‘Knock It Off’ T-shirt brand now on barbecue sauce, beer, coffee and more

New sauce, made at Hope & Main in Warren, the latest product to bear the viral logo

By Ted Hayes
Posted 5/15/20

The “Knock It Off” logo, which has been printed on more than 10,000 T-shirts since soon after the start of the Covid-19 crisis, is popping up all over the state, from beer cans to …

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‘Knock It Off’ T-shirt brand now on barbecue sauce, beer, coffee and more

New sauce, made at Hope & Main in Warren, the latest product to bear the viral logo

Posted

The “Knock It Off” logo, which has been printed on more than 10,000 T-shirts since soon after the start of the Covid-19 crisis, is popping up all over the state, from beer cans to hospital scrubs. Now it is appearing on a line of barbecue sauce made at the Hope & Main food incubator in Warren.

Walt Palm, who since 2015 has run Palm Sauces and Better Dressings out of the Main Street facility, received permission to use the logo at no charge from Frog and Toad, the Providence gift shop that first put it on T-shirts nearly two months ago. The store is owned by Warren residents Erin and Asher Schofield and like them,

Mr. Palm will donate 20 percent of his sales to the Rhode Island Foundation’s Covid-19 Relief Fund. The logo celebrates Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo’s catch phrase, which implores Rhode Islanders to take social distancing regulations seriously. To date, Frog and Toad's campaign has raised more than $43,000 for the relief fund.

Mr. Palm’s sauce isn’t the only product to bear the hit logo. Mr. Schofield said he and Erin have been happy to give it free of charge to other businesses, as long as they donate 20 percent of their sales to the Rhode Island Foundation. So far, Frog and Toad has collaborated with Proclamation Ale, White Electric Coffee, The Industrious Spirit Company and the Bywater restaurant in Warren. Bywater will unveil its product Monday, the same day the governor allows the resumption of limited outdoor dining.

"Devastated"
Like many small business owners, Mr. Palm has been “financially devastated” by the crisis. Soon after it hit, orders started drying up and his business has not rebounded. He is excited about his collaboration with Frog and Toad after weeks and weeks of bad news.

"It has really had a devastating impact on our bottom line and our ability to stay in business,” he said. “When we started to spiral with the shutdown, a lot of us (small business owners) were scrambling to collaborate just to stay afloat.”

He jumped at the opportunity after Mr. Schofield, who previously met Mr. Palm at a Hope & Main function, reached out to him out of the blue and offered him the use of the logo.

Mr. Palm lives in Connecticut and has not been able to make it to Warren to do the work needed to get the product out. So he reached out to Hope & Main, provided a recipe for a spicy honey glaze barbecue sauce, and workers there produced a run of 40 gallons - 360 jars. Meanwhile, he sent out a design to his printers and got his labels back last week. Jars are now available on his website, and he is shopping them around to distributors. Locally, his products are available at Tom’s Market and Imagine in Warren, Johnson’s Roadside Market in Swansea, Lee’s in Westport, Clements in Portsmouth and Quality Fruitland in Seekonk.

Mr. Palm said he is thankful not just to the Schofields, but also Hope & Main, which was a game changer for him when he decided to go into business five years ago.

“I couldn’t have started this business without them,” he said. “Prior to 2015 I wrote out a business plan but I could never execute it because the obstacles were so great. Hope & Main gave me the resources, not only the building but also training, and the people there. I could not have gotten my foot in the door without them.

He said he hopes that with eased restrictions and the return of warmer weather, sales will improve and he is hopeful that the “Knock It Off” campaign will help.

"It's been a bit of good news," he said.

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