How Wrap Buddies was started and why we do it.
Wrap buddies was started by Tommy Strader and Felecia Martinez at 360 Wraps. We all have the ability to give back. We have been doing this since we started this business. But most of our giving was to those who were trying to start a business and might not have had the capitol needed to wrap their vehicle, or for someone who was trying to get their kid involved in racing and had spent most of their money just getting started. I (Tommy) was always a softy for a real person with a real story and struggle. I like to help out the underdog, as I feel in many ways I have been the underdog, and have overcome many obstacles to get to where I am and feel it necessary to pay it forward.
I have been interested in different ways to give back, but most people are just wanting us to donate free wraps. For many shops, this is nor feasible, when you have to account for every sqft of media going out the door, because of the expense of doing business these days, it is not that easy to just let go of a free wrap on the hopes that you will get business from it possibly some day.
So our way of giving back did not end up being vehicle wraps, and does not take much material at all. Some of you may know that I come from a background in auto racing and used to paint helmets prior to starting 360 Wraps. Once I started the wrap shop, I gave it a shot at wrapping one of my own helmets. It came out pretty good and I started getting asked about helmet wraps from those at the tracks. I have since done helmets for a few NASCAR drivers. Since we had been doing helmet wraps, our name tends to come up on the searches when you look for "helmet wraps".
In June of 2009 we had a father of a small infant come into the shop and ask if we could wrap a helmet for his little baby. He said he found us on the Internet and that his baby had a small helmet that he has to wear 23 hours a day. I have wrapped many helmets for racecar drivers over the years, but never for a baby, so I said why not and did it for him. His son has to wear this helmet to correct a flat spot in the soft side of his head, it is called Plagiocepholy. After we wrapped his child's helmet he asked us what we were going to charge him to do this. I showed him some of our racecar helmets and explained to him that we charge between $350 and $1,000 to wrap a helmet for a racecar driver depending on the complexity of the design and install. The father educated me on the fact that the helmets cost $3,500 to $4,000 and that they are not covered by most insurance plans. I told him he let this be our gift to you, a little way that we can give back from our wrap shop. He was very appreciative and asked what he should tell other parents that wanted these done. I said tell them to give us a call. It started snow balling after that, I had no idea that 1 out of 50 children have the condition that could require them to wear one of these. So we have been doing this since May 2009 now and we have wrapped over 300 of these helmets. We don't charge the parents anything for the wrap. We are proud to say that after over 300 plus helmets, we have started to spread the program across the US. There are at least 6 shops in the US that I know of other than ours that are doing these for free. Since we provide all of the services for the children free of charge to the parents, when we get a parent who wants to donate or their company wants to donate, we can now accept the donations to our new Non Profit. The money that we get from the donations is going to help us buy materials to do wrap projects in the local Children's hospitals that they would not have regularly had the budgets to do. We have met with the Dallas Scottish Rite Hospital and will be starting on our first projects in the next few months. We will be able to wrap walls, floors, medical equipment, and anything else we can get vinyl to stick to.
I have been interested in different ways to give back, but most people are just wanting us to donate free wraps. For many shops, this is nor feasible, when you have to account for every sqft of media going out the door, because of the expense of doing business these days, it is not that easy to just let go of a free wrap on the hopes that you will get business from it possibly some day.
So our way of giving back did not end up being vehicle wraps, and does not take much material at all. Some of you may know that I come from a background in auto racing and used to paint helmets prior to starting 360 Wraps. Once I started the wrap shop, I gave it a shot at wrapping one of my own helmets. It came out pretty good and I started getting asked about helmet wraps from those at the tracks. I have since done helmets for a few NASCAR drivers. Since we had been doing helmet wraps, our name tends to come up on the searches when you look for "helmet wraps".
In June of 2009 we had a father of a small infant come into the shop and ask if we could wrap a helmet for his little baby. He said he found us on the Internet and that his baby had a small helmet that he has to wear 23 hours a day. I have wrapped many helmets for racecar drivers over the years, but never for a baby, so I said why not and did it for him. His son has to wear this helmet to correct a flat spot in the soft side of his head, it is called Plagiocepholy. After we wrapped his child's helmet he asked us what we were going to charge him to do this. I showed him some of our racecar helmets and explained to him that we charge between $350 and $1,000 to wrap a helmet for a racecar driver depending on the complexity of the design and install. The father educated me on the fact that the helmets cost $3,500 to $4,000 and that they are not covered by most insurance plans. I told him he let this be our gift to you, a little way that we can give back from our wrap shop. He was very appreciative and asked what he should tell other parents that wanted these done. I said tell them to give us a call. It started snow balling after that, I had no idea that 1 out of 50 children have the condition that could require them to wear one of these. So we have been doing this since May 2009 now and we have wrapped over 300 of these helmets. We don't charge the parents anything for the wrap. We are proud to say that after over 300 plus helmets, we have started to spread the program across the US. There are at least 6 shops in the US that I know of other than ours that are doing these for free. Since we provide all of the services for the children free of charge to the parents, when we get a parent who wants to donate or their company wants to donate, we can now accept the donations to our new Non Profit. The money that we get from the donations is going to help us buy materials to do wrap projects in the local Children's hospitals that they would not have regularly had the budgets to do. We have met with the Dallas Scottish Rite Hospital and will be starting on our first projects in the next few months. We will be able to wrap walls, floors, medical equipment, and anything else we can get vinyl to stick to.
