From a bummer to benefiting
Broomfield family turns from making wrestling gear to producing face masks
As the number of people infected with coronavirus spiked nationwide last week, Adam Gutierrez got a nagging feeling.
The Broomfield-area promoter and sports apparel manufacturer had seen his family’s biggest event of the year canceled by COVID-19 just a week earlier. But he couldn’t shake that idea that he could help.
It was while Gutierrez, 33, was watching a news report detailing a lack of face masks for health care workers on the front lines, that it hit him.
“I have the printers. I have the fabric,” Gutierrez said, adding: “Maybe we can start helping.”
Xtreme Pro Apparel, the sports attire company owned by the Gutierrez family, specializes in producing anti-microbial fabric necessary for wrestling singlets to combat skin disease. All the Broomfield High School graduate had to do was figure out a way to reconfigure production to start manufacturing face masks. By the end of last week, he had his first pattern back.
And, within five minutes of posting the news to the company’s social media account, he said he already had an order for 100 masks.
“This whole thing is getting a lot bigger than I ever really thought it was,” Gutierrez said. “It turns out it was a much bigger necessity than I thought.”
It’s all a sharp turn from where things were for the Gutierrez family March 13, when their promotional company RMN Events had to
cancel the Rocky Mountain Nationals youth wrestling tournament at the National Western Complex in Denver.
The scales were set. The mats laid out. And thousands of youth wrestlers from around the country were streaming into the city. The 20th edition of the event was hours away when word began circulating that Gov. Jared Polis would soon urge the cancellation of all events with 250 or more people due to the spread of COVID-19.
“At that point, how do you really have a choice?” said Adam. There was none.
An event expected to draw 10,000 spectators and wrestlers over three days was canceled, forcing the Gutierrez family to refund wrestlers who would no longer compete for the tournament’s famously elaborate rings.
“I don’t even know if I can put a number on (how much money was lost),” Gutierrez said.
Soon, that number took a back seat to the crisis caused by the coronavirus. And Gutierrez’s plan to produce face masks was hatched.
The initial design was a double-layered mask that is 90% polyester and 10% spandex. But certain changes may need to be made in order to make the masks medical grade, Gutierrez said. Once that gets sorted out, his goal is to start mass producing masks as quickly as possible, pledging to donate a portion of the proceeds to hospitals in need.
As for the tournament, Gutierrez said RMN Events will try to reschedule and be as adaptive as possible. But that can wait.
“It’s a family business, my two parents and me and my other two brothers,” Gutierrez said. “For us it’s not really about how much did you win or lose. … My dad, he says it’s about hard work and clean living.”