It’s a brand new clothing line, hoping to help some of the most important missions we face today. 2-DG is a luxury sports apparel line that not only gives 10% of it’s profits to cancer research, rescues and recycles abandoned fishing nets and turns them into fabric, but its name is the name of what may very well be the universal treatment for cancer. Shail and Valentina Shah are the Miami-based designers of 2-DG, it’s not their first fashion brand, but it’s the one that means the most. “I’ve been working in the apparel industry for 20+ years,” Shail said. “And after losing my father to cancer and nearly losing my mother, I knew I had to find a way to give back.”
Just a month after his mother’s surgery, Shail met Dr. Theodore Lampidis, an oncologist who is working on 2-DG, a false sugar molecule that tricks cancer cells into consuming it as sugar and eventually starves them. “The fact that there is a treatment in the works right now, in my own backyard that doesn’t involve chemotherapy or radiation, made me realize how much we needed to help raise awareness about what 2-DG is and more importantly raise the capital to get this research through the remaining phases of clinical trials to make it available to patients.”
When Shail told his wife, Valentina about his idea, she loved the project. “As a designer, I know how much of an impact fashion can have on the causes closest to our hearts,” Valentina said. “Not only did we want to become a part of the solution for a disease that has affected millions of families, but we wanted to ensure our clothing was having a positive impact on the environment.” People are becoming more conscious of what they are buying and consuming, for that reason Valentina wanted to ensure that the production of 2-DG was eco-friendly. “We are working with a company that takes the fishing nets that pollute our oceans and turn them into high-tech fabric. It’s a win-win for us and for the planet,” Valentina said.
The entire line is produced in Italy, 2-DG started off by producing polos with UPF 50+ protection and is currently expanding into pants, skorts, zip-ups and athletic shirts. “The more we grow, the closer we get to our goal of being able to fund the Lampidis Foundation, which brings us closer to a universal treatment of cancer and more fishing nets rescued from the ocean,” Shail said.
10% of every sale is donated to the Lampidis Cancer Foundation where they are developing a universal treatment for cancer.