'Knock It Off' COVID-19 T-shirt Takes Rhode Island by Storm

By Joseph Myers

As states ponder gradual plans to reopen, governors have been receiving extra press and having their words and actions deciphered, questioned and praised. In Rhode Island, Gina Raimondo, in her second term as the state’s first female governor, is stressing social distancing as the nation contends with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Quite adamant about the curtailing of activity, she included “knock it off” in her rebuke of residents, with that quote inspiring Frog & Toad, “special little neighborhood shop” based in Providence, to sell a T-shirt that has raised thousands for the Rhode Island Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund.

Here’s a little good news:
1. Knock It Off shirt sales have been 🔥
2. We are donating 20% of all Knock It Off purchases to @RIFoundation and their COVID-19 Response Fund. pic.twitter.com/N1ROugbrAj

— Frog & Toad (@fntpvd) March 29, 2020

Rhode Island has fared quite well in limiting virus exposure through “aggressive measures,” prompting Frog & Toad to hope for inhabitants to respect the state’s efforts to return life to some definition of normal. Its form of assistance comes via the Knock It Off tee. The $22 rust-colored item is a pre-order offering that is designating 20 percent of its proceeds to the aforementioned source of relief

According to a Forbes look at the move by Frog & Toad, owners Asher Schofield and wife Erin Schofield saw the T-shirt as their means to raise spirits. “People have been looking for something to feel good about," the former told Forbes. "They’ve been looking for a way to help out, and we just provided a way to do it.”

The Schofields have thus far become major benefactors for such entities as food banks and charities. They've sold more than 7,500 of the shirts, generating more than $32,000 for downtrodden community helpers. Finding Raimondo’s “Knock It Off” sentiment “immediately awesome,” Asher Schofield is proving pretty inspirational, too, and is working hard to send along the “softest airlume combed and ringspun cotton” tops as soon as possible.

His brainchild represents yet another successful apparel-driven means to help communities and the nation at large to combat COVID-19. More will certainly come, so it could be interesting to see if governors come to motivate designers in the coming weeks, since their constituents will undoubtedly be hearing from and seeing them more.