Yeezy, Valentino and More Fashion Brands That Received Pandemic Aid

Samantha McDonald
·3 min read

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The names of hundreds of thousands of businesses that received coronavirus-related federal aid have been released to the public.

The Trump administration has provided a list of the companies that took funds from the $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which is aimed at bolstering cash-strapped small- to mid-sized firms amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the fashion and footwear industry recipients were Yeezy, Valentino, Oscar de la Renta and Vera Wang.

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The roster allows Americans to view how majority of the approved loans to employers — or approximately $521.4 billion as of today — has been spent and whether they actually helped save jobs. It also shows the recipient’s name, address, type of business and more information surrounding the use of the loans, but it did not specify how much money each borrower collected. (Loans were capped at $10 million, and the average loan was worth about $107,000.)

The document, which came in the form of a spreadsheet, showed that Yeezy LLC saved 106 jobs, while Valentino USA Inc., Oscar de la Renta LLC and Vera Wang Group LLC preserved 281, 42 and 197 roles, respectively.

According to the Department of the Treasury and the Small Business Administration, the cash has supported roughly 51.1 million jobs, or 84% of all small business workers, in the country. Many business owners have called for transparency in the use of the first-come, first-served funds. So far, the SBA has provided data on the states as well as industries and biggest lenders that have tapped the relief package.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump signed a five-week extension of the PPP into law after it passed the Senate hours before it was set to expire at the end of June and received unanimous approval from the House of Representatives on Wednesday. It would keep the program open to applications until August 8.

Roughly $130 billion in allocated funds remain unclaimed. (Congress had initially put $349 billion into the program, but after the money was exhausted in just under two weeks, it injected the program with another $310 billion.) The PPP was designed to provide an incentive for companies to retain workers on payroll as widespread lockdowns led many employers to furlough or lay off their employees. The loans will be fully forgiven if companies use them for payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent and utilities. Sole proprietors, independent contractors and self-employed people, as well as certain nonprofit organizations, are also eligible to apply.

The small business grants were created as part of the federal government’s massive $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which was passed in late March in an effort to protect the coronavirus-battered economy by sending direct payments to millions of Americans, as well as offering financial aid to states and municipalities. The measure became the largest fiscal stimulus package in modern U.S. history.

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