Palos Park pair get into PPE market
Father-son team markets inexpensive face shields
Early this year when COVID-19 hit China, Dan Brown Sr. and his son, Dan Brown Jr., began worrying about how the United States would cope with the virus in light of its short supply of personal protective equipment.
The two got to work developing a face shield that was comfortable, stylish and inexpensive at $2.99 a piece. Insta-Shield is strapless but can be donned over a baseball cap or visor to hold it in place.
They say they have sold 675,000 of the shields to food chains, an automaker, theme park and universities.
But this was more of a challenge than chore for the dad and son team. Brown Sr., an inventor and professor in Northwestern University’s engineering school, founded Logger-Head Tools in 2005, which designs, develops and markets hand tools. Brown Jr. was so impressed by his dad’s work that he joined Insta-Shield and now runs that company.
“My son was challenging me to find a way to overcome the problem with the shortage of PPE,” Brown Sr. said. “I was looking to get to the root of the problem … to protect from coughing and sneezing.
“I thought, how can I get that shield without all the cost and labor?” he said.
He designed the shield, for which patents are pending, by using computer aided design from his home office in Palos Park. The shield can be mass-produced inexpensively and the two work with contract manufacturers to churn out the shields.
“If you look at our shield and other shields, the others have a big bubble head type of look to them,” Brown Sr. said. “I wanted to have a shield people wanted to wear because compliance is important.”
Brown Jr. said he also wanted to find a way to give back. For every shield sold on its website, the company donates one to an essential worker or senior, as part of their
Million Shield Challenge.
“I figured I’ve been fortunate in my life and was going to invest some of my money to make it happen,” Brown Jr. said.
Watching his dad run Loggerhead Tools helped prepare him to successfully market the shield, he said.
“I learned firsthand how to take a great
product, market it and have success,” he said. “That has taught me the possibilities when I see good ideas.”
Karen Shostak, director of sales for Friends of the Festival, Inc. in Chattanooga, Tennessee, bought 100 shields to give everyone who works the nonprofit’s sixweek summer outdoor music series.
“With food service workers, they’re in front of such heat, especially with the food truck, and when you’re in those close quarters the mask can become overwhelming,” Shostak said. “The shield offered some distance from their face, still offering protection and they weren’t a burden.”
Shannon Blom, one of the vendors who owns Uncle Lar’s Outpost, which sells healthy foods plus unique gifts, said she was thrilled with their 15 shields and plan to buy dozens more. Blom said the comfortable shields allow several employees with respiratory issues to still work.
Blom said she also wanted to be sure customers could see employee’s faces.
“I think it’s a great way to keep interaction,” Blom said. “I believe the shields enable a visual/facial language that is normally restricted with the use of the mask.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.