*COVID-19: We are committed to helping our community through this crisis. To that end, our incredible portfolio companies have many materials and products to assist in this time of need, and we will be promoting them in this series. We’ll get through this together - read on and stay tuned.
This post was written by Ryan Light, CEO of our portfolio company Pistol Lake.
When we started Pistol Lake in 2012, we wanted to create more than just clothes - we wanted to create a community. In order to do that, we’ve made a strong effort since the very beginning to get feedback from our customers about everything we make, from colors to fabrics to styles. As a result, our customers seem to truly care about us as a company and as people.
When the COVID-19 crisis hit, it brought a ton of uncertainty with it. I had no idea if we would be able to safely or legally continue to ship from our warehouse or sew at our factory. With spring quickly approaching, we had just invested heavily in filling the shop with inventory, as that’s our prime season. If the crisis shut down our ability to ship and/or sell, I knew that I could be faced with some very difficult decisions, like furloughing employees, temporarily cutting salaries (starting with my own) - who knew what we would have to do to stay afloat.
We very rarely have sales unless we’re discontinuing an item, but in order to prepare for the worst, we quickly launched an unannounced site-wide sale. I communicated clearly with our wonderful community of customers to let them know we weren’t sure how long we’d be able to keep shipping items, so if they’d ever had their eye on something from our shop, we sure would appreciate a purchase now. We’d never asked our community for help before, and I hope we never have to again, but our customers stepped up in a big way - we sold about a month and a half’s worth of normal revenue in just one weekend. And this liquid capital would come in very handy for what happened next.
If you recall, in early March, the world was (and still is) struggling to provide effective PPE to health care workers -- n95 masks were in such short supply that many health providers were being asked to wear truckstop bandanas to work. As a company with our skills and supply chain, we couldn’t just sit on the sidelines, so we decided to start making masks.
In the first week, knowing what to make, how to make it, who to make it for, and who wanted/needed it specifically was a confusing mess. We took to Twitter, Reddit, Slack channels, Facebook, got email intros, made cold phone-calls, you name it! All to answer the question: “Exactly what should we be making and for who?”
We had to re-tool our warehouse completely. Items that were already in production stayed that way, but we stopped buying fabric and practically eviscerated our pipeline for 2020. Fortunately, by the time we were retooled and had prototypes made, the government had standardized guidelines for us, so we set off on designing and creating masks, something our company had never done before.
Finding fabric early on in the crisis was nearly impossible, even though we have a fully LA-based supply chain - most of our usual fabric supply companies had either voluntarily or involuntarily closed their doors. We evaluated the fabric we already had in-house with a tight enough weave, proper thickness, and an adequate level of durability - and then we found the thick cotton that we usually use to make Oxfords. We didn’t know who we would sell/give/donate to just yet -- but we knew that every hour matters in flattening the curve, so we just got to work.
Initially, we thought we could help the most by supplying masks to healthcare facilities (and we have shipped a number of boxes to these industries) -- but when Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles’ Mayor, suggested that the general public needed masks as well and called for all Angelinos to wear masks when leaving the house, we decided to add them to our website for purchase.
The healthcare pros told us that what they needed was durable, sanitizable, built-to-last PPE, which was not something that we as a garment manufacturer with limited expertise could provide. So, we felt like we could do the most good by getting fabric masks on the public, and find another way to get legit medical gear on the legit medical professionals.
To help with that, we’re donating a portion of every Pistol Lake mask purchased to maskson.org, a non-profit that is 3D printing an adapter that turns off-the-shelf full-face snorkels into life-saving medical masks with a medical-grade filter. This way, we can supply the public with masks to keep themselves safe; reduce the collection of higher-grade, healthcare-level masks by regular folks; and contribute to the efforts of an organization that is getting healthcare workers the equipment they need. We’ve shipped out thousands of masks just in our first two weeks (and counting).
I feel incredibly fortunate that Pistol Lake was able to pivot in such a constructive way in this unprecedented time. This opportunity is a rare win/win scenario that a startup CEO rarely gets the chance to experience:
Win 1: I’m able to keep all my employees, that I deeply care about, on the payroll with no cuts in salary or benefits. I’m so thankful that my team is able to keep their jobs at this time -- we know a large percentage of the population is not this fortunate.
Win 2: We’re able to help, even in some small way, to stem the spread of this devastating disease, and donate proceeds to making PPE that will be used for years after Corona is in the rearview mirror.
I’m so proud of both our team and our customers for stepping up, being resourceful and creative, and caring about their fellow man.
If you want a mask for yourself/family member, you can buy one here.
If you need masks and can’t afford them, email me at ryan@pistollake.com we’ll work something out.
Stay well,
Ryan
More about Pistol Lake
Pistol Lake makes ultra-functional apparel for minimalists using ethical manufacturing and recycled fabrics.