A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT
Dear Evolution Outdoor customers, new and old:
When we started Evolution Outdoor over 5 years ago, never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that we would be facing the issues of today with the Covid-19 Virus. We are all in disbelief and literally all in this fight shoulder to shoulder. In the Spirit of this, I am attempting to inform our long time consumers of Evolution Outdoors response to assist. Assist you, our employees, our communities, and our country through this very challenging period in our history.
Evolution Outdoor is an established, professional organization with decades of experience in the import/export business. Our primary business focus has been aimed at the outdoor industry with quality designed cut and sew products. As such, we know how to import products from “there to here” effectively and efficiently. It is this import/export expertise that compelled me and our team of professionals to enter this fight against this invisible enemy. We simply could not, just sit on the sidelines, and hope for the best, with the organization that we have in place both here and overseas. So, we acted. We are not in the medical supply business however, we put our sourcing teams overseas to the task of finding quality, approved PPE equipment, that has become nonexistent in the US marketplace. We challenged them to figure out how to get it here the fastest way possible while offering a fair price to whomever needs it. Our efforts, though rewarding at times, have also been exhausting, frustrating and downright sad, as we try to get critical equipment into the hands of people who so desperately need it. We have dealt with closing borders, countries freezing PPE equipment from exiting their country, over loaded production schedules, ever increasing air cargo freight rates, customs inspections, and SCAM artists. We started bringing in masks from India and within 2 weeks, we had to shift countries due to government border closings. So as of this hour, today, we are bringing in PPE from China. We are diligent in our efforts and we are using every “trick” at our disposal to get what our country’s needs, out of there and over to here. We are fighting everything that can possibly go wrong and have landed approximately 6M masks in the last 6 weeks with millions more on the way. We have supplied local municipalities, fire departments, first responders, hospitals, doctor’s offices and retailers. We have helped the state of New York, Los Angeles, as well as shipped masks to all parts of the United States. If you have participated with us in this endeavor, we ask for your continued patience and understanding as we continue to scratch and claw our way through the hurdles. We understand your urgency. We know you need it quickly. This is a WORLD shortage. We are trying to help in every small way that we can. We are in this with you. We will now offer critical PPE masks for consumer use on our web site. We are selling at competitive prices in hopes that we can all get through this safely. We may have more offerings of PPE in the future if needed.
By making this decision, and we made it both with thoughtful consideration, and with emotion, we knew that, in the long run, we would feel good about our efforts to help. Help our over 50 employees stay working and earning, help our local community who has been pushed to the end of the line for this urgent supply due to high demand in large metropolitan areas, and help our country overcome this invisible enemy that has the world reeling right now. We ask that you join us in supporting the efforts in your local communities, praying for our leaders to guide us diligently through and protecting your families fiercely as we navigate these uncharted waters in the next few weeks. We are here to help because at the end of the day all we have is each other.
Thank you for your support of Evolution Outdoor. Your confidence in our products, and faith in us means more than you know. Let’s all be part of the solution. We are in this with you. Tell us how we can help.
Many thanks,
Kevin Ferris
President
