Our Response to COVID-19
Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, the medical supply chain for critical supplies has been pushed beyond capacity. In response to sudden and unprecedented need, Nomad has reprioritized our operations to provide medical supplies, like face masks, hand sanitizer,and nitrile gloves to those fighting this pandemic. We are taking orders today. Any profit from this operation will be donated to fight against COVID-19.
*We are prioritizing the Medical Community
Hand sanitizer being packaged at DenMat a dental supply company in Santa Barbara County, California, thirty miles away from Nomad's office.
Face masks being made at our iPhone case factory in Guangzhou, China. Our factory re-tooled their pneumatic machines to produce face masks.
Medical professionals around the world have found face masks effective in reducing transmission. We are currently producing face masks at our iPhone case factory in China.
Masks we have available now;
We are working with DenMat, a local Santa Barbara County dental supplies company, who manufactures hand sanitizer. This powerful hand sanitizer is formulated with 80% ethyl alcohol, and kills most germs and bacteria on contact. Safe and effective for use by children and adults; ethyl alcohol kill germs in as fast as 15 seconds.
DenMat is a local dental supplies company that has allocated extra resources to the production of hand sanitizer to help fight the spread of COVID-19.
After nearly a decade in business, Nomad has developed a robust supply chain that fulfills thousands of orders around the world each week. We are taking advantage of our system to quickly move medical supplies from our Asian and North American warehouses to frontline responders globally. We have long-standing relationships with our suppliers in China, who have converted production to medical supplies in the fight against COVID-19. We operate a warehouse in Hong Kong, allowing for quick processing and shipping of supplies directly to frontline responders. Our goal is to provide masks to those who need them most at the lowest cost possible.
In the past few weeks, normalcy has been disrupted on a global scale. At Nomad, we started our week with everyone working from home, and finished it with our home state of California, issuing a shelter in place order. As time progressed, we began asking ourselves, what could Nomad do to help stop the spread of COVID-19. At first, we offered tips on working from home and made playlists to help stem the ennui that social distancing can create. All of this felt rather trivial, considering that we are facing a global crisis. Meanwhile, we’ve been getting more reports from people on the frontlines of fighting this pandemic of the supplies shortages they are facing.
The last time we faced an immediate, collective threat that required this level of mobilization to fight was during World War II. American factories that previously made household appliances began manufacturing ammunition, and B-52 bombers rolled off of the Ford assembly lines. Our entire country reprioritized production so that essential goods and services could be rapidly made and distributed.
Fast forward to the present day: at Nomad, we have a robust global supply chain and an agile, committed team that can rapidly switch gears. We design our products here in California, manufacture them in China, and ship from our warehouse in Hong Kong to over a hundred countries worldwide. We do this 365 days a year, by truck, plane, and boat.
Right now we believe the single best thing we can do is to assist in the distribution of much-needed supplies around the world to aid those on the frontlines of flattening the curve: nurses, doctors, and first responders.
We believe that we can help because we are in a unique position as an agile eCommerce business that has deep supply chain relationships in Asia and a global shipping operation unencumbered by the current outbreak. As such, we’ve been able to work with our manufacturing partners that have the capability to make PPE masks but lie outside the conventional medical supply chain. Our phone case supplier has already switched from making bags and wallets to surgical masks for the Chinese medical system. But, as the disease slows in China, they now have excess capacity and a desire to help others who may be in short supply.
Since we have a warehouse in Hong Kong, where effective prevention measures halted the spread of the virus early, we are uniquely positioned to help out while all of the Nomad crew in California works from home. We can ship masks and other needed medical supplies anywhere in the world in two-three days’ time. Our factories in China also benefited from early effective prevention measures, so they can manufacture what is most needed right now, rather than their standard goods.
This is an unprecedented move for Nomad, and as far as we know, any eCommerce company. We recognize there are uncertainties and that we will encounter challenges given the quick pace necessary for the best chance to make a meaningful impact. We’re driven by the call to serve, and not by profit, and we will take every measure possible to streamline the delivery of highly needed medical equipment at the lowest cost and fastest way possible while determining allocation based on medical need. We will be donating any profit to help fight against COVID-19.
When we launched on Kickstarter almost a decade ago, we never imagined something like this happening, so we never considered having a response to a global pandemic. Yet here we are. Our grandparents and great-grandparents likely never imagined living through two world wars and the Great Depression, yet they did — and triumphed over it. We feel that this is a defining moment and are proud to offer our support to our global community in a time of need.
Please reach out to us at medical@nomadgoods.com to discuss this initiative.
Noah Dentzel & Brian Hahn
We are streamlining this operation as much as possible to reduce cost. If any profit is made, it will be used to help fight the COVID-19 crisis or donated to charity.
For those working outside of the medical field, we are allocating limited amounts of masks for sale to the general public. Please visit the page below to learn more.
You can also help get medical supplies in the hands of those that need them most. Contribute here and we will send masks to underserved communities.
We are distributing supplies on critical needs basis, according to the following priority system:
If you are a member of the general public and would like masks, please know that our first priority is serving the groups above. If you would like masks, you can sign up here and we will alert you once critical needs are met.
We are using the following government sources to inform our supplies purchasing:
Nomad's goal is to get needed medical supplies to frontline responders and not to profit from this endeavor. We are strictly pricing our products to cover our costs, and any additional revenue from this initiative will be donated to fight COVID-19.
Due to the extreme demand for supplies, there is a shortage of inputs to make the masks such as the special filtration fabrics. Our factory has to purchase this extremely high-priced fabric from sub-suppliers and has no control over the price. We are dedicated to getting cheaper prices and will pass them on to those in need.