US mask makers say they are being clobbered by cheaper competition from China

When the pandemic first hit last year, Brian Wolin was working as a chiropractor, and his brother-in-law, Evan Shulman, ran a business making luxury retail displays for brands, such as Gucci and Chanel. But once the lockdowns began, they both found themselves unable to work. That's when they decided to launch Protective Health Gear, turning over a large part of Shulman's manufacturing space to the production of masks, specifically N95 respirators, which were in high demand and limited supply.

Protective Health Gear started selling the masks last September. Customer demand was closely tied to Covid-19 case numbers in the US, and as the winter surge took hold in December, orders went "through the roof," Wolin said, making it difficult for the company to keep up. But the bulk of the company's sales were coming from the general public, not from hospitals, distributors or government agencies that buy masks in bulk, he said. When it came to those contracts, "we always lost out to the cheapest company," Wolin said.

Often, he said, those cheaper competitors have been based in China.