KEVIN OSMOND

KEVIN OSMOND from masker untuk indonesia talks to ajeng g. anindita about fighting against the reluctance of mask-wearing and providing well-made, creatively-designed options

Making masks cool

No one – not even those whose job is to formulate five-year plans – could have predicted COVID-19. More importantly none of us could have guessed how hard it hit. But that’s the reality that we live in now. And this reality can look a lot better if people wear masks. It’s a simple measure that allows every individual to help protect those around them. A simple task that many, it would seem, prefer to ignore.

This particular concern weighs heavily on the mid of Kevin Osmond, co-founder and CEO of Printerous. He and a team of six decided to do something about the lack of masks in Indonesia at the beginning of the outbreak. They pooled their resources and started the “Masker Untuk Indonesia” (or “Masks for Indonesia”) movement.

“It all started from my own concerns about the pandemic and how low our people’s awareness was about the severity of this virus,” Osmond elaborates on the initial idea that sparked the movement. “I felt that what we can do to prevent the spread of this virus is to have people wear masks routinely when they are out. At Printerous we run printing and production. What if we can empower people to buy masks? And simultaneously give masks to other people, too?”

Osmond has more than 14 years of experience in the digital industry and is also known as a serial techentrepreneur as he is the co-founder of several well-known start-ups such as Tiket.com and online media platform Fimela. In 2012, he decided to focus on Printerous after discovering that the business of printing and production was still done manually. The initial idea came from a simple question: What if they can help people to print and order everything online? Thereby doing away with all the fuss of going and waiting in line at a print shop. In 2016, Printerous began to serve orders for printing needs, such as marketing materials and merchandise, including business cards, packaging to office stationery.

Back to the present, Masker Untuk Indonesia allows people to buy non-medical reusable fabric masks. The twist is, when you buy one mask, you essentially give three more to others who need it. Another consideration is the fact that a lot of people need to be pushed to use masks. The movement came up with the creative idea to collaborate with local brands and artists. Then, they also partnered up with micro, small and medium enterprises, who now, thanks to the movement, can get their business up and running again after being idle because of the pandemic.

“Currently, we are working together with 10 partners to produce the masks; they’re all spread across the island. We’ve been operating for two and a half months and he have donated around 450,000 pieces,” Osmond explains. “We focused on the Greater Jakarta area in the first month. For the second and following months, we focused on the eastern parts of Indonesia. We have been following government’s update and we realised that the spread in that area is quite troubling.”

The movement gained momentum quickly, to the point that Osmond and his team became overwhelmed as they weren’t quite expecting to see the number of masks reach 10,000 pieces. In fact, the Masker Untuk Indonesia website went down during the first two hours due to the massive amount of traffic. “I guess in a way, it was a good thing because there’s so many people interested buying our masks,” Osmond reflects. “Production and fulfilment wise, we weren’t ready because we had no expectations at all; we didn’t dare put up too much in the beginning.”

He continues: “Even though this is a charity movement, people are essentially buying products from our website. So, basically, they’re still our customers. There were so many complaints and high demand. In the second week we gave in and apologised to them, then we asked for a week to take care of everything. We gave them the option to get a refund. If they don’t want to wait that long, they could simply ask for their money back. But amazingly, no one asked.”

The positive feedback spurred Osmond and his team to work even harder and to reach out to more people to become partners. They scaled up production, moved up from one partner to ten, from one warehouse to three and they added more payment methods to eventually include just about every option available including digital payment.

One of the things that really elevated Masker Untuk Indonesia’s popularity is the creative design of the masks, thanks to collaborations with local artists and brands. The movement’s creative collaborators include some of the best talents in the country such as Darbotz, Abenk Alter, Arkiv Vilmansa and Marishka Soekarana, among others. And as masks have become daily commodity in the “new normal” discourse, people are becoming more and more interested in looking for creatively-designed masks. Since we are going to use it every day when we are out or at the office, why not use the ones that are cool?

“We think that collaboration is the right way to create impact,” Osmond points out. “Through collaborations, we create a network effect where every collaborator will promote their masks as well as the movement. It’s how we send the message that when you buy one, you give three to those in need.”

There is, of course, a curation process by Masker Untuk Indonesia. “In the beginning we were the one contacting them, but entering week three and four, it escalated quickly as there are so many brands and artists registering, asking ‘How can we collaborate?’ or ‘How do I donate my artwork?’” Osmond recalls. “We were overwhelmed again and were hesitant to say no. But we have filters in place and we have now standardised everything from patterns and design to quality checks and packing.”

Keeping in mind that the pandemic won’t be going away anytime soon and we don’t know what the future holds, what’s next for Masker Untuk Indonesia? “A mask is a musthave in this era. We use it to protect each other and to prevent the spread of the virus. This movement will continue on as we still see increases in the number of cases and there’s still a lot of people out there who really need it. Some cannot afford masks; some don’t even have the access to buy them. Hopefully our contribution can help to slow down the spread. And this movement will always be here as long as we have the people’s support.”

“In the beginning we were the one contacting them, but entering week three and four, it escalated quickly as there are so many brands and artists registering, asking ‘How can we collaborate?’ or ‘How do I donate my artwork?’”