Small manufacturers that recently pivoted to making personal protective equipment as they scrambled to keep their businesses alive and help everyone survive the coronavirus pandemic are now facing a new worry: Demand soon might dry up.
In March, after government leaders asked manufacturers to start making masks and other protective equipment, some Southern California apparel producers made serious investments to answer that call. Now, those business owners say some public officials haven’t returned their calls to actually buy that gear, and they fear demand for protection products like masks and gloves soon could wane, leaving them with excess inventory, retooled factories and no market to serve.
One lifeline could come from the federal government.
Rep. Gil Cisneros, D-Yorba Linda, is leading a bipartisan push for the secretaries of Defense and Health and Human Services to use their existing authority to prioritize buying medical supplies from small businesses. The goal is to replenish the recently depleted Strategic National Stockpile and prepare for possible future waves of coronavirus or other disasters.
“Using such authorities to support small businesses will provide certainty for those that have stepped up when our country needed it most and it will enhance our ability to produce critical supplies domestically,” states the letter signed by Cisneros and two dozen other congress members, including Rep. Harley Rouda, D-Laguna Beach.
The idea, according to Cisneros’ office, came from Brad Thompson, owner of Brea-based Built on Athletics.
His parents started the apparel business — making high-end gear for runners — in 1992. But two months ago, when Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state was shutting down nonessential businesses to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Thompson said he had to lay off all 20 workers in his factory.
That same night, as Thompson thought about what to do next, he said he went back to his roots as a pattern maker. He sat at a sewing machine and created a pattern to make isolation gowns that could help medical workers and others avoid contamination. Two days later, he’d reconfigured his factory and rehired his staff to start cranking out washable, reusable gowns and masks for sale to hospitals, government agencies and individuals throughout the country.
Sales remain strong, he said. Many of his workers are putting in overtime while he hires more staff and searches for property in central Orange County to grow his business.
But Thompson said he never heard back from offices for Newsom or New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’d gone on TV sounding the alarm about their need for protective gear. He said it’s been frustrating to hear story after story about how deals for California and other states to buy gear from China have fallen through, while he said he has equipment ready to ship at only a slightly higher price point.
“Why are you leaning on these non-American manufacturers that are promising things that they can’t deliver and I’m here with my hand in the air?” he asked.
Thompson said he’s invested several million dollars into raw materials, machinery and training his staff to make protective gear. But with government leaders not calling back, and reaction to the virus becoming so politicized, he’s wondering if he’d made the right decision.
“If the business disappeared tomorrow, it would probably sink us,” he said.
So when Thompson heard about the depletion of the National Strategic Stockpile — a cluster of federally managed warehouses full of medical supplies at secret locations throughout the country — he saw an opportunity and reached out to Cisneros’ office for support.
“The fact that our stockpile is being depleted and then fully populated by product that’s imported from overseas seems to me a strategic danger for the United States,” Thompson said.
“Let me fill it. Let me fill it now.”
Jim Lee of Fullerton also wants to answer that call.
Before the pandemic, his Montebello-based company, Live-In Arts, was making clothing for private labels sold at stores such as Macy’s and Burlington Coat Factory. But he got an early glimpse at how tough it was to find protective equipment in January, when the crisis worsened in South Korea and he struggled to find masks for his parents. So when clothing sales plummeted, Lee reconfigured his factory to make masks.
So far, he’s donated and sold more than 300,000 masks. But he said business has started to slow down a bit, as more vendors have opened up and the idea of wearing masks has become politicized.
He has fabric for 40,000 masks cut and ready to be sewn as soon as orders come in, with more than $100,000 in inventory in stock. He’s also eyeing an automated machine and raw material suppliers that would let him make disposable surgical masks at his Montebello factory. But he said there’s so much uncertainty about the market’s future that it’s tough to keep taking such risks.
“It’s one of the biggest worries I have,” Lee said. “We don’t now when it’s going to stop.”
Cisneros and his colleagues say giving small business owners such as Lee and Thompson first dibs at helping to replenish the national stockpile could help taxpayers and the businesses.
“The COVID-19 emergency has underscored the need for a more resilient domestic industrial base for critical medical supplies,” the May 14 letter states.
“Stronger small businesses and a stronger domestic supply chain will not only better prepare us for the future, but it will also provide much needed support for our economy in a time of crisis.”
As of Tuesday, May 19, neither Secretary of Defense Mark Esper or Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar had responded to the letter.
