No Sanitizer. No Masks. A problem that swept the nation, that was felt by two local Cleveland companies. Doctor Shultz’s Premium Hand Sanitizer, who manufacture less abrasive sanitizer with essential oils and vitamins, and Ilthy, a popular Cleveland clothing brand, team up to get scarce products into the hands of the community and make a statement.
Doctor Shultz’s, who funded their company through kickstarter in 2019, and now sell in groceries such as Heinen’s, were totally overwhelmed with the demand. “Hundreds of orders started pouring in overnight – we had a good stock, but I don’t think anyone could have planned for what happened. Some Heinen’s stores were selling 500 units every couple days. We just couldn’t keep up, and ran through 6 months of stock in about 2 weeks.”
The issue though was not easily solvable. Due to the strain on the entire industry, large manufacturers, government and health contracts, and institutions all needing sanitizer crippled consumer ability to get their hands on sanitizer – a 16 week lead time on any new sanitizer for Shultz due to alcohol scarcity. It got so bad that the FDA had to issue an official ‘sanitizer emergency response. Basically, they reduced regulations, allowing distilleries to convert facilities and produce a very specific World Health Organization formula for hand sanitizer.
“We were turning away orders daily on our website, and wanted to get SOME kind of sanitizer into our community’s hands, even if it wasn’t our formula. So, we reached out to Northern Row Distillery in Cincinnati, who had already converted their facilities for sanitizer, and had bandwidth to bring us on.”
Meanwhile, Ilthy was making its own efforts to help the community fight the pandemic by creating masks using their typical array of bold patterns alongside high quality materials. Many of their masks feature the brand front and center, but the crowd favorite has been “Cleveland Against the World” seen by many around the city.. The two companies noticed each other’s efforts, and decided to team up on creating a care package kit, complete with sanitizers and a mask.
Kumar Arora, co-owner of Ilthy mentioned the relationship with Doc Shultz goes way back. “The collaboration was an opportunity for old friends to come together during these uncertain times but also a chance for two brands pivot to create something that’s truly local. It’s our responsibility to not sit back when we can provide for our local community.”
Individual Hand Sanitizers are available at docshultz.com and the Mask + Hand Sanitizer Kit is available at ilthy.com.
This article appears in May 13-19, 2020.
