The choice is simple: Either we give in to forces we can't control, or we battle through it. Wear a mask, (we'll make some sweet custom ones for you), stay at home when possible, keep your distance, and get ready for baseball with some custom gloves like these beauties. Show up at the plate wearing these and watch the other team start shaking in their cleats!

2020 has been a rough year on us all. As we all know, just because the calendar flips to 2021 doesn't mean we'll be out of the woods. We still need to be careful and wear face coverings, like these spiffy custom gaiters. So, while we applaud the end of this year and look for hope at the one to come, get your team or school ready to look sharp while being responsible with our custom neck gaiters and face masks. Happy New Year!

The National Football League has cracked down on sideline face covering violations in a new memo. Among the face coverings they have approved...lined, 2-ply gaiters just like the ones we make:

AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maddi reports:
The NFL has expanded its mandate for mask usage on the sideline and is threatening discipline for those who violate the league's updated COVID-19 protocols.
The league told teams in a memo on Monday that players who are not substituting or preparing to enter the field of play and are not wearing their helmets will be required to wear a mask or a double-layered gaiter on the sideline, starting this week.
Your team or school can have these made custom, with your logo and in your colors for an extremely affordable price. Request your digital mock-up here!

Our latest football gloves are sure to inspire great catches, runs and tackles. All you need to do is contact us at customerservice@upstartsports to get started on your team's football gloves. We do batting gloves and face coverings too!

Nothing beats our custom football gloves to engender team spirit. With a tacky silicone grip and custom logo, colors and cross-palm design, you're sure to have the most intimidating gloves on the field. Contact customerservice@upstartsports.com for more details. 

When things aren't going great, we take comfort in little pleasures. Maybe that's why we're selling more custom batting gloves than ever. When players open up their gear bags and strap on their batting gloves monogrammed in their colors, with their team logo proudly displayed, they feel a sense of excitement that no other personalized product can offer. Get yours by reaching out to customerservice@upstartsports.com.

You may have read the Duke face covering study which made a claim that conventional neck gaiters were not effective in blocking droplets and, in some cases, could even be worse than wearing no face covering at all. As expected, not only have other medical professionals weighed in disputing those findings, even the researchers at Duke are saying the results of their study were misconstrued.

Here is an article published in the New York Times which explains that one-ply gaiters can still be an effective face covering https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/well/live/coronavirus-gaiters-masks.html

If you don't care to read the entire article, here are some highlights:
A small study prompted fears that neck gaiters could spread more virus droplets than they stop. But new research shows that those face coverings can protect just as well as other cloth masks.

The reports of the demise of the neck gaiter have been greatly exaggerated.

Even the study’s authors said their data had been misconstrued. “Our intent was not to say this mask doesn’t work, or never use neck gaiters,” said Martin Fischer, an associate research professor in the department of chemistry at Duke and a co-author of the study. “This was not the main part of the paper.”

Mask testing has consistently shown that any face covering will block at least a small percentage of droplets generated when we speak or cough. The notion that a fabric gaiter will instead create more particles by splicing big droplets into smaller droplets is unlikely, experts say.“The fabrics are not acting as a sharp sieve,” said Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech who is one of the world’s leading authorities on aerosols. “That’s not how filtration works.”​

“I’ve been recommending neck gaiters, and my kids wear neck gaiters,” Dr. Marr said. “There’s nothing inherent about a neck gaiter that should make it any worse than a cloth mask. It comes down to the fabric and how well it fits.”

Feel like designing your own masks for your business, school, church or other organization? Did you know that with our prices, you could afford to give them away to clients or fans just to say, "thank you for your support?" No one matches our quality and our prices. Let's see what we can make for you!

We want it to end, more than anyone. We want to get back to selling batting gloves and football gloves mostly because that means we can get back to watching baseball and football games. But if anyone is hesitant to order masks because they think this whole thing might just go away soon, it, unfortunately, looks like that's a pipe dream. We are still at least six months away from a vaccine and it is unlikely that alone will mean the end of masks. So, as much as we hate it, face coverings are a new reality for the foreseeable future. 

So, why not make the best of it? Let us do some spiffy, custom face coverings for your organization. Give them away (they're really inexpensive) or sell them as a fundraiser. Your fans will love showing off your logos when they go out. Fill out our mock-up request form and we'll show you how attractive your face covering can be!

For those of you who feel wearing a mask is inconvenient or impedes your personal liberties, here is a great article by Kevin Schreiber of the York Daily Record that we hope helps you see the situation differently. Courtesy MSN.com.