Phillip Maximilian, owner of Mener Grand Train Co., is in the business of bespoke suits, measuring, cutting, and assembling everything with his own hands. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and forced retailers to temporarily close last spring — causing many to wonder how the slowdown would impact business — Maximilian decided to shift his company’s focus toward what was then a more pressing need: face masks.
Little did he realize how busy he and his tailors would be.
At first, Mener Grand Train was making masks and donating them to hospitals. Word got around — with very little advertising, Maximilian says — and soon businesses were reaching out with orders, some requesting hundreds. On top of that, Mener Grand Train had a “buy one, donate one” policy, meaning the company would need to manufacture what was sold — and then one more, to be given to first responders.
And, as it is with suits, Mener Grand Train followed the same handmade philosophy with masks.
“We had to hand draw it, hand cut it, hand sew it. It’s like making a suit. I didn’t want to do it assembly-line style. It was individually made,” Maximilian says. “I really cared about how it looked and that it was functional.”
The demand soon got to the point that the company had to bring in family and friends who’d been laid off work to help. Maximilian says his crew “did not touch one suit at all” between April and May and focused strictly on mask making. He estimates they made at least 6,000.
“It was all around the clock — I really mean all around the clock,” he says. “We had a couple of weeks, it was, like, the whole seven days; it was nonstop from 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. and just changing out shifts.”
But it kept the company busy — and afloat. Mener Grand Train was one of several local fashion brands that opted to make masks during the lockdowns that occurred this past spring. Another company, Morgan Mercantile, introduced a mask with a “Hope” design that sold online while its South Main Street shop was temporarily closed.
“It was a thing that was a Saturday morning phone call, and by Monday, we’re printing and sewing and doing all of these things and having them out to people by that Wednesday, so we worked pretty fast to get that started,” says owner Chance Morgan.
While Morgan says mask making didn’t necessarily generate a ton of revenue for the shop, it did help cover overhead expenses.
“[Making money] wasn’t the whole goal of that initiative,” he says. “But at the same time, in a time when we were slower from our B2B customer side and not really sure how to move forward … it got us mentally and emotionally through that first couple of weeks. Panic was overridden by manufacturing and working.”
In recent months, things have gradually shifted back to normal for both Morgan Mercantile and Mener Grand Train Co. Mask making has slowed, and Mener Grand Train is back to making suits, while Morgan Mercantile continues screen printing and creating branded merchandise for its clientele.
Maximilian says the pivot toward face masks last spring not only kept his staff busy; it also kept the company steady during a time of economic uncertainty.
But he also says he doesn’t see the shift to mask making as a business decision; it was his company’s way of doing something for the community.
“It felt like we were mask manufacturers, but it felt good,” he says. “We were doing something right.”
A few face masks from local shops:
Double R doubler.com, $50
Franklin & Anthony franklinandanthony.com, $15
Gifted, giftedftw.com, $20
Tribe Alive tribealive.com, $18
