The NJ Wire - South Jersey Premiere Local News - Selling shorts for Hurricane Sandy
Selling shorts for Hurricane Sandy
by Robert Linnehan on 01/07/2013 12:01pm
A local Moorestown couple started a lacrosse apparel business and are selling shorts to benefit the Hurricane Sandy cleanup efforts.
Mesh Lax will continue to sell these shorts to benefit cleanup efforts while supplies last.
Jay and Raquel Winkler of Moorestown are extending a successful Hurricane Sandy benefit and selling their extremely popular “Jersey Shore” lacrosse shorts while supplies last.
The Winklers own and operate an online lacrosse merchandise clothing store, Mesh Lacrosse, and have raised more than $6,750 through the sale of their “Jersey Shore” lacrosse shorts to donate to the American Red Cross. The business owners donated the cash to the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts and have announced that they will begin selling the special shorts against on their website.
Jay Winkler said the store had to cease sales of the shorts about two weeks prior to Christmas in order to fill the number of orders that were flowing into the website. All proceeds from the shorts are donated to the Hurricane Sandy relief fund sponsored by the American Red Cross.
Created by Jay and designed by Anthony Peist, the shorts are designed with half of the garment featuring various postcards from shore points throughout New Jersey and the other half featuring a drawing of a boardwalk.
Mesh Lacrosse was the brainchild of Raquel, Jay said, and she officially opened the company just months before Hurricane Sandy slammed into New Jersey. The Winklers are a “lacrosse family,” Jay said, as he and his children all still play the popular sport.
Lacrosse is the fastest growing youth sport in America, he explained, and the Winklers saw an opportunity to jump into a niche market.
“We had launched the company in Sept. 2012, not so long ago, and then the storm came. Not only being a lacrosse family and being heavily into the sport, we’re avid beach goers, I enjoy surfing, so do my kids, and I grew up in a coastal area in Delaware and spent a lot of time at the jersey shore,” Jay said. “When the storm came it hit a nerve, we asked what we could do to help, and it dawned on us that we could design these shorts and donate the profits to the relief effort. It became very popular.”
The company launched the shorts on its website just a few weeks after the hurricane and immediately began to sell them far faster than they could be made, Jay said.
Mesh Lacrosse had to stop selling the special shorts on Nov. 19 in order to ensure that they could be shipped out to customers by Christmas, Jay said, but has since reopened its sales and the shorts can be purchased at the company’s website.
“We don’t have a cutoff date this time, it’s taken on a life of its own and it took us in a different direction because it was such a big hit. I think right now we’re going to let it flow and the orders continue to come in day by day. We’ll probably just make it a regular item in our inventory,” he said.
Mesh Lacrosse has partnered with Ruff Lax in Maple Shade and sells merchandise there as well.
To purchase the shorts, please visit the company’s website at www.meshlax.com.
