Therefore, on March 20, after Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered the closure of unnecessary businesses, sisters Veronica and Deborah Kim were forced to work in the decoration and concept store Panda International laid off 8 employees, and the shop sells decorations like wrinkles or ribbons. Sewing tools such as clothing and needlework popular on West 38th Street are popular among students and designers in the fashion industry. Then they closed the door.
“We are worried,” Veronica is 28 years old this year, she is the CEO of the company founded by her father Won Koo “David” Kim. “We had to send many employees home and take vacations, and then wait for what happened next.”
What happened next was that a large number of elastic orders were suddenly issued on a group of usually sleepy Ebay websites. This was carried out by a group of Americans. The task was to equip the elderly and medical staff with masks to protect against the coronavirus.
Due to the shortage of masks in hospitals and nursing homes, hundreds of volunteers across the country have been shrinking behind their sewing machines to produce their own sewing machines. But it is difficult to find elastic materials to fix the masks. According to reports, amateur clothing makers are using ponytail clips, hair bands and cloth strips as substitutes.
Deborah Kim, 24, said that regions as far away as Indiana, Kentucky and even California are ordering quarter-inch and eight-inch rope and braided elastomers.
She said that part of the reason for the increase in orders was from fashion designers who obtained the qualification to produce masks from Cuomo and listed Panda International as a source of materials.
The Kim family kept the door closed to customers who came in, but internally, they quickly carried out a hub action, established an online business, focused on bringing flexibility to customers, and even hired two of the eight employees they laid off .
One of their new customers is Karen Allvin, a technical worker based in Virginia. She and her siblings launched the GoFundMe project “Let’s Breathe”, sending thousands of masks to the elderly in nursing homes and medical staff. A worker at a local bridal shop recommended the panda to Allvin.
“I cleaned up about six different fabric stores, and these stores found as many quarter-inch elastic bands as possible, and quickly realized that elastic bands would become our bottleneck,” Allvin said. “They are vital to our success in obtaining 8,500 masks currently distributed in seven states, because it is difficult to obtain flexibility.”
Lisa Sun, owner and designer of New York fashion company Gravitas, described the panda as an institution in the fashion industry that includes students from the Fashion Institute and Parsons College.
Kims’ father Won Koo “David” Kim opened the store in 1993 after immigrating to New York and working in the garment district. Both sisters were born in the city, but now live in northern New Jersey, at the age of 53 when he died of leukemia five years ago.
She said: “We used to have hot diamonds, and then we did some small projects when we were young and put them on our T-shirts,”
Today, the biggest demand is for braided and rope elastic bands for face masks, but Sister Kim said some people are ordering elastic bands for face masks or hospital gowns. Last week, they ran out of woven stretch material, which is more popular among mask manufacturers. They are ordering more.
They import elastic bands from India and China and factories across the United States. After the rolled and woven elastic bands are purchased, they are cut into lengths, packaged and shipped to customers.
Veronica said: “New York still has an attitude that everything still needs to be done quickly.” “(Due to) the pandemic, it is difficult for anyone to work as usual, so we received a lot of packages that were not received on time. Frustrating message of people.”
Veronica said the order has been delayed due to the backup of the US Postal Service. She said that this is the biggest challenge for reopening.
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