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Jeff Kappes had just launched Alberta Strong a few months before wildfire struck Fort McMurray

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On the evening of May 3, as a wildfire ravaged Fort McMurray, Alta., and displaced tens of thousands from their homes, Jeff Kappes made an announcement on his company’s Facebook page. “All donations from purchases in May will aid Fort McMurray,” he wrote in his notice, which featured the mountain-peak logo of his clothing line, Alberta Strong, atop a raging forest fire. His donation goal was a modest $5,000.

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Within 10 minutes, Mr. Kappes’s post was shared 600 times. He went to bed, and the next morning he awoke to hundreds of online orders “blowing up” his in-box. “We basically had 3,000 orders to ship out within 20 days,” he recalls over the phone from Lloydminster, Alta. “That post didn’t cripple us, but it sure put our ability to the test.”

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For Mr. Kappes, the wildfire’s timing was serendipitous. He had launched the Alberta Strong line in February to contribute to a province suffering from plunging oil prices, mass layoffs and low morale. That meant giving $10 of each item sold to Alberta charities, $1,000 at a time. But when the wildfire hit, Alberta Strong became a provincial catchphrase. Mr. Kappes raised $30,000 for the Red Cross from sales of his apparel, which includes T-shirts, hoodies, tank tops and hats.

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Three months later, “we’re starting to breathe again,” he says. In addition to its online business, run by three full-time employees in Lloydminster, a wholesale supplier is distributing the line to Below the Belt, an Alberta-based chain of clothing stores with a dozen locations.

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Mr. Kappes hopes to expand nationwide, while ensuring the brand’s design, printing and distribution stay entirely Canadian. As with most disasters, though, consumers have turned their attention elsewhere, and the deluge of orders has slowed. That leaves Mr. Kappes pondering the future. How can he keep his business going and even expand nationally as the fire fades from buyers’ memories?

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