THE END OF THE BOOMING MASK ECONOMY IS NEAR

Adam Bluestein in Marker.medium.com, Sep 24, 2020

“‘They’re a few bucks to make at the most unless you’re using specialized fabric,’ says Vincent Quan, an associate professor of fashion business management at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology.

‘In a big factory,’ FIT’s Quan says, ‘there are production lines specialized for pants, woven tops, etc., that are in a constant rhythm and flow outputting the merchandise they are accustomed to making.’

‘Masks will be important, for sure, through the second half of 2020,’ says FIT’s Quan, who spent three decades in product planning and merchandising for brands and retailers. ‘And depending upon the level of vaccinations around the globe, it will continue through 2021, maybe into the second half.’ But companies need to move on to bigger things, and soon. If you’re a company that’s used to selling shirts and pants, it’s hard to survive on masks alone for too long. ‘Think about the price points,’ Quan says.

‘You have to sell a hell of a lot of masks to compensate for even an item like a woven top. I don’t really think that the major brands are earning so much money on the masks that it can keep them afloat.’”