Lovepop is making a major pivot: from creating 3D greeting cards to manufacturing personal protective equipment for health care workers.
The Boston-based startup and onetime Shark Tank contestant is using its facilities to manufacture face shields. The first batch of 10,000 is currently in production; soon, Lovepop will be able to create up to 40,000 face shields each day, co-founder and CEO Wombi Rose told BostInno. Afterward, the team will also begin manufacturing hospital gowns. Those are currently in prototype.
"When we started this, we reached out to a bunch of our former classmates and connections who are working on the front line," Wombi said. "Just hearing their stories about the lack of equipment and generally what their days are looking like right now, it's impossible not to do whatever you can to help them out. We're a company that has access to significant production resources. It just is something that you have to do."
The processes of laser-cutting a 3D greeting card and laser-cutting a clinical-grade face shield are not exactly the same, but they have enough similarities that the team was able to put together a system within a few weeks. Wombi began brainstorming with Emilio Latorre, Lovepop's head of production and procurement, and Pierce Schiller, a classmate and fellow entrepreneur from Harvard Business School, in mid-March, around the time that businesses in Massachusetts were beginning to shut down.
The team set out with the idea of manufacturing filter masks but quickly abandoned that pursuit when they realized they couldn't procure the specialized material required to make them. Face shields were the logical next step.
The team used Lovepop's existing die cutters, which are typically used to cut the front covers on Lovepop's cards, to cut the clear material that makes up the majority of the shield. The equipment was developed in partnership with Partners Healthcare Working Groups and the State of Massachusetts Manufacturing Emergency Response Team.
Today, the Lovepop team is manufacturing tens of thousands of face shields, with the goal of getting them into the hands of health care workers as soon as possible. Wombi said that hospital systems looking to order equipment can contact supplies@lovepop.com. (Wombi emphasized that Lovepop is not a medical device manufacturer, its equipment has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and it cannot officially warrant any of these new products.)
Lovepop has stepped up at a time when health care professionals and experts say the U.S. has an increasing shortage of masks, gowns, gloves and other personal protective equipment for doctors, nurses and other medical staff. Those staffers have rationed and reused medical equipment and even come up with homemade alternatives using bandanas and trash bags, as detailed in a recent Vox report.
In addition to the face shields and gowns, Lovepop is planning to manufacture coveralls, hoods, shoe covers and isolation chambers, a spokeswoman wrote in an email to BostInno. The company has also designed a pop-up emergency cot that is disposable and packs flat.
Amid all this, Lovepop is still making cards. Its retail locations are closed, but people are still ordering online—and it's a busy time of year given the proximity of Easter and Mother's Day.
"Everybody is home and wants to reach out and connect the folks that they care about," Wombi said.
