Love Your Melon has built its name on its Request a Hat program, which gives people the chance to surprise a child battling cancer with one of their knit hats. Now, the Minnesota-based apparel brand is bringing its hats right to children’s hospitals around the country with the roll-out of its Beanie Giving Machines.
The brand was founded with a mission to fight pediatric cancer by donating its hats to children battling cancer with every purchase, as well as 50 percent of its sales to pediatric cancer nonprofits. Since the product’s launch in 2012, it has donated more than $4.5 million toward the fight against pediatric cancer and has given more than 135,000 beanies to children undergoing treatment.
Launching in tandem with National Superhero Day on April 26, the first giving machines were unveiled at some of the largest children’s hospitals around the U.S., including Advocate Children’s Hospital in Chicago, Florida Children’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital, with more launching in the next month. The giving machines feature an interactive screen that allows kids to pick their own beanie and read Love Your Melon’s new children’s book, Adventures of the SuperCrew.
In addition to the launch of the Beanie Giving Machines, Love Your Melon is celebrating National Superhero Day by hosting more than 200 events in six different countries around the world. They’ll visit children’s hospitals, host superhero-themed adventures, and team up with nonprofit partners such as Make-A-Wish, as well as give away more than 10,000 beanies to children with cancer.
“Superhero Day is about helping as many children as possible,” says Zachary Quinn, Love Your Melon’s president, in a press release. “We believe in making children feel like the superheroes they are during the difficult process of cancer treatment.” The company has a goal of putting a Beanie Giving Machine in every children’s hospital; to request a machine in a children’s hospital near you, email info@loveyourmelon.com.
In other Love Your Melon news, the brand is about to get its own storefront. Shortly after the news about Filson and Shinola moving from their North Loop storefront to Galleria, it was announced that Love Your Melon would be relocating its headquarters to the prime space on June 1. It will be open once or twice a month to the public to showcase its newest products and limited-edition items.
