A Northern California-based startup is now in the mask making business, producing non-medical, three-ply nonwoven face masks. Salus Supply, a veteran-owned company, and the first and only nonwoven mask manufacturer on the West Coast, guarantees low prices and same-day shipping.

“We bought a machine so that we could make masks in America, put local people to work and help to re-establish a critically important supply chain for personal protective equipment (PPE),” says Tovey Giezentanner, owner and founder of Salus Supply.

Salus masks are made from three layers of lightweight, breathable nonwoven material, including a middle layer of meltblown fabric which provides an improved level of protection from tiny airborne particles and helps to reduce exposure to Covid-19 and bad air quality from wildfires.

The movement towards wearing masks during pandemics is well documented in history and why Giezentanner, along with two investors, took to the internet to buy a mask-making machine in March 2020. After finding a company based in China with a facility in California that made and sold mask making machines, Giezentanner secured a warehouse and ordered a machine and the necessary materials to start make the masks.

“Unfortunately, no one in America builds mask-making machines. Likewise, securing the nonwoven fabrics to make masks in America is almost impossible,” Giezentanner continues. “For the past 25 years, it’s been cheaper to import masks from China or other far east countries and as a result the PPE supply chain disappeared.”

In July, Giezentanner hired a San Francisco-based electrician to help communicate in Chinese and calibrate his new machine. By late-August, the mask materials arrived, and Salus Supply was in business. The mask machine can produce up to 40,000 masks a day and 1 million masks per month.

“We’re thrilled to be part of a national effort to re-establish the PPE supply chain in America,” Giezentanner continues. “It’s also been extremely rewarding to create local jobs, start a California-based supply chain in my hometown and make something positive happen in 2020.”

Salus sells boxes of 50 masks or cases of 2000. 

Salus non-medical, source control face masks are authorized by the FDA under an Emergency Use Authorization for use as source control by members of the general public as well as health care professionals in healthcare settings to help prevent the spread of infection or illness during the Covid-19 pandemic.