The United Kingdom has been in and out of a national lockdown due to the coronavirus
for over a year now. Many people have lost loved ones, lost their jobs and struggled with mental health along with many other challenges. It has been a tough year for everyone but James Jozef Markiewicz has tried to add positivity and a ray of hope via the Bandana Fund.
Markiewicz is a University of East London student studying MSc Sports Management and is a tennis sports scholar. He has two main passions, sports and music. In tennis, he’s a former US college athlete and now represents his university, Kent Men’s team and plays in German Club level tennis. With music, Markiewicz enjoys playing the piano, singing and may even be spotted busking on the street with his guitar.
The pandemic has hit athletes and artists like Markiewicz hard, but he has created a small business to help them – James Jozef Bandanas.
What is it?
He has begun making and selling bandanas with 50% of the profits made going to London’s events to help artists and athletes who have been struggling financially from the effects of Covid-19. The sports and creative industries have been massively affected by the pandemic with events all over the world not being able to take place.
“I proposed an idea to UEL’s start-up sprint wanting to develop a social enterprise to help athletes and artists recover from Covid-19” Markiewicz says, with his efforts focused on helping to bring London’s events industry back to life.
The social cause business James Jozef Bandanas has created the Bandana Fund which officially launches on 10th May.
The Big Idea
The idea began during the first lockdown; Markiewicz always wears bandanas while playing tennis and to keep himself busy he thought it would be fun to create his own. “I bought myself a sewing machine and was determined to figure out how to sew a bandana.”
It was harder than he thought, he admits, “being extremely naïve and completely underestimating the art of hemming, I found myself practising on all kinds of material for hours and hours.” But eventually, he could do it.
“It was important to me that the bandanas were colourful. I wanted to wear something that made people smile. In this time when so many people are suffering, it was meant to be a little encouragement to stay positive.”
His motivation for this project comes from him wanting “to make an impactful difference.” All the varieties of bandanas are brightly coloured and are meant to symbol “joy that the performing artists and athletes bring to our life.” He continued, ”so many sports clubs and venues will look to cut costs, which will affect these performers.”
The message is – bringing colour back to London one bandana at a time.
Inspiring Stories
To help his small business grow, Markiewicz began to contact athletes and musicians asking for them to wear his bandanas and share their stories of how they fell in love with their passions for sport and music respectively.
His aim is to inspire positivity and share the motivational stories of athletes and musicians who “uplift our society.”
In the tennis world, the likes of Ryan Peniston has got involved with the project. Peniston has a career-high world ranking of 359 and is one of many to wear a specially made James Jozef Bandana. He also shared his tennis story saying how he became a professional. “At around 17 I had 1 or 2 ATP points, I would occasionally qualify for futures events, but also lost a lot of 1st rounds.”
Peniston didn’t give up and went to play college tennis in Memphis, USA and is now enjoying playing on the ATP Challenger Tour and is the 10th highest-ranked British male player.
Similarly, Katharina Lehnert, a former professional with a career-high 389 ranking, now coach, has supported the business. Also, others in tennis such as, Kai Lemke, Laura Bente and Sem Verbeek, who has a current doubles world ranking of 126, to name a few who have been involved with trying to bring back a feel-good factor in the world.
Not just tennis…
In other sports, UEL sports scholar and discus thrower, Amy Holder and BBL basketball player, Jordan Whelan have shared inspirational stories such as Whelan winning the BBL with the London Lions in 2019.
The colourful bandanas have also spread through music with Nick Zubeck, Tali Shear and Karina Ramage all spreading the colourful message that brighter times are ahead. Ramage has released four EP’s and said when sharing her story with Markiewicz, “If you want to do music, then you should. Be aware that you’re going to get told ‘no’ so many times. You have to keep bouncing back. Keep working at it. Believe in yourself and keep going.”
The success stories that have been shared hold the potential to motivate so many during a time when encouragement can be hard to come by.
Markiewicz says, “I believe it is so much more powerful to learn from others. The bandanas connect me to the most amazing people who are kind enough to share their stories.”
Tough Time for Performers
The current climate offers so many challenges to up and coming athletes are artists. For example, British boxing isn’t receiving any emergency funding from the government and 72% of musicians are self-employed, many of whom aren’t eligible for financial support from the government.
Markiewicz believes that fair pay will benefit not just the performers but event organiser too as it will create more entertainment value which will bring local communities back out after Covid-19.
The virus has taken away so many positive things associated with London’s performing arts industry and sports. Hopefully, these bandanas can be a symbol of inspiration and happiness for the future.
Find Out More
The bandanas are high quality and made in the UK. They can be purchased through the James Jozef Bandanas website: https://jamesjozefbandanas.co.uk/
Follow the project on Instagram – @jamesjozefbandanas
Watch extended interviews with musicians and athletes via the James Jozef Bandanas YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt6qHrY2CAobcXJKj8vmROQ
