The recent American and European wildfires, as well as the ongoing global pandemic beg the question: How can we breathe safer and easier in a sustainable way, while reducing costs to the consumer and cutting disposable mask waste? To that end, we've been busy innovating beyond the core designs and materials of past RepMasks. A significantly more protective and easy to reuse mask has been developed.

Updated Materials

RepMask has been re-designed with synthetic materials in mind. RepMask IV is a departure from its cotton, polyester, and silicone based predecessors and includes a nano-material fabric. The materials chosen for this RepMask iteration offer better protection, elasticity, and water vapor shedding than their natural cousins. The prior silicone mask body has been dropped in favor of a woven fabric one. Testing suggests that RepMask can perform as well as a typical silicone respirator in circumstances that do not require protection above and beyond the N95 standard.

Here's a video summary of materials testing performed to validate RepMask IV
A variety of masks from various producers were also tested using the approach depicted in the video. Only N95 rated masks performed as well as RepMask. These and other tests have reinforced our confidence in the materials selected for our new mask.

Designing for Fit, Function, Reuse

As stated, the silicone mask body has been replaced with a flexible synthetic fabric. The body or skirt feature provides an enhanced air seal to the wearer's face. It's well known that this better seal between mask and face leads to better protection for the wearer. Further, keeping up with the latest innovations in mask reuse has been at the top of our agenda. Washing RepMask IV is not an advised way to sterilize it. Instead, it should be placed over a cloth covered, shallow dish with a few ounces of water, then microwaved for two minutes at a 1000 Watts. RepMask IV is in fact built around microwave safety. You will never find metals in our mask. RepMask IV does not require or feature a nose clip.

Several US states and jurisdictions have demanded that face coverings substantially cover the lower portion of a wearer's face. Due to these requirements, and to provide better protection against droplets and aerosols, RepMask now covers slightly more of the face than what a surgical mask may cover.

Check it out on Etsy.com
 
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