Grundy Reporter

Morris-based Sublime Wear USA has used the COVID-19 crisis to make a name for itself in the face mask industry.

When the pandemic first hit, the 2-year-old company that usually sells athletic jerseys for outdoor sports like fishing, shooting and axe throwing found itself with plenty of material and a suddenly flustered marketplace.

Owner Wendy Hornsby said the company sold its first mask on March 26. In just a few days and 15,000 sales later, her masks can be found all around the world.

"We decided there was a need, and we had all the fabric and items for the masks," she told the Morris Herald-News. "We spent a couple days doing research and development on how to make them. There was no elastic available, so we designed with what we had."

Hornsby said her big break came when she donated 30 masks to the New York Police Department and they shared the company’s information on Facebook. Since then, orders have come in from as far away as a U.S. Army unit deployed to Afghanistan.

"The main thing for us is that we have 20 employees, and we want to continue to employ them,” Hornsby added. “We have a great crew here. Most of the people who work here are from Morris, so it's important to us to keep people in our town employed."

Hornsby said the City of Morris recently became a client, as well as an assortment of other local businesses ordering masks for their employees. Hornsby said the masks sell for $5.99 each and many of them have been donated.

"If you go online and search for face masks, you will see some of them going for $15-20," she said. "We certainly don't want to gouge anybody, so we are pretty much selling ours at cost."

With Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker having recently made masks mandatory in public for places for almost everyone, Hornsby anticipates another spike in orders.

"With the governor's order for everyone over 2 to wear a mask, we are working right now on coming out with a few different kids' sizes," she said. "Whatever needs to be done, everyone is pitching in to do it.”