There are some companies that just make you happy to support them. GIR has always been that for me and I’ve written a lot about them.
Now, they need everyone to get the word out about a new project they’ve started. Reusable masks to help those fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Update:
They’re going to be shipping in 2 weeks (mid-April). Here’s the link so you can order some: https://gir.co/products/mask-kit?variant=31569419763801
Since I know more about using their great kitchen products than I do about medical masks, I’ll let their website do the talking:
“We’re creating a reloadable silicone mask.
It’s a breathable face shield, made with the same platinum-grade, FDA and LFGB approved silicone we use to make all GIR products. Fitted with a PM2.5 filter (the same technology used in N95 masks), these masks can help fight the spread of COVID-19. We’re planning to package each mask with 10 filters to start, and offer bulk refills too.
The silicone mask can be sterilized in an autoclave, dishwasher, or oven. If you don’t have the time or equipment for proper sterilization, you can clean it with household cleaning products like Clorox or soap and hot water. The filters should be replaced as needed, but can be worn for a full day.
While our reloadable silicone masks shouldn’t replace N95 surgical or procedural masks, they are another much-needed option in the race to protect our communities from the spread of COVID-19.” And certainly better than my homemade efforts.
“Order, donate, or help us help others”
While our reloadable silicone masks shouldn’t replace N95 surgical or procedural masks, they are an excellent option to help fight and protect yourself from the spread of COVID-19 when such masks are not required or are unavailable.
We’re doing as much as we can to donate out of pocket. If you know of an essential business that needs to protect its team and would like to sponsor a donation or purchase these in bulk, at cost, let us know.”
If you’d like to contact them about the masks, here’s the link: https://gir.co/pages/reusable-masks and the contact form is at the bottom of the page.
If you’d like to support them by buying some of their other great products, here’s that link: https://gir.co/collections/shop. My personal fave is the red mini spatula, it’s a rare day when I haven’t used it at least once.
On a personal note, this is one time when I wish my blog had a bigger audience so more people could know about the good they’re doing, so please share!
Thank you to the GIR team for the renderings of the masks!
I bought two face masks and 4 sets of ten disposable filters (1st gen, not the 2.0 *teardrop* shaped ones showing on their website now) for myself and my husband on April 23rd. $71. I received them June 3rd. I am very understanding about the delays in shipments, as these are unprecedented times. However, I also want to share my experience so others can make a better informed decision. I didn’t find any reviews when I ordered, so it was pretty much a leap of faith. tl;dr – I do NOT recommend these masks.
The mask ear loops are indeed very flimsy, like thin rubber bands and I doubt they would have held up for my husband who wouldn’t have had the patience to “baby” the mask so as not to break it putting it on or taking it off. My mask was too loose for me so I had to use the included clip to fit it around my head instead of behind my ears. I cringed nervously, waiting for the rubber band-like ear loops to snap as I stretched it to fit around my head. It did hold. However, even though overall it was actually painfully tight – the mask did not conform tightly above my cheeks/top of nose, with most of the air escaping along the top sides of my nose into my eyes. If the mask did fit correctly – like when I pressed it down with my hands to try and form a complete seal – the filter is not breathable! I would have passed out in a short amount of time trying to get enough oxygen through the filter. The way the filter fit inside the mask is definitely awkward, but it did not fall out during the short time when I tried it on. I did not wear it outside of my house because it would not protect me as is its purpose. To the person who wasn’t sure if creating a tight seal is important – if you are wearing a silicone mask with a filter covering your breathing holes, the air you intake must be breathed through the filter. Otherwise, you might as well not be wearing a mask at all. You of course can’t breathe through the silicone part of the mask that doesn’t have breathing holes, so without breathing through the filter (i.e. if you breathe through the gaps in the top/sides instead) the air you breathe is coming unfiltered direct to you without any barrier at all. Even breathing through a regular cloth mask would be better. I am very disappointed, as I was really hopeful to have found a good, safe, reusable mask. What a complete waste of money. 🙁
DO NOT BUY THESE MASKS!!! What a complete waste. As everyone else has stated, the filters do not stick at all, rendering the masks completely useless. I reached out to the company via email an instragram and finally got a response on instagram basically telling me, sorry they dont work for you but too bad! When I saw that there were “new and improved” liners, I reached out again asking if they would at least be willing to send me these liners as some sort of concession, and they saw my comment but did not respond. We ended up filing a chargeback claim with our credit card for a faulty product/deceptive advertising and have received our money back from the bank. Major bummer as this is how we discovered GIR and we were planning to purchase some of their kitchen tools but now we will NEVER support them in any way whatsoever, and will do whatever we can to warn people about this awful company.
Not a local company. Made in China. Can not be used without the liners and the liners do not stick. They fall out every time you use them. How sanitary is that? I complained, no answer…just got an email trying to sell “new and improved” liners
DO NOT BUY!! GARBAGE!!
Don’t go buy the description. Filter do not stick at all.
Absolute waste of money.
Filter do not stick at all.
Absolute waste of money and a pathetic design.
Filters don’t stick at all. We’ve tried several kinds of tape and no luck yet. I wouldn’t buy this mask again. It’s unusable.
I have to agree with many of the other comments on here. Since the outbreak of Covid I have been holed up at home, and didn’t really get to use the mask in any meaningful way until this week when I had my first business trip. And then I quickly realized what a liability these masks were.
The pads DO NOT STICK – which means one is constantly readjusting them, which is potentially exposing one to more risk than if one was not wearing a mask at all. On 2 occasions the entire pad fell out of the bottom.
I am a big man, with an X-Large head (based on hat size) If these don’t fit me, then I truly don’t understand who they would fit.
In my view these masks are NOT fit for purpose, and while I still have 10 pads left I have elected to purchase a more traditional mask which I am sure will offer me significantly more protection.
We ordered these masks for the family, two adult masks and two kids masks. They took an eternity to get to us and when they finally did we followed the instructions on how to use them. The thing we noticed is no matter how you tighten the mask, the sticky part of the filter will not hold and they have slipped out repeatedly. They don’t work and when we contacted the phone number they said they are overloaded and to please email. We emailed that they masks are not working and asked to send back for a refund and they emailed back “no refunds” and it must be that we are not using them correctly and to maybe donate them to an essential worker. So rude and dangerous to suggest we should give them to someone when we know they don’t work, lets infect a stranger with your ineffective mask, what an awful suggestion. Anyway, we will never buy anything from this scam of a company again and our fault as they make cooking products and should have never ordered a medical protection product from them. Avoid GIR masks!
Unless you can get past the smell of the silicone and breathing in the fumes, do not buy this mask. Seriously, the silicone fumes from this mask were so bad that my eyes burned. Bought a mask for my husband as well, the filters do not stay in place.
Don’t waste your money. I was hopeful for an alternative to the cheaply made and ineffective paper masks; these aren’t the answer.
GIR masks are defective. DO NOT BUY. The filters do not stay in place.
The company says use a 3M tape Adhesive Transfer Tape 91022 as a workaround.
On Amazon Price: $2,360.32 ($393.39 / Item) & FREE Shipping
Not refunding since it is a “personal use” item.
Frauds.
My follow-up to the complaint I stated above. I filed a complaint to the FTC: Complaint Submitted – Your report number is: 119109030
In response to Annie Goldbach. I was also amazed when I found they came from China. I have NEVER received a response to my complaint that I sent to GIR some weeks ago.
I don’t necessary agree with points 1 and 2, but think you are spot-on with your assessment of the non-stickiness of the filter to the mask and the need to reposition and the opportunity of contamination as a result. Once on, I find the mask comfortable, but in my view, it is not the quality product I thought I was purchasing.
I would also tend to agree that in my view GIR is capitalizing on a poor situation, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as quality and service are maintained, which is where in my view GIR has fallen down. GIR clearly has the staff to bombard one with marketing messages, and advertising, but perhaps concentrating a little more on customer issues and responding to customer complaints might be money well spent, and might also provide the catalyst for a better product.
It should be remembered that ignoring ones customers is generally not conducive to long-term growth.
I wrote 3times about my dissatisfaction of the mask and wanting to return it for a refund. I explained the reasons in my first email on 5/18/20 and i reiterate:
GIR has taken advantage of customers and cloak in the cover of the COVID false pandemic for warranting a ni return no refund policy. I agree with many who thought they’re supporting local company US made products. GIR is a company whose products are made in CHINA. Their masks are flawed. Have written them about it and never once received acknowledgement of my legitimate complaints which are below. Very expensive not worth the money I paid for. The masks as noted by others are flimsy and thin in the ear loop.
It’s not breathable at all as this company falsely claims:
1) it creates hot air pocket
2) therefore difficult to breathe
3) the filters do not stick to the mask..
4) therefore I had to keep touching to reposition
5) contaminating it with my hands..
Those are legitimate negative experience and dissatisfaction of the design of the mask.
Thanks Kris, good advice! I tried the clip but it made the mask too tight for me. I’ve been using first aid tape to help keep the filters in place. It works-not great but helps.
I think the website points out that it includes a clip to help with fit if the ears don’t cut it. And I seem to have read somewhere, maybe the FAQs about the adhesive on the filters maybe not being enough? I ordered 70 filters from them to use in home made cloth masks (because I cant find enough info on individual HEPA filters to make me feel safe cutting up aircon filters or vacuum filters), and ordered one silicone mask just to try (and to do the donate thing). I am resigned to the fact that 99% of anything with spunbond will be single use and $1 filter may be the cheapest I can find for now with the requisite number of layers. I’ve not had the experience of my current mask smelling after a day, but maybe that has to do with how breathable it is. Or how well I brushed my teeth in the morning. At the end of the day, I think searching for N95 effectiveness without N95 materials is an exercise in futility, so people kinda have to just accept that they won’t be 100% protected. Just be as safe as they can and don’t obsess!
Hi Dawn,
I guess I think of them as being a local company because they started out in NYC. I never gave much thought to where they were manufacturing their products, so if I gave you the impression they were going to be made locally, I’m sorry. I agree with you about the filter not holding properly. Yesterday after another comment, I added some first aid tape to mine and it helped a little, but was still not enough. I don’t get a chemical smell from mine. Wish I had some fixes for you.
I thought I was supporting a local company and imagine my surprise to find out that the real reason production takes so long to arrive is because it has to make it here all the way from China not California. What a great way to misrepresent the product as local. Then when I opened the package, the made in china paperwork fell out, and after researching the website, go figure the product is not returnable. I am extremely disappointed the filter does not hold in place properly and smells like chemicals. Its Terrible and I would not reccomend it but here on your review is the only place I could find to leave feedback.
Hi Knud,
The email I received this morning was a email blast to everyone who had ordered the masks. In this case I was/am a customer. I could have asked for a sample to write about, but I thought that there were frontline people who might need even a sample mask much more than I did, so I just ordered two and donated two.
Think this time you might be wrong.
Hi Anne
Its interesting that GIR can find time to respond directly to you, but not directly to their customers. The cynical side of me thinks this could be because one is perhaps a promotional exercise, the other is related to customer service.
But of course I could be completely wrong. 🙂
Body tape is a good idea, thanks. GIR just sent an email trying to explain some of the issues they’ve been facing.
although the mask is comfortable I believe that 90 percent of the air goes through the spaces at the sides of my nose. Luckily for me this air hits the top of my glasses for the momentary fog and does not bother me. I don’t figure the masks are anything but a regulatory overstepping so I just wear them to put others at ease so I am not worried about the leaking, but if someone were truly at risk perhaps they would need some body tape to keep the masks close enough to utilize the 1$ per day filters (wish they had cheaper bulk filter orders because they truly start to smell after one day, not sure if they have the activated charcoal of the PM2.5 replaceable filters which cost about the same on amazon but are not individually wrapped. Another good thing is the fact that the floppy, thin silicone is comfortable on the skin and very thin so the glasses don’t get jostled around and cause me to get dizzy and cross-eyed. I know that manufactures in china hold their customers hostage so the delays in ship times are not their fault. Maybe they just haven’t figured out what official to bribe. That is how it works in most of those places. In any case, I like them better than most.
Thanks for reaching out about your experience. I’m sorry that it took so long and that they didn’t respond. Up until this, my experience with them has been that they make a terrific product and they’ve always been really reponsive.
I’m not sure any non surgical masks are supposed to create a seal, but I’m no expert on masks. Have you shared your experience with GIR? I’m sure they’d appreciate the feedback. I agree with you about the filters not sticking to the masks.
This mask is not good. It’s thin, limp and doesn’t cup the face to create a proper seal. Also the Padding don’t stick to the mask. Even the model on the website couldn’t get the mask to stay on there face while using their ears, they had to pinning it behind their head to get it to cup to the face. Very disappointing considering I ordered this mask 6-7 weeks ago and just now got it.
Bad product, do not buy.
I had a similar experience to Marta. I ordered on April 22nd with a stated 1-2 week shipping time. 2 weeks later I received a message which suggested that their lead time was 2-3 weeks. I finally received the mask today 4 weeks after the order. By which time I have also had to order from another supplier as I simply couldn’t trust anything GIR said. After I received the new-updated notification from them, I sent them an email and of course they were too busy to respond. Truly terrible service. By not being truthful about their lead times they left me very exposed.
Hi Marta, I’m sorry to hear about your GIR experience. We just got ours and had ordered at the end of March. I think they had problems with transport and customs and just got in over their heads. If you can hold out for the masks, I think you’ll find them worth the wait. Let me know how it goes.
I am very disappointed with GIR.co. I ordered their masks and spent well over $200 at the beginning of April and have yet to receive anything. Apparently they over promised and under delivered.
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