Cincinnati-based footwear supplier Totes-Isotoner launched a ‘Wearable Recovery’ campaign in August for their new Zenz styles of Isotoner’s slipper-like footwear. The campaign features several NCAA athletes as brand partners and spokespeople, including male and female collegiate athletes across six Division 1 sports, leveraging the NCAA’s new name, image and likeness (NIL) policy within the region. NIL enables college athletes to monetize brand partnerships and endorsements.

Zenz footwear’s indoor/outdoor styles use the company’s proprietary, patented Everywear Technology, which is lightweight, machine-washable and resists compression, allowing Zenz styles to retain their softness and bounciness over time, according to the brand. The Wearable Recovery collection includes a new lace-up Zenz style.

‍Carhartt is launching a grant program to support community-based skilled trades organizations throughout the U.S. The first-of-its-kind initiative for the Dearborn, MI company is called “For the Labor of Love.”  The first round of four grants totaling $175,000 are earmarked for organizations in Michigan—Women Who Weld, Emerging Industries Training Institute and Workforce Development, each based in Detroit, and Women in Skilled Trades in Lansing, MI. Additionally, to raise additional funding for the grant program, family-owned Carhartt is donating all online sales on Labor Day, Sep. 5, toward grant recipients. This marks the third consecutive year that the company had donated sales on the holiday toward building and educating the next generation of workers. 

Compression sock brand VIM & VIGR announced the two winners of its second annual nursing scholarship. The scholarship recipients Natalya Alcaraz and Anthony Castellanos are first-generation college students honored for exhibiting “resiliency, determination and hope in their personal and academic lives.” Each will put their $3,400 award towards their educational pursuits. Alcaraz is currently attending Oregon Health & Science University and chose a career in healthcare due to the national shortage of healthcare workers and a desire to help under-served communities. Castellanos is attending the School of Nursing and Health Professions at University of San Francisco. VIM & VIGR’s 2023 nursing scholarship application window will open in the second quarter of 2023. For more information on VIM & VIGR’s nursing scholarship, visit https://vimvigr.com/pages/vim-vigr-nursing-scholarship.