Business pivots to make pandemic face shields

After summer events and tradeshows were cancelled, a Hamilton retail display manufacturer set its sights on designing a new product: a high-quality, reusable face shield.

“We have the ability to adapt,” said Kenneth Tschernow, director of North Design Build, which manufactures retail displays and promotional materials. “Our idea is let’s make something that’s actually functional, that is of good quality. And let’s do it here in Hamilton.”

In April, Tschernow launched a GoFundMe campaign, which has reached more than 90 per cent of its $16,000 goal, to donate shields to front-line workers. A donation of $200 will fund 25 face shields.

Tschernow said they are still refining the product, which is made of polycarbonate — a lightweight, high-performance plastic — but so far the feedback has been positive.

“A lot of other people are using other materials and those other materials fog up quite badly when you breathe from behind your mask,” said Dr. Kerry Beal, the lead physician of the Shelter Health Network, a group of doctors that provide healthcare services to shelters in the city. “The polycarbonate doesn’t fog up the same way.”

Last week, North Design Build donated 50 face shields to the

Shelter Health Network for doctors to use while testing homeless people for COVID-19 and for staff at shelters and isolation centres in their network.

The product has been tested by health-care practitioners, and in late April received a medical device establishment licence from Health Canada.

What started out as an initiative to give back has evolved into a new business venture. North Design Build began to sell shields online last week, with the goal of turning a fundraiser into something more sustainable.