PORTLAND, Ore. — Marcus Harvey started Portland Gear in 2014. The company's logo is pretty simple. A capital "P" with the outline of Oregon in it. It represents both, the city he grew up in and the state he grew up in.
In mid-March, Harvey had to close his three metro-area stores and move to online sales due to the COVID-19 outbreak. He says he's always been thinking of a way to give back.
In April, he started a t-shirt design contest on the company's Instagram page asking anyone that wanted, to submit a t-shirt design that would help support healthcare workers. The only requirement, it needed to say, "We Love You Portland". The contest quickly received 120 submissions.
"It was amazing to see how many people actually submitted designs for this and just the creativity and the artwork that we have in Portland is just pretty awesome," Harvey said.
Through online voting, the top 8 were picked. Then out of the top 8, came the top 3.
"These are the 3 finalists which are really, really awesome. All unique, all different."
One of the winning designs was created by Annika Holliday, a senior at Catlin Gabel in southwest Portland.
"I'm happy and surprised that I was one of the winners, since I don't have a lot of experience in graphic design," Holliday said.
Annika said she went through multiple drafts before deciding on the winning design.
"Some of things I was thinking about were two hands holding the O and it being a heart. Or a foot like stomping on the virus. Ultimately, I really wanted to foot to convey positive emotions. So that's why I decided to put a healthcare worker on the shirt."
Every winning design has a story behind it, for Annika hers was a tribute to the healthcare workers that are close to her family and friends.
"Really because they are the ones keeping us all safe through all of this."
The three t-shirts are for sale on the Portland Gear website and for every shirt sold, one will get printed and donated to a healthcare worker at a local hospital.
"I just thought, a gesture from Portland Gear to get a cool, new shirt that says we love you Portland for a doctor or a nurse when they're getting off a long shift at work and they get this shirt, kind of as a token that says, 'hey we as a community, we love you. Thank you for doing that,'" Harvey said.
So far, Harvey says they've sold a couple hundred shirts and hope to sell at least 500. That means 500 doctors, nurses and healthcare workers will get a free t-shirt.
