Roots donates medical masks, $500K in products, repurposes its Canadian factory

Roots is donating $500,000 in products to frontline healthcare workers as well as medical masks, and repurposing its Canadian factory to produce non-medical masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Canadian outdoor lifestyle brand said its product donations are being repurposed as scrubs at local medical facilities. It has also donated “Comfort Kits” filled with Roots products to frontline healthcare workers.

“Supporting the communities where we live, work and do business has been at the heart of what we do for more than four decades,” said Meghan Roach, Interim Chief Executive officer.

“In these unprecedented times, we are giving back in the best way we can, through the comfort of our products and by leveraging our Canadian design and manufacturing capabilities. We are proud to be doing our part to support the amazing Canadian frontline healthcare workers who are sacrificing so much and working tirelessly through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Roots said it has repurposed its Toronto factory to produce non-medical, washable, and reusable face masks, all designed and made in Canada by their employees.

 

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To date, Roots has donated over $500,000 of merchandise to be used by frontline medical workers. For every face mask purchased, Roots will donate one medical grade face mask to a frontline healthcare worker. At Roots, we believe comfort is not only something that goes into making what we wear, it’s a feeling we hope to bring to people around the world—especially at times when they need it most. Made by us at our retooled Leather Factory in Toronto. We’ve repurposed our manufacturing operations at our Leather Factory to make non-medical face masks by hand in Toronto. Our in-house design team worked closely with the makers at our Leather Factory to create a reusable mask design, with comfort and safety in mind, that could assist in the efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Watch our story to learn more about how we’re making masks, to do our part.

A post shared by Roots (@roots) on Apr 24, 2020 at 11:34am PDT

According to the company, its first round of production sold out within hours.

Besides its production of non-medical masks, the company is also donating 3,000 medical-grade masks to local medical facilities.