Congress and governments are rolling back mask mandates across the country. We’ve always believed people ought to have a choice to protect themselves with the best; the worldwide gold standard, the N95.

But we do face challenges and wanted to share with you what we’re facing. We like to think of you not just as customers… You’re more like “co-conspirators” in this whole crazy endeavor to bring strategic American manufacturing back. When you decide to buy an N95, hand sanitizer or one of our Kid95s, you’re voting with your dollars to make “made in the USA” to more than a sound bite.

Unintentional Friendly Fire

We knew we’d be under assault from overseas labor and products. Even US based companies are still making N95s overseas and doing their best to undercut us when we try to sell to retailers.

We knew it would be difficult to break into the government contracting scene when even our home county chose Chinese N95s and KN95s and wouldn’t even consider an N95 made down the street… all due to government red tape.

When we started this company, we did it so anyone in America who wanted an N95 could have an N95. So when the government did the largest deployment of PPE in history and sent 400 million N95s across the country for free, the American consumer did what they should have done… they went and got the free ones.

Except our sales fell through the floor.

So we went to Washington DC to tell Congress that we want to help restock the stockpile since the distribution model apparently changed.

We met with our elected officials’ offices from across the United States… coast to coast, and border to border. They’re listening to us, and while we’re making progress, there’s still a lot of work to do.

We told them we’ve surmounted the regulatory challenges of certifying an N95.

We’ve fought cheap imports.... 

But free masks for everyone without the opportunity to restock the stockpile threatens our very existence as a company. The problem is retailers, hospitals and industry are still choosing the cheapest N95, usually made overseas. And the government is handpicking who gets to contract right now.

The same way we spoke up when our home county turned us away, we’re going to Congress to tell our government we stood up to fix this in 2020, and we want the opportunity to be a part of the solution today as well. The US taxpayers funded the expansion of these companies while YOU, our customers funded us by voting with your dollars and buying an American made N95 at a fair price. We just want the opportunity to compete, the same way we wanted to compete for our home county’s business.

What's Next? 

We’ll be going back soon with hopefully more news to share, but in the meantime, I can assure you, (I know because I saw this happen when we were waiting for meetings) there are staffers in DC answering the phone who care, who answer the phone, listen to the voicemails, and tell their bosses what people are calling about. You can find who represents you in DC here… https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative and if you already know, you can call the Congressional switchboard here (202)-225-3121. 

The important thing they hear is that there are companies like us who stood up N95 lines because we thought it was the right thing to do. No one asked us to do it. No one paid us to do it. We just did it. We think it’s important we also get to help solve it for the long haul. 

- John Bielamowicz