Published: 29 September 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
IN FEBRUARY, WE RECEIVED a record number of orders for the upcoming summer travel season. Our start-up venture was rocking. Our award-winning app, Bitemojo, offered self-guided culinary tours in 12 cities around the world. The app, which was initially developed for the culinary treasures of Jerusalem, was very popular among young and low-budget travellers.
Towards the end of February, we were also in the final stages of raising $US1 million from investors to further develop the venture. All the documents and presentations were ready, we were on track and the future looked bright.
March arrived, the world came to a standstill, and five years of work went down the drain. We decided to embark on a new journey. We have four children, a mortgage, and an awareness that the world of tourism that we loved so much would not be the source of our sustenance for the foreseeable future.
March was the first shock. Then came April and we found ourselves spending every day at the hospital helping our ailing parents. Like everybody, we were wearing single-use masks for hours each day. It became clear to us that face masks would soon to be a regular feature of our wardrobe, and for a long time.
The single-use masks available were unattractive and wasteful and we saw an opportunity. Our entrepreneurial impulse was reignited. We felt there was an opportunity for a product that was safe, fashionable, and had a social value, a principle that has informed us since we began our business in tourism in 2008.
We decided to move as quickly as possible. Our learning curve regarding the types of fabrics, resistance to microns, and the method of stitching required us to start from a point even lower than the Dead Sea. We conducted intensive research for three weeks. We read everything we could about the use of fabrics for masks, the effect of density on virus resistance, what works and what doesn’t.
We decided not to compromise on quality. We chose premium cotton fabrics from quality Israeli suppliers. We felt the fabrics and the textures with our own hands and chose designs that would make people happy when they left their homes. We created more than ten prototypes before choosing the designs that reflected the elegance and look we were aiming for.
In addition to the high-quality fabric and sewing, we decided that each mask would have a fashionable neck band, identical to the mask fabric, enabling the user to take the mask off while still keeping it close. Users could maintain a nice look when not using the mask.
We complied with all Health Ministry guidelines regarding fabric density, with the capability of adding a filter. After further research we imported a special anti-bacterial filter from Belgium that lasts long after multiple washings.
The business side was not enough. As with our previous endeavours, it was important for us to ensure that this initiative contained a social justice value. That is why we chose to manufacture the masks with two organisations whose mission we believe in. One is the Imra (‘statement’ or ‘saying’, in Hebrew) sewing project that employs young women at risk, and the other is Danny and Mussa, a sewing workshop located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem that serves as a bridge between Israelis and Palestinians.
At the time this article went to print, we expect to have sold more than 10,000 masks by the end of August. Our first sales were made only six weeks after we began exploring the world of textiles, design and health.
It has been a fascinating journey. We believe tourism will return to its former glory but for the time being we are pleased we can provide for the future of our children by doing something meaningful and effective.
As we start the new Jewish year, we wish to share our experience of renewal and the ability to rapidly change course. We feel it is our Jewish response to an unexpected challenge: always look forward, walk straight and walk together.
The ability to recover from devastating consequences is not only a business strategy; it is engrained in our DNA as a people. We are happy that even in these times we managed to resort to our millennia-old sources of inspiration.
For further information and mask orders contact: www.maskco.co.il
Illustration: Avi Katz
