Headbands for Heroes: Local companies team up to help front-line workers

As we get further into the battle against the Coronavirus, new issues arise each day. Companies are adapting on the fly, learning how they can adjust their business models to help fight the pandemic.

Two companies, The Cue and Custom Sports Sleeves, have teamed up to address one issue head-on. It turns out wearing a mask non-stop can have some physical side effects many could not have predicted.

“I was on social media one night and I saw this nurse in New York and she was up and night making this headband with buttons on it,” said Tia, the owner of The Cue, based on Dorchester. “I was like, ‘This woman is working at the hospital, 12 hour shifts, she does not need to be sewing this. We can sew this.'"

Tia went to work, rolling up her sleeves and utilizing the sewing skills she learned so many years ago, creating a headband with buttons on it to relieve the pain, chafing and even cuts that had started to come to the forefront for anyone wearing masks.

Immediately, requests and orders for headbands started pouring in and the demand became too much to handle.

“It got to the point, last week, that we had to shut down orders over the weekend so I could figure this out," said Tia.

That’s where Custom Sports Sleeves entered the picture. Based in Worcester, this family-owned business was up against it, wondering how the wheels would keep turning during this tough time.

“I was on LinkedIn,” said Chris Josephs, the co-owner of Custom Sports Sleeves. “I came across a post of someone that shared Lindsay’s post, saying, 'Hey, we’re a local Boston boutique looking for a manufacturer to do these headbands with buttons on them.”

A partnership was born and now Headbands For Heroes is more than a business, it’s a mission spearheaded by two entrepreneurs.

“We’ll be sewing them all at our facility and then bulk-shipping them to Lindsay where she’s going to be able to distribute them,” said Josephs.

“We don’t really want the nurses to pay,” said Tia. “We just see the amount of pain they’re in. We’re trying to do as much as we can to make sure the product gets paid for, it’s going back to a small business, it’s supporting the community and it’s helping our front-liners, most importantly.”

You can help by making a donation - visit Lindsay’s Venmo account @TheCue - for every $8 donated, the cost of a headband will be covered.

You can also visit The Cue’s official website: ShopTheCue.com

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