Hot-sauce themed sweatpants and other 'stay-at-home' apparel benefits service industry workers
The late, iconic fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld once said, "Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought some sweatpants."
But as thousands of New Orleanians remain cooped up in their homes due to physical distancing measures, a local clothing designer, Matt Rebackoff, founder of Mr Eatwell, presents a different outlook. A silver lining of staying home, he says, "is that we essentially all have to wear sweatpants now." And now, some of the comfort items he's selling will also benefit laid-off service industry workers.
Rebackoff launched the small online shop Mr Eatwell (www.mr-eatwell.com) three months ago, selling food-themed apparel, such as sweatpants, sweatshirts, baby onesies and crop tops.
Items can be customized to include a pizza, bowl of pasta, po-boy sandwich or king cake. Most of the garments also are adorned with the message "appreciate you" in small lettering on the back. He says it's not just a way of saying thank you to his customers, but also a way for them to send positive messages to friends and strangers while wearing this gear in public.
Even though the pandemic has limited New Orleanians' ability to appear in public, Rebackoff still wants to show his appreciation for the community, which he says is largely bolstered by tourism and service industry workers.
Proceeds from the new line of hot sauce-themed garb, the result of a collaboration with Crystal Hot Sauce, will benefit the Greater New Orleans Foundation Hospitality and Family Assistance Program. So far, Crystal has been able to raise more than $4,000 to benefit laid-off service industry workers and their families through sales of Mr Eatwell items, which range in price from $22 to $60.
"The majority of people I know who work in restaurants no longer have jobs, or had to lay off all their employees," Rebackoff says. "So this is a way to give back and also get people into comfortable clothes that they can live in while stuck in the house."
He also points out that Crystal's chief operating officer and vice president Pepper Baumer previously had discussed having a "charitable component" to the partnership. "When [the pandemic happened], it was a no-brainer," he says.
"It's like a marriage made in heaven for me. Before this started, Crystal was my favorite hot sauce. And even when there's not a pandemic going on, I prefer to be in sweatpants."
A popular comedian and fellow hot sauce enthusiast also helped boost sales of the novelty sweatpants and sweatshirts.
Heather McMahan posted about the apparel to her half a million followers on her Instagram story, and Rebackoff says he immediately noticed an influx of requests.
Rebackoff responded by writing her a letter. "I said, 'You might have changed my life.' That grew the audience, and things have been moving along since."
The boost in sales has also allowed Rebackoff to develop another new design, a cheeky twist on the iconic Corona Beer label that says "Stay Home" and below that: "If you can read this, you're too close." He will donate $10 from each of these items to another local organization that popped up as the pandemic hit hard, Feed the Frontlines, which provides out-of-work musicians with jobs delivering food to front line workers.
Eventually, he says, he hopes to expand the business to include summer clothing, festival attire and fanny packs. When the pandemic ends and things get back to normal, he says, "I'm excited to design things for people to wear outside again."
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