Arlton Lowry of Few, Shannon and Brooks Tipton of Electric Ghost/Phantom Palm and the Downtown Little Rock Partnership are linking up (distantly) to help Arkansans who work in the hospitality industries. Now, 100 percent of the net sales from this t-shirt and this tote bag — go to help out-of-work or underemployed workers on the DLRP’s “virtual tip jar” list.
“So, there’s a world-renowned artist, Cody Hudson, and he goes by Struggle, Inc.,” Lowry told us. “He does sculptures, he does paintings. He recently did some apparel stuff with Nike. He did one of the murals at The Unexpected in Fort Smith, but he’s in Chicago. … He was commissioned by these two entities — Stock, Mfg. and Leisure Activities to do a design to kind of support to the hospitality workers in Chicago.” Lowry reached out to Hudson about using the design to similar ends here in Arkansas, and he went for it.
“When Arlton contacted us with this opportunity to help our local hospitality workers we were excited to jump on board,” Shannon Tipton said. “We love giving back to the community that has supported our small business so much over the past 10 years.”
“They raised over $170,000 for people there in Chicago,” Lowry told us. “I’m not saying we’re gonna do that here, but a couple thousand dollars? That’d be great.”
Proceeds from the tote and tee sales will get distributed to registrants at DLRP’s “virtual tip jar,” DLRP’s Gabe Holmstrom told us, selected from the list of 800-plus workers via a random number generator. “Obviously, it all depends on how much we sell, and how much money we can give away. … I don’t think giving everybody $5 is gonna move the needle. Hopefully we’re gonna be able to sell quite a few of these shirts, and move the needle a little bit.”
To pre-order a shirt or tote bag, head here, and expect it to ship in 2-3 weeks.
