We are so proud of our partners at Fanatics, the global leader in fan gear and licensed sports merchandise, known by avid sports fans and sports memorabilia collectors everywhere. Like other great retail branded gift cards available at eGifter.com, Fanatics.com checks every proverbial box when it comes to quality, selection, creativity and service. Their loyal base of dedicated players and spectators (plus those that love them!) is deeply engaged with the Fanatics brand as only fanatical sports fans can be! We always love serving Fanatics customers and we’re delighted to offer a limited time special promotion with deep savings while Fanatics gift card supplies last. Through 4/24/20, get a $50 Fanatics Gift Card for just $42.50 (promo Code: FANS420. But our ability to offer great deals and savings to Fanatics gift card customers is not what makes us proud at this particular moment. In our opinion, it takes more than great products, services, gift card distribution, customer service and engineering innovation for a business to transform from great to truly legendary, like Fanatics. To that end, Michael Rubin and the entire Fanatics team get kudos for demonstrating the manufacturing prowess and heart for which America has always been known. American pride, indeed. Without further ado, we bring you our Partner Spotlight: Fanatics Gift Cards.

Manufacturing Ingenuity: A Heroic Response

A Clear Gap Becomes Apparent

As the nation and the world watched the vertical climb of statistical rates of infection, hospitalizations and mortality, one of the most reported shortfalls in our ability to respond became clear. Healthcare workers were becoming dramatically limited in their ability to perform front line jobs due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). As we watched news footage and read news articles, the PPE deficit occurred as insurmountable. 

Enter Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, who began to lose sleep along with the rest of us, wondering how to make a difference in the fight against the COVID-19 virus pandemic that continues to rock the world. On March 17, he heard about the shortages of tests, respirators and everyday supplies that created severe challenges for health-care workers. In the uniquely powerful position of running a massive fabric-based production operation in the U.S., Rubin would soon realize an opportunity in the making. 

Pause on Jersey Production. Pivot to Masks & Gowns.

Like other countless numbers of manufacturing facilities forced to the sidelines due to restrictions imposed by social distancing, health concerns, governmental restrictions, supply chain limitations, depressed demand and more, Fanatics’ manufacturing operations were halted. Bottom line, no baseball season meant no production. From there, it did not take long for Rubin to realize that a million yards of fabric intended to manufacture baseball uniforms were lying dormant at the company’s manufacturing facility in Easton, PA. 

One Million Masks and Gowns, Coming Right Up.

Said Rubin in a telephone interview, ““When the country is in need the way it is, it’s our privilege and opportunity to try to chip in in a small way. If we can save even one life, that’s better than making baseball uniforms and jerseys.” And so began the collaboration between Major League Baseball and its official jersey manufacturer, Fanatics, to address the shortage of protective masks and gowns for hospital workers. There are now about 100 employees working “extra distanced and in a very clean and safe environment” to make one million masks and gowns to donate to hospitals in Pennsylvania, with the hopes of eventually extending this to New Jersey and New York.” Fanatics and MLB are taking on the cost of production.

We Salute the Leaders and Innovators Among Us

There is no shortage of lessons to be learned from sharp and committed business leaders like Michael Rubin, CEO of our retail gift card partner, Fanatics. With an unprecedented need for solutions dictated by our very survival, we’re convinced that goodness and innovation will emerge, mirroring the bold initiatives taken by Rubin and those on his team.

It will take a set of complex business, manufacturing and human mandates, simply stated below, to lead the way forward.

• Adapt
• Pivot
• Transform
• Persevere
• Care.

There you have it — our Partner Spotlight: Fanatics Gift Cards

With each passing day, the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks more and more havoc on our society, putting lives at stake and our country at economic risk. But in the face of it all, we’re also seeing good, old fashioned American Spirit rise to battle the blaze. Every day at the stroke of 7pm, people are stepping away from their living rooms and into the streets. Their cheers and thanks are directed at the healthcare workers who put their own lives in harm’s way caring for the sick and suffering, In our own response to the nation’s call for help, the eGifter team quickly conceptualized, developed and launched a solution that is having a dramatic, healing effect: OperationMainStreet.com. As a national initiative with local roots, Operation Main Street is an emergent technology solution offering real help to real people. Through the combined power of both search engine and gift card technologies, the Operation Main Street platform adds an economic spending boost to local communities and neighborhoods across the United States. Operation Main Street is a uniquely designed local business directory where search requests automagically return a list of stores in selected zip codes that serve *you* and *your* community. Read on to learn how it works and to see how good neighbors like you can literally save livelihoods in your own backyard. And, in turn, through spending boons through gift card sales, local businesses and organizations can stay in business to serve the community that loves them.

OperationMainStreet.com: A Free Searchable Local Business Directory Making Gift Cards Accessible

As a tech company literally located on Main Street (Huntington, NY), we feel the pain experienced by small businesses everywhere. Making sure neighborhood businesses can be easily found by local residents who want to save their favorite shops and restaurants is the promise delivered by the powerhouse business directory at OperationMainStreet.com. Together, we’ll endeavor toward the better days that lie ahead.

Neighbors: Save Your Favorite Local Restaurants and Shops

At this precarious time in our nation’s history, we’ve all reached the same conclusion: We must do our collective part to help small business owners in our towns and villages stay solvent, pay their rent and taxes, and employ salaried workers. Helping small businesses stay afloat and feed their own families is the task at hand, which will in turn empower them to pay the local taxes on which our towns depend. Keeping businesses going is a moral and financial imperative. It’s the only way that we, the people, will maintain access to food, essentials and services upon which we depend to keep our homes and families safe, well and active. Search local stores in the directory. 

Read more on: OperationMainStreet.com

Never before has the phrase ‘Think Global, Buy Local” meant so much. With today’s stay at home mandate due to the COVID-19 pandemic, communities across the nation are struggling to keep their local shops and restaurants afloat until normal life resumes and beyond. Consumer spending is down and business mortality is up — a trend that can only be neutralized from a grassroots, local relief effort. That’s where eGifter innovation comes in. Gift cards are our lifeblood and we’ve found a way to provide real solutions in the ways that only we can. Thanks to a new initiative under the Operation Main Street umbrella, we warmly welcome LongIsland.com to the eGifter family. Now, Long Islanders can search local.egifter.com to find nearby restaurants, shops, studios, academies, barbers, beauty stores, coffee shops, music stores (and more!) The idea is to empower consumers to easily locate and shop at stores in local Long Island neighborhoods from the comfort of their home by searching a local directory of companies to find what they need nearby. We’ve engineered a way for Long Islanders to save the small businesses they love while keeping their homes stocked and their families fed. Introducing the Operation Main Street Local Business Directory.

Operation Main Street Local Business Directory

For businesses not yet on the searchable directory, signing up is simple, quick and free. 

Read more here: OperationMainStreet.com

While each of us does our part to stop the spread of COVID-19 by social distancing, life marches on! Birthdays and anniversaries simply cannot be cancelled or postponed. The earth still spins, the sun still rises and special gift giving occasions take place every day. The human spirit is being tested and people are coming through with flying colors. The vivid and countless examples of incredible creativity, heartwarming surprises and ways people are showing their love are inspiring. Here at eGifter.com, we are seeing an uptick in digital gift card deliveries by email and by text. We’re witnessing the sandwich generation turn their elderly parents onto enjoying streaming tv gift cards. Colleagues are chipping in to buy grocery gift cards and take-out gift cards to sick families.  Parents are going the extra mile to make birthdays special even when the party had to be cancelled. We are bolstered by the boundless human spirit exemplified by our customers.

COVID-19 Can’t Stop the Human Spirit

We are inspired to continue inventing new ways to help people celebrate life and take care of each other. 

In fact, at this very moment it is 7pm in my own suburban neighborhood here on Long Island. For the first time during this crisis, our local firehouse alarms are sounding. My neighbors are clapping and cheering. It’s a moving moment that underscores the entire point. COVID-19 can’t stop the human spirit.

#humanspirit. #somegoodnews #stayhome #stayhealthy #egifterstories

A NYC couple says “I do” to the officiant overlooking from a balcony above

Family and friends shower birthday wishes on a newly minted 4-year old

The family shares a virtual anniversary toast to honor their parents’ 65th wedding anniversary