Miami tailors shift to mask-making as experts call for increased protection
If you’ve stayed at a local Marriott or sailed on a Carnival Corp. cruise line ship, you have likely seen someone wearing an ICO Uniform.
Now, the Miami-based apparel maker is recalibrating its sewing machines for masks for regular South Florida residents as the coronavirus crisis continues.
The masks are not medical grade — but a growing chorus of medical experts, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is calling on U.S. residents to make wearing masks part of their daily routine if they venture out of their homes.
For ICO, it’s an opportunity to keep workers employed and be part of the national solution to the shortage of personal protective equipment.
“We have a small sewing operation in Miami, so we decided to convert it into washable mask production,” said ICO founder and executive vice president Scott Turk. “It’s not going to replace lost revenue, but it is generating revenue and work, and we think it’s critical for the community. It’s had a phenomenal impact on morale and providing a sense of purpose.”
Turk says approximately 20 workers are now at work at the location in Golden Glades, and will scale as needed. The company soft-launched sales Friday night, and expected to ship 1,000 masks this past week. Orders are increasing every day, he said.
ICO is not the only uniform maker shifting production to meet mask demand. J.A. Uniforms, which supplies to a host of local companies including Sedano’s, has also shifted into mask-making mode. Their production line comes with a twist: To protect their workers, they sent them home with the proper equipment in order to observe social distancing.
Sedano’s was its first customer.
“We have a courier [come to their house and] pick up the work, and it’s a win-win,” said co-owner Menchu Dominicis. “They stay employed and working, and we’ve been able to meet the Sedano’s order, as well as one for a retirement community.”
A growing chorus of health experts believe masks should now be incorporated as part of social distancing efforts. As reported by National Public Radio, in a paper outlining steps to re-open the economy, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said masks, if widely used, can help slow the spread of coronavirus “because they may help prevent people who are asymptomatically infected from transmitting the disease unknowingly.”
The evidence is not fully established about what protection non-medical-grade masks provide. But William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, told NPR that at this point, “every little bit of protection would help.”
As the uniform makers step in to provide protection to individuals outside the medical profession, Florida International University has launched into production of medical-grade face shields using 3D-printed designs. According to an FIU news release, the masks are made from non-toxic PLA (polylactic acid), and are meant to act “as a first line of defense for healthcare workers.”
“With the shortage of masks, the shield is worn over the mask to preserve their longevity as well as prevent infected respiratory droplets from entering workers’ nose and eyes,” FIU said.
The shields are already being worn by professionals in the Baptist Health South Florida system, the school said.
FIU is not the only group making face shields. The Moonlighter Makerspace in Wynwood has been churning them out to the tune of 1,000 a day by 3-D printing and laser cutting them. As it fine-tunes its process, says co-founder Thomas Pupo, it is hoping to get up to 1,500 a day. And the space just announced that it will be joining Coca-Cola’s effort to supply groups like Pupo’s with plastic material to keep the shields coming.
“We’re working on an on-call basis,” Pupo said. “When someone requests them, we make them.”
