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Joliet couple producing Bernie Sanders mittens after Vermont senator goes viral
A Joliet couple has cracked the code, which means soon you may be able to buy your own exact replica of the now-famous mittens Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wore to Joe Biden’s inauguration.
JOLIET, Ill. - A Joliet couple has cracked the code, which means soon you may be able to buy your own exact replica of the now-famous mittens Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wore to Joe Biden’s inauguration.
They are almost certainly the most famous mittens in mitten history -- an internet meme sensation, which gave Joliet couple Chad and Jess Schumacher an idea.
"He said, ‘hey let’s make some mittens.’ OK, let’s make some mittens," Jess said.
The Schumacher’s own Allegory Handcrafted Goods, a small home-based company that makes pens out of historical wood and exquisitely tailored leather products.
But instead of just cranking out replica mittens, they found a knitter in New York State who could reproduce the exact pattern on Sanders’ mittens -- front and back.
"She found a picture where Bernie just happen to be waving at just the right angle and you could see this piece of it and we finally found what this little piece of the pattern was," Chad said.
Then the Schumacher’s hit Goodwill stores in search of old sweaters with matching colors -- the same raw material used to make Sanders’ mittens.
"The pattern pieces are here and we just lay them on top of the sweater material or the knit material, cut them out and then they’re sewn together," Jess said.
A prototype was made and they are only the second pair of Bernie Sanders mittens in the world.
"Well I hope that Bernie would see we are really committed to honoring the values of the original mittens, the reasons he loved them," Chad said.
The Schumacher’s are using the crowdsource funding website Indiegogo and have already raised more than half of the $30,000 they will need to produce the first batch, selling the mittens at $34 a pair -- with a third of the profits going to help teachers pay for classroom materials.
It is a way to honor the Vermont teacher who knitted Sanders’ mittens.
"For the two of us, it’s not about the politics. It’s about that moment in history where no matter what your politics, you thought this thing on the Internet is really funny," Jess said.