By Marcie Opraseuth
ATHENS, Ga.—A local sporting good company reinvents its product to serve the needs of special customers undergoing chemotherapy and other medical treatments.
Stan Kanavage, former University of Georgia football player, started Evoshield, a sports protection company. The company uses body-forming shields that mold into a unique fit for each athlete. The shield is lightweight, fits into an athletic shirt and disperses energy on impact.
According to Evan Dewalt, the creative and marketing director, the company is making special shirts in order to accommodate unlikely users of the product, such as people who have medical conditions and would not be able to play sports without protection.
Evoshield has made around 100 special shirts for people who have pacemakers, chemotherapy drips or need organ protection, said David Hudson, vice president and customer service manager. People find the Evoshield website and send requests for the special shirts. In order to make the shirts, the customer mails a sample shirt for sizing and marks where protection is needed.
“They’re all special. That’s why we started the company,” said Stan Payne, national sales manager of Evoshield. “It’s not only for athletes but for any child who wants to play sports.”
Sixty percent of the people that request these protective shields need them to continue playing sports. Forty percent need them just to continue their lifestyles. The shield gives customers a second chance to live a normal life.
“The best part is when the parents call back and say thank you,” said Payne.
Frank Hodges, a Mississippi resident and parent of a 6-year-old boy with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma has ordered a special shirt for his son. Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a type of cancer that attacks the body’s lymph nodes and severely weakens the immune system. His son must undergo a 30-month chemotherapy treatment and has completed one year of the process.
“I was looking for some type of protection,” said Hodges. “It seemed the most customizable.”
For children who have a chemotherapy port, there is a fear that impact may cause serious complications, which will most likely result in surgery. By having protection, these children can live their lives normally without injuring themselves further or causing infection.
The special shirt Hodges’ son uses has a thumb guard that covers the left side of the child’s chest in order to protect the area where the chemotherapy is given.
Other examples of people using Evoshield to continue playing sports include people who were affected by a brutal crime. One man was shot in the chest with a shotgun and has no muscle or bone for protection over his lungs, according to Hudson.
Another example is a man who was stabbed from the heart down to his midsection. His muscles were destroyed, which caused the man to have no protection over his heart.
Edited by Lindsay Dobras
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This is an interesting story about an unusual product. It helps to have a parent of someone who's used the shield in addition to company representatives.
ReplyDeleteI'm still a little confused about how it works, though. The photo from yesterday makes it look like just a piece of fabric. How is something that thin going to protect a catheter, or someone without bone or muscle over their lungs, from being hurt when they're hit by a baseball or jammed with an elbow?
The lead can work, but the tense is off. Do you mean to say the company "has reinvented" its product, or that it "is continually reinventing" its product to meet individual needs? This straight present tense is appropriate for broadcast writing, but not for print or Web stories.