EN | £ TotsBots Reusable Face Masks
Why we decided to make reusable face masks for adults and children
This year isn’t going the way most people expected. Coronavirus is here for the foreseeable future and as a society, we have all had to make changes. Here at TotsBots too, we’ve had to put contingencies in place to ensure that we stay safe, including working from home as well as introducing quite drastic social distancing measures in our factory and warehouse. We’re not sure how long this will continue, but we’re taking each day as it comes and as much as we are socially distant, we feel closer than ever as a team and are doing what we can to maintain as much normality as possible.
During our shut down to deep clean, rejig the production floor layout and organise the foot flow, our garment tech guru, Libby, put her skills to good use and whipped up a few face masks for the 30% of the team who were coming back to work during lockdown. They all thought they were mask-sniff-icent (see what we did there, can’t resist a pun) but all puns aside a few people asked if they could have a couple for their friends and family, so we put a lay up on the table and made a few more. It was at that point we started considering if we should make them, or not. It hasn’t been a simple or quick decision to make to be honest and we really have been all around the houses with this one. One of the many videos we watched that helped us make the decision was this one, watch here.
There has been a lot of speculation recently around whether we should be wearing face masks to help prevent the spread of COVID 19 especially with the NHS lacking in medical PPE; concerns that general population demand will exacerbate this; and concerns that masks will give a false sense of security against infection risks and have the opposite desired effect, but the mounting evidence that widespread general mask wearing along with testing and contact tracing is key to getting the virus under control helped us come to the decision to go ahead and allocate some of our somewhat limited capacity to making them. As a manufacturer of essential hygiene products, we are in the position to do something to make a difference, albeit a small one, we are doing it.
No-one knows how long this pandemic will last for so a reusable mask or two is something that won’t go to waste. We have designed two sizes; the kiddie-sized masks are available in our colourful signature swim prints, hopefully making mask wearing a bit more fun for little ones who have to be out and about during this pandemic; and adult sized masks that are available in white only, so we’re just waiting for the first arty customer to decorate theirs with rainbows, colourful mandalas and funny faces! Get the sharpies to the ready folks. We found this video helpful in understanding how the virus spreads. Watch Here.
For every pack of masks sold we will donate 20% of revenue to charity; shared between the NHS Charities Together and Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity; the latter especially is very close to our hearts after our Directors’ son spent most of last summer there with a life threatening infection in his heart.
Last but not least we’d also like to share the news that we have donated some of our fabric to a group of over 50 volunteers, known as “The Harrogate Scrubbers” to make medical grade scrubs for NHS staff. We are desperate to see how they turn out and will share pics as soon as we have them, especially as it is in the Royal All-bum print!
Kids face masks from £5.15 and adults from £7.15. They are available on the website here.
See how to use and care for your face mask HERE.
Resources:
Here is another clip that helped us come to a final decision if you have got the time to watch: