Kiya Tomlin, wife of Steelers coach, converts fashion business into mask-making operation
Kiya Tomlin kept her four-person staff on payroll after her Etna-based fashion retailer was ordered to close as part of the state’s social-distancing directive. The wife of Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, she was forced to abandon production of her spring collection, and decided to sell her existing inventory at a discount.
After a few days at home away from the facility where she and her staff typically spend so much of their time on the industrial-grade machines assembling her clothing line, Tomlin searched for something to pass the time as much as she yearned for an opportunity to make a difference in a community struggling with the coronavirus pandemic.
A text from a friend ignited an idea. What compelled Tomlin to go from bored-at-home to, ultimately, frantically working 18-plus-hour days was a simple screenshot about an out-of-state hospital system’s need for surgical-style masks as it prepared to take in covid-19 patients.
“When I saw that it was like, ‘You know what, that’s something that we could do,’ ” Tomlin said during a phone interview this week. “And I have this team of people who are all sitting at home, yet I was still paying. It was like, ‘Oh, we can do this — we are getting paid anyways.’ ”
So, Tomlin reached out to seek what local medical groups could need, and she got connected to Allegheny Health Network. After talking with officials there about their needs, and armed with a simple sewing pattern, Tomlin elected to start sewing two-layer cotton masks.
“They would go to hospital support staffs to help free up some of the supplies of the N95s and the masks they anticipated the shortage to be for medical workers that are going to be at highest risk,” Tomlin said.
Tomlin and her small staff headed to Jo-Ann Fabrics — “with our 40% off coupons!” she cheekily points out — to pick up relatively simple patterns of fabric. No, Tomlin did not opt for a Steelers-themed square, but one of her associates did. (Tomlin choose a bumble-bee pattern.)
She and her team sat down in their respective homes on their respective home sewing machines, setting out to make 500 masks per week for AHN hospitals.
“And as we started doing that, and it worked out, the requests for donations went through the roof,” Tomlin said. “Coming from all over the country — Cleveland, Texas, New York. We just got requests from a military medical unit in Virginia.
“And then on top of that, we started getting people wanting to purchase masks.”
At first, Tomlin declined, wanting to keep this endeavor solely philanthropic. She also felt constrained by the home sewing machines, a significant drop in efficiency from the industrial-grade machines her staff was accustomed to using.
But as the mushrooming demand for her masks coincided with recommendations from state and federal officials that residents wear masks in public, Tomlin decided to expand the makeshift operation to include sales to private parties.
“It was like, ‘OK, we can make these for sale and that will help, too,’ ” she said. “A portion of the proceeds goes to defraying the costs of the masks that we are donating.”
#Steelers President Art Rooney II, Greta Rooney and Kiya Tomlin get things started at #RockSteelersStyle. pic.twitter.com/fa9y9bfcz4
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) October 21, 2017
Packs of five masks are available for $48 via the business’ website.
Suddenly, what started out as a couple-hours-a-day hobby for Tomlin, four associates and her teenage daughter to make masks for local hospitals ballooned into an all-encompassing project to churn out thousands of masks for donation and sale.
“I typically go to bed at 3:30 in the morning,” Tomlin said, “and then am back on the machines at 7.”
It’s a work schedule that even outpaces a maniacally working NFL coach.
Asked if Mike has any sewing skills, Kiya Tomlin laughed.
“No. Not at all,” she said. “Not at all. He did let me use him as a fit model for the masks for the first one I made.”
Private-purchase orders come with one restriction: a limit of one Steelers-patterned mask per order of five.
“We get so many requests, so we will guarantee one,” Tomlin said, “but that’s all we can guarantee. For most people, they want more than one, but it is what it is.”
For a particular order earlier this week, though, one Steelers mask was one too many.
“So far, we have only had one person make a special note that they do not want a Steeler mask,” Tomlin said, “because they are from Cleveland.
“So we did honor that special request and figure we will save some Steelers masks for somebody that will appreciate it. They don’t deserve one, anyway.”
Masks are available via a link for the official website for Kiya Tomlin Work/Shop, kiyatomlin.us.
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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