Like many sportswear and apparel manufacturers — including local shops right here in Manila — adidas and Under Armour are shifting to making PPEs.
The new drop from adidas? Face shields.
The shoe giant is helping out the production of face shields by Carbon, an innovative 3D printer house based off California. On Instagram, adidas posted a video of the process, drippy liquid resin and all.
The shields will use 3D printed lattice technology, which was used in adidas’ Futurecraft 4d midsole.
On Twitter, Carbon posted a frontliner testimonial about the shields. “They are comfortable, convenient, and compatible with our protocols,” said Dr. Kranthi Achanta of the Washington Hospital Healthcare System.
Carbon expects to manufacture around 50,000 face shields per week, which it will distribute to a “global network of customers and partners.” Interested hospitals can go to carbon3d.com/Covid19. The company will try to locate a production partner near your facility. It has also made the designs and instructions open-source for anyone to replicate.
Meanwhile, Under Armour is producing face masks with “origami-like folds” — a one-piece design cut from a piece of breathable, moisture-resistant fabric.
In the company’s Baltimore innovation labs, a high-speed fabric cutter churns out these mask templates at a rate of a 100 pieces at a time.
“The mask cutouts will then be passed off to a group of Under Armour teammate volunteers and hospitals for folding and distribution,” the company said in a statement. The sportswear manufacturer expects to create 100,000 masks a week.
The company is not just stopping with the masks, either. It is also creating face shields and special fanny packs for frontliners. Under Armour is exploring the possibility of 3D printing N95 masks and hospital gowns.
As in Nike’s PPE initiative, Under Armour is keeping its aid local. The Baltimore-based company is concentrating their efforts on the University of Maryland Medical System’s 28,000 health care providers and staff.
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