With medical masks and face shields a necessity for hospitals in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, a local business is producing these medically necessary products for medical providers all over the Brazos Valley.
Versacarry, a Bryan-based company that fashions concealed carry gun holsters, has shifted their development during the COVID-19 outbreak to manufacturing medically necessary products, including masks and face shields, to providers all over the Brazos Valley, including hospitals and lead medical providers. With their first shipment slated to release on Wednesday, Versacarry plans to produce medical items through the COVID-19 crisis, says Versacarry CEO/Owner Justin Sitz.
Manufacturing of these medical items began two to three weeks before the shelter in place was enacted in Bryan College Station, says Sitz. Seeing the demand for medically necessary products, Sitz says he began researching what raw materials it would take to produce these items.
“We started looking into the various vendors and raw materials that are needed to produce these face shields in the medical industry, which we could see across the U.S. that there was already a shortage running on these,” Sits says. “We started the prototyping process approximately two to three weeks prior to really hitting home here at the Brazos Valley.”
By building prototypes for their masks and face shields while continuing to produce their customers' requests, Sitz says his team was able to shift production to help coordinate the production of these items.
“Our guys and girls up there at work, their skill sets would allow them to work and build not only our day-to-day core products, but other products as well,” Sitz says.
Sitz says he has seen requests for his products from medical institutions extending outside of the state of Texas, though he intends to focus his efforts on providing these products inside the Brazos Valley. In addition to medical institutions, Sitz says a large number of retirement communities have requested use of his products to help provide for the elderly who are at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19.
With the raw materials needed to create these products scheduled to arrive for the next eight to 12 weeks, Sitz says that he plans to produce a max capacity of 20,000 to 25,000 products a week until the demand from medical providers is lessened.
Sitz says shifting production towards creating these medical items has provided him with a great way to both serve the community and provide his employees with a way to earn an income during this outbreak.
“We have a large crew in the Brazos Valley, and without a focus point to keep them, we could potentially be at a spot where we were having to give them excessive time off for referral employees,” Sitz says. “This has allowed us to not have to do that, to keep all of our guys and girls, our teamwork, our vendors for the raw materials, and so forth that go into the product.
“And they are very excited [about this],” Sitz says. “Our guys and girls are very excited to not only continue working forward working in the community, but doing it in an effort that does real good as well.”
Medical institutions wishing to receive these face shields or masks can request a shipment of product on the Versacarry website at www.versacarry.com/covid19.
