Coronavirus: Jacksonville’s Venus Swimwear now sewing protective masks

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Jacksonville’s Venus Swimwear is converting some of its manufacturing capacity from bikinis to masks and gowns to help keep medical workers safe while they deal with the rush of coronavirus patients.

The company, which normally makes swimsuits, tank tops and other women’s clothing at its Beach Boulevard manufacturing facility, has switched about a quarter of its sewing force to making protective masks. The company has about 40 sewers working two shifts, and 10 of them are now sewing masks. The company is considering moving more of its workers to start making protective gowns.

“We have about 10 that are all on just doing our masks,” said Pamela Kimball, the company’s director of swim, intimates and sleepwear. “We are looking at other lines that can be converted.”

Kimball noted that the masks are not for sale to the public — they are being donated to UF Health Jacksonville and to a hard-hit emergency room in New Jersey.

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Venus is well suited to help out at a time like this, Kimball said. They have sewing equipment, staff and the expertise to make just about any garment needed. They are still making and selling their normal products but had the capacity to add masks to their production. She said the staff did some online research and went through a few prototypes to come up with a mask design.

“We tried a couple different ways to find one that fit the best, was comfortable, ” she said.

The company went out and purchased the woven-cotton material for the masks. That’s a material that normally isn’t kept in stock, since swimsuits are made of nylon and polyspandex.

Venus started making the masks this week and has already cranked out more than a thousand. Kimball said she expects Venus to make about 2,700 masks by the end of the week, and that number could increase if more workers are shifted.

“Since we are only using a small portion of our workforce, we can pull more out as needed,” she said. “As we get more and more items that are needed, we will convert more of our swimwear lines to do it.”

Next up may be protective hospital gowns. Kimball said UF Health needs isolation gowns to protect its workers, and Venus is looking at ways to step in and help produce those.