Ep. 10: Accel Lifestyle makes face masks from proprietary sportswear fabric
-By Jessica Owen
Fitness apparel brand Accel Lifestyle is adjusting its manufacturing process to help alleviate a shortage of face masks caused by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Megan Eddings, CEO, explains more.
The company is using its exclusive, antibacterial Prema fabric to manufacture the all new Accel Prema Anti-Bacterial Face Masks, which will be available to both the public and medical professionals.
The Accel Prema Anti-Bacterial Face Masks have two layers of Prema fabric with excellent breathability and can easily be made to include a pocket for an additional filter.
“I woke up last Friday morning (20 March) and saw the CDC articles about asking healthcare workers to use cotton shirts or bandanas as they are running out of face masks,” says Eddings.
“My team and I immediately came up with the idea to use our Prema fabric that we have on hand to make Accel Prema Anti-Bacterial Face Masks. We are a lean team, but we usually operate like a team of 50 people. We had a pattern that same day and started actively reaching out to all of our healthcare contacts. Within a couple of days, we sourced and purchased 50,000 yards of elastic for the face masks and had 40 local Houston sewers lined up and ready to sew.”
Prema fabric was developed by Eddings. It uses a proprietary blend of silver-poly fibres woven with Supima, the finest cotton in the world. It has undergone years of development and testing – focusing primarily on gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Even after 100 washes, tests have shown a 99.38% reduction rate of staphylococcus aureus and a colony reduction rate of 97.44% of klebsiella pneumoniae.
While initially intended to be a non-stink fabric for athletic wear, Eddings’ creation – due to its antimicrobial properties – has proven to be popular with cancer patients and others with compromised immune systems. Although it’s not an N95 mask, Eddings hopes her Accel Prema Anti-Bacterial Face Masks can help provide some level of protection against Covid-19.
The company is using its exclusive, anti-bacterial Prema fabric to manufacture the all new Accel Prema Anti-Bacterial Face Mask
“I truly believe we’re all in this together and we all have a role to play during this pandemic,” she adds. “If Accel Lifestyle can help flatten the curve in any way, then we’re going to do it.”
Accel Lifestyle is currently in talks with the Texas Medical Center about supplying its facilities with the Accel Prema Anti-Bacterial Face Masks. In addition, the Texas Medical Center hospitals are also independently testing Accel Lifestyle’s Prema fabric in their own infection control departments.
The manufacture of the Accel Prema Anti-Bacterial Face Masks will also help have a positive impact on the economy. In order to make the Accel Prema Anti-Bacterial Face Masks, Accel Lifestyle is employing 40 sewers in the Houston area who would otherwise be out of work. In addition, a local trucking company with a fleet of 17 trucks is on standby to ship the Accel Prema Anti-Bacterial Face Masks to medical facilities.
“Houston, Texas, has always been extremely supportive of myself, my team and Accel Lifestyle,” says Eddings explains. “We already had a pretty large network of sewers here locally and we reached out to them to reach out to their networks.
“Regarding the fleet of trucks, it is the same story. A friend of ours knows the gentleman that owns the company with the trucks, and she connected us immediately.”
The Accel Prema Anti-Bacterial Face Masks are currently available. Accel Lifestyle has the ability to quickly produce over 90,000 additional face masks beyond its current stock. Inquiries should be made to info@accellifestyle.com.
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