Kohl’s team creates head wraps for cancer patients
Over 800 wraps will be donated
MENOMONEE FALLS – On the fourth floor of the Kohl’s Corp. headquarters, amid the racks and shelves jammed with the clutter of a creative operation, the big retailer’s product developers do good work.
Sometimes they do good works, too.
Take, for example, Jessica Helfer and Ann Harnack.
Helfer, 29, is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, and a designer for Kohl’s. Harnack, 27, graduated from Illinois State University and is a product development coordinator.
Typically, the two young women are busy wrestling with ideas on clothing for juniors, active apparel and, in Harnack’s case, men’s underwear. But lately they’ve had a special assignment — creating head wraps and caps for people undergoing cancer treatment.
It’s part of Kohl’s longstanding support of the American Cancer Society, one that will see the designs turned into more than 800 head wraps — all to be donated to the society — in a big, one-day production push on the company’s campus.
Like Kohl’s, many corporations engage in charitable activity. From a business standpoint, it promotes good relations. That’s arguably particularly important for retailers, who depend on the goodwill of consumers.
But the head wrap effort stands out as something where the company can bring its own expertise to bear in a worthwhile cause.
“I just keep saying that I’m awestruck,” Julie Schumann of the American Cancer Society said Tuesday. “I’m blown away. I’m incredibly appreciative of what they’re doing.”
The Cancer Society pitched the idea for the project to Kohl’s in late February. It has had other people sew head wraps and donate them, but suggested that Kohl’s could make more, said Christy Free, the company’s director of technical design for Milwaukee apparel.
So, she and Lisa Geardino, vice president of footwear product development, put Helfer and Harnack to work.
“We researched a lot, and we met with some associates here who had actually been cancer survivors and sought some insight here about what they wanted out of these head wraps,” Helfer said. “And the most important thing was comfort.”
That pointed the design team toward cotton in various forms, including a woven poplin (easy to sew — a consideration come production time) and a soft, interlocking knit that stretches but springs back to shape.
“It holds its body,” Free said. “It has a really nice feel to it. It’s not wimpy.”
Some of the designs are basic — for people who might feel uncomfortable standing out, Helfer said. Others have feminine touches such as shirring, fabric flowers or a faux pony tail.
Most of the wraps will be for women, but there are also designs for men and boys.
All told, there are seven silhouettes that will be produced in several patterns, not by an outside contractor but by Kohl’s employees.
On Aug. 11, the company will install about 60 sewing machines and set up an assembly line. There, hundreds of members of the product development team will fashion the head wraps, wrap them in gift paper tied with shiny ribbons and place them in colorful boxes Kohl’s employees also designed.
Then they’ll go where they’re needed — given free to people going through treatment.
“Cancer patients are part of our customer base,” Geardino said. “And we wanted to do something for them, and do something that is a little more fun and friendly and warm.”