Here at Danner, we’re doing our best to keep moving forward during the current COVID-19 crisis. But these days, we’re crafting more than boots — our Portland, Oregon factory is also hard at work making face masks. We were approached by local healthcare workers who thought we might be interested in helping out by putting our sewing and cutting machines to some extracurricular use.
They provided us with surgical wrap material that offers the necessary filtration properties to protect healthcare workers against the coronavirus, and we got to work. Our production department is now dedicated to our mask-making efforts, and employees from our PRU (production readiness unit) and retail and quality teams are dedicating time — both at work and at home after their shifts — to produce as many masks as possible.
With our current resources and the dedication of our staff, we’re capable of producing roughly 1,000 masks per day. Our first priority is to provide medical personnel and first responders with much-needed face protection, but we’ve also been in talks with nonprofits, assisted-living facilities, transportation companies and other organizations in need. To date, we’ve provided more than 300 face masks to Portland Public School teachers and staff who are tasked with distributing daily meals and learning materials to their students.
In addition to the surgical wraps we were initially given — which can be tough to find, we’ve learned — we sourced authentic face-mask material from one of our trusted supply partners. We just received our first shipment of this material, and it will enable us to produce an additional 15,000 protective masks.
Next on our to-do list: face shields. We constructed a prototype out of laces, boot foam, double-sided tape and vinyl. Infectious disease specialists have reviewed and approved our design, and now we’re working on sourcing vinyl or clear plastic so we can get to work making these as well.
We ‘re honored to show our support and gratitude to those fighting on the front lines of this crisis. “On behalf of the team here,” says Chris Perrotti, “we are very happy to be able to contribute in some way to the cause.”
And until we make it to the other side of this challenging time, we’ll keep sewing.