Costco is requiring you to wear a mask to go shopping as of May 4th. This follows the announcement from Transport Canada last week that any airline, train or boat travel in Canada would require a face cover or mask as well. We expect this to continue to trickle down to public transit, other stores, and potentially just being out in public. This push for masks has put significant pressure on the supply chain for masks AND the parts for masks.
Every mask contains about 144 square inches of 100% cotton fabric, 16 inches of ¼ inch elastic and thread. See if you can find ¼” elastic, we might just buy it off you! We have been substituting tube elastic, but it requires more labour because you need to tie knots in it to make it stay inside the mask and not just pull out. It is just as comfortable and it works, but more labour = more cost.
We contacted a local fabric supplier and determined that because of supply chain disruption there is a shortage of cotton fabric. It is actually more economical to take apart garments (new t-shirts) and use the cotton from them rather than use cotton sold by the yard. So here we are, in our office cutting cotton, pressing it to make it flat and germ free (350 degrees for 10 seconds) tying knots in elastics and sewing it all together to make sure that you can go shopping at Costco.
As demand increases we are working to maintain a stable supply chain, but there will undoubtedly be challenges. Our hope is to maintain a stock of at least a few hundred masks at our office so that we can supply them to families and individuals who want to go shopping or need to head out for essentials that need a mask. Larger corporate orders are being accommodated and we are logoing masks, but those orders do take more time because we need to make sure to maintain some level of inventory as well.
Please visit our mask store at www.covid19.promoaddict.shop to buy your own mask today, we can arrange for non contact pickup within a day or 2 on most days.