Calhoun Sportswear responds to pandemic
Instead of making baseball jerseys, St. Catharines company is fabricating masks
About 20 workers at Calhoun Sportwear are doing their part to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The St. Catharines business that typically produces items such as printed jerseys for sports teams has begun using its expertise and equipment to manufacture thousands of reusable cloth masks to protect people throughout North America from COVID-19.
“The sewers on the sewing machines that no one cared too much about three weeks ago are now superheroes saving lives. I love that,” said the company’s president, Marty Myers.
“Our staff have been great — extremely great. I know everybody’s concerned.”
Like many clothing companies, Myers said his business has outsourced some of its manufacturing, relying on workers in countries such as Bangladesh and China to produce the clothing it sells. However, Calhoun Sportswear also maintained a small sewing factory on Bunting Road — just in case it would ever be needed.
“It was just an anomaly that we even had one (a sewing factory),” Myers said. “But today, we know why we do have one.”
As a result, he said the business and its workers have “a huge opportunity to be able to help.”
“I’ve never been able to help the community like this before,” he added.
Myers said the two-ply cloth masks being produced in St. Catharines “offer lots of protection,” adding research done in the wake of the SARS outbreaks a decade ago had shown they are about 68 per cent effective — and they can be washed and reused.
They are equipped with pockets where additional filtration can be added, significantly increasing their effectiveness — although Myers said in most cases the additional filters shouldn’t be required.
Myers said the goal is to produce as many as 10,000 masks daily, and the company is ramping up production to meet that target, recently adding new equipment.
“We’re not there yet. There’s demand for them and we’re shipping stuff all over the U.S. and Canada,” he said, adding the company is receiving orders from customers that include hospitals and cleaning companies.
“It’s just not enough. Our focus is going to be on getting us up to 10,000 a day. We’re going to be looking at bringing new sewers in, we’re going to be calling some companies to help us.”
For instance, he said, upholstery companies might have idle sewing machines that could be put to use making masks.
But the inexpensive cost of the masks being produced — starting at less than $1 each — can be a disincentive for some manufacturers.
“The bottom line is there’s no profit. We just felt we’d help out,” he said. “Right now we have to get cost-effective masks to the marketplace.”
Myers said the company has implemented numerous precautions to protect the workers creating the masks, equipping each with masks of their own as well as smocks and other equipment.
The facility and its offices have been closed to visitors. “We want everybody to be healthy and safe. If you’re sick, you’re not coming into work,” Myers said.
If any of the workers were infected with COVID-19, he fears it could result in the factory closing entirely.
Myers said it’s not unlike how local businesses stepped up to help during military conflicts of the past.
“This is a war. This might have more of a social change than a war when you think about it. People aren’t working, no one goes to visit anyone anymore,” he said.