Starting a Business: The Story Behind Carbon Masks

Living in a pandemic is a great challenge. Navigating a new world of regular quarantines and social distance has been hard for everyone. One industry that has certainly grown amid this economic decline is the mask industry. Masks are becoming a huge part of our lives, wearing them is something that will be carrying over into 2021 and beyond so feeling safe and comfortable in them has to be a top priority. People all over the world have begun to sew masks and help the community around them. One such company that has started up in the middle of this pandemic, is Carbon Masks. 

Carbon Masks began as the brainchild of Sandra, her sister, and their friend. Sandra was home, stuck in quarantine, and just talking with her sister and their friend. What they wanted to do was make something relevant to the times we all found ourselves living in.

Sandra Leow, via Carbon Masks 

Sandra had just been sent back to her home country of Malaysia as our school in the Netherlands struggled to handle the beginning of the pandemic. Her sister and their friend were similarly stuck in between the lives they used to live and the ones they found themselves living. As Sandra put it, they wanted to: 

“Incorporate elements of functionality and aesthetics”

This was their ultimate goal going into this. Though Sandra admits she didn’t know much about what this would practically entail. It was a new experience, running a business and starting one from the ground up. But, there is no time like the present so she and her team got to work. We talked a lot about those early days and what it was like trying to find a supplier and researching materials.

They decided to start small and keep it local. They found their initial supplier and began working on a prototype. This first sample, as Sandra will tell you herself, was horrible. It was unusable and just not what they were looking for. They had no choice but to pivot, which led them to their new supplier. 

This was the first of a few setbacks the brand faced over its 4-month existence. Their launch was kind of messy, their supplier was unable to deliver on time, their customers were frustrated. To put it honestly; “It was a shit show”

It was hard to manage, finding a balance between projecting confidence to their customers, and admitting their faults. These delays put a lot of strain on Sandra who was managing customer relations, and it marred the image of the company for a while. But this was just another setback, and the team was ready and eager to push past this. 

“It wasn’t sustainable at all, but we got through it and now it is finally more stabilized” 

Something, she highlighted as being incredibly important to resolving these issues was honesty and personability. She retold stories of sitting behind her computer for hours responding to the 50 to 100 emails they were receiving daily and even more Instagram DMs. On that note, she advised that small business owners need to be careful and considerate about the needs of their customers. 

After sorting out all of these issues, their customer base and they could focus on the product. As Sandra said, she and the team wanted to make something functional and aesthetic, so a big question on my mind was; how do they actually function?

We got into the science behind all of it in our conversation. This being her first business venture and obviously, her first time making masks it took a lot of research at first. Eventually, they found a system and style that was reusable, stylish, and effective in protecting against the virus. About the science of the masks themselves, this is what Sandra had to say:

“Before standing the brand I knew nothing about fabrics or the specifications of designing a mask, or anything like that. Carbon Masks are 3-ply, providing three layers of protection to reduce the spread of aerosol transmissions.

The outer layer is made of a moisture-wicking cotton knit material. The water repellent nature of the outer layer blocks respiratory droplets and aerosols from coming into contact with the wearer's face. This is important as many respiratory viruses, such as COVID-19, spread through large droplets from coughs and sneezes.

The middle filter layer is made of a reusable meltblown nonwoven filter material, similar to a surgical face mask.

The inner layer is made out of a soft, breathable cotton-microfiber material—absorbing and containing oral droplets. In addition, the interaction between the inner layer and outer layer material produces an electrostatic charge that increases the mask's aerosol filtration efficiency.”

Carbon Classics, via Carbon Masks

All of this is a part of their current line of Carbon Classics. The product itself is resonating with their customer base, so much so that they have recently expanded into Thailand and Hong Kong. 

Right now they are keeping their team small, with the core team only having three members; it has been quite a journey in the past four months. I was curious to know about the challenges Sandra may have faced going into business as a young Southeast Asian woman. Funnily enough, because there has been very little indication given about who is actually behind the masks she has been free of such direct criticism. That may change as they plan to become more visible owners in the future (fingers crossed this doesn’t happen). 

I asked Sandra more about what she sees for the future of the company and herself both post-pandemic and in the more immediate future. “We’re thinking of [expanding to] Singapore and the US as well actually”. They have found that people are ordering from the US (though the shipping is prohibitively expensive). They are eager to make their way into new markets soon. 

“Essentially we would want to focus on a certain product. I think what’s really important for a business is to know your focus. You can create all the products in the world but if they do not perform well individually, it is not a sustainable way of running a business. We do not want it to only be present during this pandemic but also beyond the year 2020[...]Ultimately, It's about how you want to create a product that will last throughout the shift in time.” 

Right now, they are in the process of releasing their new collection of masks. Beyond that, it’s really about utilizing their resources. They are focused on moving forward, creating more collections, expanding color ranges, and features. “It’s also about how you can be the best in the market.” That is something that remains consistently on their minds, and it informs their research and development efforts. 

I got Sandra to tell me a little bit about the new collection which is coming out next week. 

“Our new collection is called Carbon Air. Basically, although our masks are breathable, we are driven to improve our product offerings. The main goal is to differentiate our Carbon Classics and this new collection, Carbon Air. We wanted to incorporate new features to diversify and most importantly, improve our product.   Some of the new features include a new material, thinner earloops with adjustable straps, and a thinner inner mesh layer.   Although we understand the difficulty in creating a one-size-fits-all mask, our main goal is to try to accommodate different face shapes and sizes..” 

All of this is in an effort to “acknowledge the limitations of our current mask collection and to diversify and better accommodate the interests of our customers.”. 

Carbon Masks as a brand makes me really excited. This pandemic has been devastating for so many people so it is exciting and reassuring to see people bringing such innovation to different markets. It is especially inspiring to see young BIPOC women doing it. I am excited about the future of this brand but also the future of business as more and more women like Sandra start to take up space in it. 

If you want to buy a mask from the company or just stay up to date on where they are expanding to check out their website and Instagram. 

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Hayley is an emerging writer and journalist who works hard to create work that is fiercely feminist, anti racist and anti oppression on a whole. You can check out more of her work and content on her instagram @hayley.headley