Who Is That Mask Man?

By Steve Stein

There’s no hiding behind the fact that MaskClub is an overnight success story.

Born out of the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant economic hardship of many companies around the globe, MaskClub is meeting a worldwide need for face coverings in a creative and convenient way.

Customers who sign up for the unique online subscription service receive a double-ply cloth made-in-the-USA mask each month, choosing from more than 100 brands and thousands of designs that can adorn the front of the mask. There even are kid-sized masks.

Cost to join MaskClub is $9.99 per month, a 30 percent discount from the $13.99 cost of a single mask purchase.

Buying masks through MaskClub also helps first responders who are fighting the COVID-19 virus each day. For every mask sold, a medical-grade mask is donated to a first responder through the First Responders Children’s Foundation. More than 100,000 masks have been donated since MaskClub’s April 10 launch.

The MaskClub.com website went viral the day after it launched, and there were one million visitors on the website in its first four weeks. What’s the most popular MaskClub mask so far? Wonder Woman. No. 2 is a mask with the American flag.

MaskClub is a spinoff company of Madison Heights-based Trevco, headed by president Trevor George.

“We’re in the licensed apparel and accessories business at Trevco, and we took a hit initially from the pandemic,” George said. “People stopped buying our products because they had to buy food and toilet paper.” His company’s sales fell 60 percent, and he had to lay off or furlough most of his employees.

“All I could do was try to keep the ship from sinking,” George said.

While his company was struggling, George stepped up and donated 250,000 masks to a local hospital. After seeing how that generosity was received and knowing that Trevco had licensed brands already in place, George’s wife Morgan came up with the idea for MaskClub. The idea quickly became reality.

“In four days, MaskClub was up and running,” Trevor said, giving much of the credit to Nick Saroki, Trevco’s chief technology officer, and Chris Thiesen, the company’s art director, for the quick launch.

Trevor gave kudos to his wife not only for the idea for MaskClub. He said she came through in a crisis.

“As the quarantine dragged on, Morgan kept telling me I had to do something with my business,” Trevor said. “She was relentless. She even set up a calendar invitation each day to remind herself to ‘harass’ me the next day.”

Morgan is a stay-at-home mother for 11-month-old son Hudson, but her career expertise is in the fashion industry. That knowledge played in a role in her MaskClub idea.

“Morgan saw scenes of people in China all wearing the same blue mask,” Trevor said. “She thought that was pretty boring, that we could make much more of a fashion statement in the U.S.”

After word got out in the business world about MaskClub’s success, companies started calling Trevor, asking if they could join the list of mask offerings.

Trevor is now working with Nickelodeon for the first time. And Kraft Heinz. And Dippin’ Dots ice cream.

That means there are SpongeBob Squarepants, Paw Patrol, Rugrats and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles masks available through MaskClub. And masks with Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Kool-Aid, Oscar Mayer, Heinz Ketchup and Jell-O designs.

Most importantly, Trevor has been able to call back the 70 or so employees he had to let go or furlough.

The future is bright for MaskClub, and not just because people are finding they need more than one mask as they go about their daily lives.

“I originally thought MaskClub would be a one year or 18-month business, until a vaccine was developed for COVID-19,” Trevor said. “Now I think a percentage of people are going to be wearing masks after that.

“We think differently about the flu now and we’re quite aware that we could get sick when we’re out in public. I’ll bet you’ll see 10 to 20 percent of airline passengers wearing masks after the pandemic is over,” he said.

Trevor equated the medical experts’ constant recommendations to wear a mask in places where social distancing is difficult to a parent telling a child over and over to do something. “We’re not done hearing about the importance of wearing masks,” he said.

MaskClub recently expanded to the United Kingdom and Europe. The launch was especially timely in England, where non-medical face coverings became mandatory on public transportation starting June 15. Ten percent of each MaskClub mask sold in the United Kingdom goes to NHS Charities Together, which provides funding and services for hospitals there.

Founded in 1990, Trevco is one of the largest e-commerce players for licensed merchandise in the world thanks to its print-on-demand apparel and accessories technology. In addition to Madison Heights, Trevco also has a facility in Rancho Cordova, California.