Fanatics making masks from MLB uniforms amid coronavirus

Yahoo Finance's Dan Roberts breaks down what companies are doing to help healthcare professionals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Video Transcript

- Now let's bring in Dan Roberts and talk a little bit about what major league baseball uniforms are becoming here. Dan, a big story this week has been PPE, the personal protection equipment that health care workers are facing a shortage of. And we've seen the fashion industry stepping up. What's happening with the sports industry?

DAN ROBERTS: Yeah, Jen. We talked earlier today on some of our lives shows about the companies that are now stepping up to help the situation. You know, you've got Molson Coors, which is now making hand sanitizer. Fiat Chrysler trying to help and make these masks.

And now also Fanatics, which is the official kind of apparel provider of all the major leagues. So that company has a big factory in Pennsylvania that normally is where MLB jerseys are made. So now the company yesterday coming out and announcing that in partnership with Major League Baseball, they've halted manufacturing baseball jerseys, which, of course, makes sense right now.

You don't have baseball. And in fact, this news has to make you wonder how much little longer you want have baseball. Maybe they're starting to see the writing on the wall.

But instead, that factory will now be making protective gear-- masks and also gowns for hospital workers. And look, I think you're going to see a moment, and it's going to happen very soon in the next few days, rather than weeks, where any company that has manufacturing capabilities is going to feel pressured to take this step. I mean, if you're not helping out in some way-- I mean, look, today you saw President Trump calling out Mary Barra on Twitter. We can discuss how fair or unfair that tweet was. But you are going to be expected to help out and participate.

And so Fanatics, it's kind of remarkable to see the example that Michael Rubin, the chairman, tweeted out was the Phillies' pinstriped pattern being used for hospital masks instead, and hospital gowns. Now, of course, we should distinguish here-- these are not those N95 protective masks that are kind of thicker and higher quality, and sort of more certified to protect. This is just for hospital workers.

It's sort of a makeshift solution. But we know that one of the biggest problems right now is hospital workers not having the amount of gear they need. Normally they would be changing those tasks multiple times per day. There are tons of reports of doctors and surgeons wearing one mask for the whole day, or in some cases photos going around on social media of hospital workers wearing trash bags.

So Fanatics just kind of filling in here. And as I mentioned, there are countless other examples. They're kind of cropping up by the minute, of companies that don't normally manufacture this stuff, but are now turning to it.