A local manufacturer of swimwear is shifting manufacturing to add medical masks and hospital isolation-gowns to its product line.
VENUS has been making swimsuits at its Beach Boulevard plant in Jacksonville for more than 30 years, branching out into other clothing as well.
Venus swimwear and lingerie director Pam Kimball said masks are much easier to produce.
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“We were able to sew in our first week a little over a thousand masks. This week we’ll get up between 2500 and 2700 masks and that’s only using a portion of our workforce.”
Kimball said they donated those first 1,000 masks to a hospital in Patterson, N.J. Monday.
The company expects to start working on the isolation gowns tomorrow Wednesday.
UF Health will provide a special fabric while Venus donates all of the labor — from creating the pattern to the finished garment.
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter at @cydwjctnews.
