Spotlight on St. Louis

View Original

Want Blues Gear Made Right Here In St. Louis?

Evolution St. Louis, 2Lu and the St. Louis Blues recently partnered to design and create 100% local items for the Blues holiday line. Their effort gives St. Louisans and opportunity to support both the local economy and fashion scene while showing their love of St. Louis’ favorite hockey team.

“We’re proud to provide St. Louis Blues fans with gear made right here in St. Louis,” said Steve Chapman, executive vice president/chief revenue officer of the St. Louis Blues. “We are always looking for new ways to connect with community partners and support local businesses and this new collaboration with 2Lu and Evolution St. Louis allows us to do just that.” 

Evolution St. Louis, opened their new high-tech, advanced knitting facility - the first of its kind in Grand Center this year and is already exploring expansion. They manufactured the designs - both men’s and women’s sweaters and a scarf at their manufacturing facility. The items are sold at stlauthentics.com. Evolution St. Louis is located down the street from where the St. Louis Blues play and just eight miles from 2Lu.

Evolution St. Louis co-founders, Jon Lewis (right) and John Elmuccio, inspect production of the St. Louis Blues scarves.

 “Evolution St. Louis is creating new opportunities for brands and retailers and interested in domestic manufacturing, with the ability to offer both large and small batch production and create complex products using our leading-edge technology,” said John Elmuccio, co-founder of Evolution St. Louis.

2Lu, founded by sisters Melissa Nieberle and Drea Ranek here in St. Louis, specializes in premium boutique-style and private label products for brands. They also created the #314Together pandemic assistance apparel that made the rounds last spring.

“We are intentional about working with locally owned businesses to support the St. Louis fashion ecosystem and this collaboration was a great opportunity,” Nieberle said. “The staff at Evolution St. Louis have a great sense of style and the programmers helped make our designs a reality.”

“Businesses like 2Lu and Evolution St. Louis are putting our city back on the map as a fashion capital,” Ranek added.