UNITY COLLAB SENDS VIRTUAL HUGS AND DONATIONS TO THOSE AFFECTED BY COVID-19
#AirHugItOut
UNITY Collab embodies what it means to be collaborative in today’s rapidly changing world. The company’s founder, Kat Schliemann, doesn’t live in a large city where rainbows in the windows and cheers on her balcony could be heard, yet she desperately wanted to help the heroes on the frontlines. She pivoted her give-back brand of clear handbags to launch something completely new. The idea was to give others a simple but powerful way to support frontline healthcare workers. Schliemann launched #AirHugItOut, a campaign where people could send virtual hugs, hundreds of them, to frontline workers via images over social media. Concurrently, she created a collection of products where 100% of profits goes towards COVID-19 relief efforts.
“I wanted to reach through the TV and hug the nurses and doctors with bruises on their faces and tears in their eyes,” said Schliemann. “I felt so helpless, so I decided to send them a picture of myself doing an air hug to show them my support.”
Inspired by an old 1913 album cover, Schliemann designed a graphic of a bear doing an air hug and began printing the logo on t-shirts. She then went to work getting friends and family to send photos of themselves giving virtual hugs over social media to those on the frontlines. As the mental toll of COVID-19 started to become apparent for frontline workers and those struggling at home, she expanded the campaign’s reach by partnering with Crisis Text Line to provide confidential crisis intervention to those in need. The company’s video explaining the campaign in more detail can be seen here.
The goal with #AirHugItOut is to provide emotional and moral support, as well as monetary support through the sales of the products, primarily to healthcare workers who are risking their lives to help Americans around the country. How the company gives back:
• 100% of the proceeds from the #AirHugItOut product line are donated to support those affected by COVID-19
• UNITY Collab has set up charitable campaigns on their site where people can make a donation to Direct Relief, the leader in providing personal protective equipment to the frontlines, and to Crisis Text Line, a global not-for-profit providing free mental health texting services
• The company has committed to donating $1 each for the first 1,000 virtual hugs from their followers who tag #AirHugItOut on Instagram
Based in Lake Tahoe, California, with her husband and two young children, Kat Schliemann, the owner and founder of UNITY Collab, isn’t new to charitable giveback brands. After being deeply affected by repeated gun violence in schools, Schliemann started a non-partisan charity that donates life-saving supplies to classrooms across America — and designed a clear handbag line to help fund that charity called Clear Unity. You can still find the Clear Unity Campaign running on the UNITY Collab website – it is one of many campaigns-for-good that the company has launched to serve urgent causes. With creative and impactful twists to give back and a laser focus on doing good, this is a brand worth checking out and supporting.
