SHIPPENVILLE, Pa. (EYT) – The tag line for All American Awards & Engraving in Shippenville is “We’ll put almost anything on almost everything.”
(PHOTO: Ian Carroll, who owns All American Awards and Engraving with his father Jim Carroll, shows off a custom-made All American Awards & Engraving face mask.)
That goes for the newest “fashion trend” hitting the United States, face masks.
The company has started making face masks and custom-made face masks at its store on Route 322.
“I am glad we can offer this,” owner Jim Carroll said. “As we like to say, we can put almost anything on almost everything. Who would have thought that would include masks? That is where we are now.”
Carroll said the shop can customize your mask almost any way you would like it.
“Right now we are putting the picture of someone’s dog on their face mask,” Carroll said. “We can put your business logo right on the face mask, really almost anything you can think of.”
When social distancing first started back in March, Carroll, at the time, closed the doors of his shop. But, when Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf first made face masks a recommendation and then a mandate to be worn by customers and employees at essential businesses, Carroll saw a need and decided to fill that need.
“We started the weekend before last,” Carroll said. “People were wanting them, and we said we can do this. We can customize them. We started thinking about customizing them, and when they said everyone needs to wear them we were like ‘holy smokes, we need to get on this.’ So, we did some R&D on this and got a couple made, and it snowballed from there.”
Carroll said if businesses need face masks, then why not make those face masks look as good as one can.
“People need them, and, if needed, their logo will make it look more professional for them,” Carroll said. “We liked the idea for our own face masks, so we figured others would like it too.”
Carroll said the response to the face masks has been incredible.
“The response has been amazing,” Carroll said. “Once it went out on Facebook and exploreClarion shared it, and it went on our Instagram, I was getting phone calls all day Sunday, April 19. It has been really received very, very well.”
So well, in fact, Carroll is as busy as ever churning out face masks.
“We are trying to turn them around as fast as we can,” Carroll said. “There is such a demand for them right now. It is going to be about a week from the time someone orders them until we have them made. We have to cut the material, get the artwork figured out, send out a proof, and then sew them together. It takes several days to go through that process.”
Carroll said All American Awards & Engraving can even customize the mask so that people can put a filter in them if they chose.
“We have kid sizes, two sizes for adults (male and female), and rectangles,” Carroll said. “The rectangles seem to be the easiest on and off to use. If you are just coming in and out of a store real quick it pops on and pops off. With the fitted ones, sometimes people are wearing them around all day.”
The face masks start at $15.00 and go up from there depending on what someone wants done with them, according to Carroll.
“It’s been great to see so many people buy locally,” Carroll said. “They are trusting us to do this. It kind of brings the whole town together. Everyone wants to promote their business and look professional doing it. It’s great to see people around here do this.”
Carroll said in addition to getting local orders of face masks he is also seeing some from outside of Pennsylvania, as well.
“We are shipping some to Maine and Cleveland,” Carroll said. “It has put us on the map a little more. I will take that.”
Right now, the best way to order the face masks is to call the store at 814-782-6264 or 877-402-9273. Carroll said currently there isn’t anything on his website (http://www.allmericanhq.com) about the face masks.
“We hadn’t really thought about the web,” Carroll said. “We hit the ground with both feet running and haven’t had time to deal with the website.”
Copyright © 2024 EYT Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Any copying, redistribution or retransmission of the contents of this service without the express written consent of EYT Media Group, Inc. is expressly prohibited.
