Here are some places to buy masks. We will be updating the list. Please send information to Daniel Zeilstra at dzeilstra@kcstar.com under the subject “masks.”
▪ Charlie Hustle. The Kansas City apparel company offers the navy KC Heart face mask. The non-medical grade reusable masks are made of 100% Supima cotton with cloth ear loops. A pack of three for $25. For every pack purchased it will donate $5 to the Heart of Kansas City Foundation. Children’s sizes are in the works and should be available later this month.
The company has donated more than 70,000 white and navy KC Heart masks to essential workers and others in need since early April.
▪ Raygun. The Iowa-based company’s website and Crossroads store has masks with sayings to get the point across.
There’s the humorous, “Resting mask face.” And the sobering, “Hundreds of Americans die every day from a disease that this mask helps prevent.”
Raygun made 300 “Help keep Patrick Mahomes Safe: Wear a mask” face coverings and quickly sold after they were introduced last week.
“If you won’t do it for yourself, your friends, your loved ones or your community, do it for Patrick Mahomes,” said Mike Draper, owner of the Iowa-based Raygun, a printing, design and clothing company, which quickly sold out of a Mahomes-inspired mask. “If he catches it it will diminish his lung capacity. We need to keep the whole roster safe if we want the Chiefs to win another Super Bowl. Think about how happy you were when we won.”
On Wednesday, Raygun was printing 1,000 more. Employees will drive them down to the Crossroads shop Thursday morning. The shop also has a new Mahomes T-shirt with the saying.
Raygun will donate 35% of the profits of the Mahomes mask and T-shirt to Harvesters The Community Food Network.
▪ Sandlot. The handcrafted goods company is currently devoting about 75 percent of its production to masks.
The outer layer is 100 percent cotton ripstop, and the inner layer is tightly woven 100 percent cotton muslin. Available in small, standard and large, and various colors. $7.50 at Made In KC stores and website.
Sandlot, which makes leather goods, had purchased eight new sewing machines to handle the lighter fabrics and had as many as 40 people making masks, as well as home sewers. It also donated 45,000 masks during the pandemic.
“We made the best of the situation. It’s been great,” said Chad Hickman, owner and founder.
▪ 3C Easy Quick Repair, Independence Center, Oak Park Mall. The shops have several masks, including ones with glow-in-the-dark emblems such as a skeleton jaw, a sun, shamrock or star for $7.
▪ Unique Finds, Overland Park. It is partnering with Stitching Change, its local Fair Trade group, to make fabric masks from organically-grown cotton, repurposed cotton or cotton-blend fabric, sewn by their students at home. Prints include elephants, flowers and stars. $13
This story was originally published July 2, 2020 at 12:12 PM.