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KN95 Face Masks (N95 Alternative)
$3.99 – $69.99
IN STOCK – Ships this week!
With each KN95 mask purchased, Latika will use a portion of the proceeds to donate masks to first responders and health care workers on the front line of the battle with COVID-19.
- High Breathability, Easy Fit To Face, Kn95 Mask Has Skin-Friendly Material.
- FDA approved KN95 masks as a suitable alternative to N95 masks.
- Manufactured after new quality assurance steps were implemented.
- Description
- Additional information
- Important information
- Donate more masks!
- KN95 vs. N95 mask
- About the pricing
- Latika + KN95
- High Breathability, Easy Fit To Face, Kn95 Mask Has Skin-Friendly Material.
- See the tabs for more information.
- If you wish to donate masks or a care package, please use our programs or reach out to us.
| Weight | N/A |
|---|---|
| Includes | – KN95 mask |
| Details | – We are not making the claim that this mask will prevent or cure any known or unknown pathogens or viruses. |
| Return Policy for this item | No refunds under any circumstance! You cannot return this item. All sales final. |
Important information
- We are not making the claim that this mask will prevent or cure any known or unknown pathogens or viruses. WE MAKE NO PROMISE, GUARANTEE, or WARRANTY that these masks will prevent you from catching any disease or that these give you any level of breathing protection from any hazard. We are not mask or PPE experts so we have no real way to determine the effectiveness of these masks.
- Time Use Limitation – Do not use if found expired, soiled, damaged, or contaminated.
- Please use as soon as possible after opening
- This product cannot be used as a gas mask
- Please do not put a used mask back in the package (when stored in a case pack)
- Do not wear it while sleeping.
- If breathing becomes difficult, leave the contaminated area immediately and replace the respirator. Discontinue use if dizziness or discomfort occurs.
Donate more masks!
Coming soon!
If you’d like to donate KN95 masks to medical teams and first responders, please use the product link below to make a donation. We will handle the rest, including shipping the masks to medical teams who need them.
Donate KN95 masks to medical teams
KN95 vs. N95 mask
- KN95 is N95 equivalent according to 3M. KN95 masks are the Chinese version of N95 masks and are nearly identical.
- On April 3rd the FDA approved KN95 masks as a suitable alternative to N95 masks and the CDC lists KN95 and N95 masks to be equivalent in protection. Click here to read more
Filtering facepiece respirators (FFR) are subject to various regulatory standards around the world (see examples below) and provide a much higher level of protection with face form-fitting and greater pressure drop.
To claim compliance with the particular standard as listed below, these respirators must meet or exceed required physical properties and performance characteristics, which can vary according to the regulatory bodies of different countries.
– N95 (United States NIOSH-42CFR84)
– KN95 (China GB2626-2006)
– FFP2 (Europe EN 149-2001)
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends the N95/KN95/FFP2 for use in high-risk situations, especially by medical personnel during pandemics.1 They are not exactly the same, but they are expected to function very similarly to one another.
A reference by 3M in a technical .2 released in January 2020 demonstrates that the several country-specific standards used to grade the FFR tend to converge into functional equivalence. N95 (US), KN95 (China), and FFP2 (EU) standards produce FFR devices that are similar enough to be interchangeable for the purposes of their use in a pandemic.
All of them are good for filtering non-oil-based particles such as those resulting from wildfires, PM 2.5 air pollution, volcanic eruptions, or bioaerosols (e.g. viruses).
*References:
1. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/respirators-strategy/crisis-alternate-strategies.html
2. https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/1791500O/comparison-ffp2-kn95-n95-filtering-facepiece-respirator-classes-tb.pdf
About the pricing
We are aware of the problematic pricing of these masks. Under normal circumstances, these masks would cost maybe a dollar, but due to the COVID-19 Pandemic prices on masks have skyrocketed. The price increase is happening at the source (manufacturers raising prices). We paid a ridiculous cost to buy and import them and priced them at the minimum margin to allow us to avoid loss, and perhaps be able to buy more masks and donate more of them.
See the full story of how we got to obtain these masks in the Latika + KN95 tab.
Latika + KN95
We thought the backstory of how we came to selling these is probably something our customers would be interested in.
We are a very small company and this is our very first shipment of these masks coming from China. It was not a planned move, here’s what brought us here:
We are a ‘handmade in the USA’ brand and we definitely did not plan to purchase or sell KN95 masks, but eventually had the opportunity to do that and decided to go ahead and buy them. So here’s how we had access to this high demand mask:
We have a good friend who has a big sourcing office with a branch in Hong Kong, with access to many factories. And he runs a very reliable operation and works with big brands. When the pandemic reached the state of high demand for N95 and KN95 masks, our friend was approached by many entities that were looking for a reliable source from all over the world. Since he is not located in the USA, we tried to assist him in getting more masks to US grounds. We reached out to whoever we could and offered to connect them with the sourcing office. The problem was, no big buyer was able to commit and make a purchase as long as the product is not yet in the USA. In addition, we could not know what will be the cost until after it arrives, and shipping+ customs are paid. Plus, in China, the factories who had a genuinely good product were raising prices, refusing net terms (meaning they only accepted payment in advance) and shipping costs were rising as well. That is how we had a way to bring masks that are in high demand, but no one was willing to pay for them in advance and actually import them.
The situation a few weeks ago in china was a bit out of hand in terms of the demand for these masks. Many manufacturers were selling unsafe products. The Chinese government eventually ceased and confiscated many shipments. In the USA and around the world, many of the masks that were already available were still the ones that were sold before the government involvement. These were priced at around $3 a mask, a price that is impossible to reach now with newly imported masks.
Our friend was already in touch with the confirmed, reliable factories that can make a good and safe mask for export. His team was spending days and nights at the factory, examining every shipment for extra quality assurance verification. These masks that were manufactured after the Chinese government got involved are now in higher demand and the costs became ridiculously high.
We estimated the cost and were really reluctant to sell a product that will cost that much. I mean, a few months ago these masks were sold in the USA for less than what the factories are selling them now in huge bulks.
We decided to take a leap of faith, and because we knew these are genuinely needed and we had a way to bring some (not a lot) to US soil quickly, that we have to first try to get them here and figure out the rest later.
We decided to invest our own funds to buy what we could afford and get these over to the US. It took learning about importing in a short amount of time.
We figured that If this will help relieve a bit of pressure from healthcare workers in our area (at least), we would be very happy and perhaps be able to order more.
We did not know how to approach this subject and explain this in a way that makes sense but finally decided to just be as transparent as possible and lay everything out there for our community to be in the know. We hope you can appreciate our honesty.
The money we invested was not by any means extra funds we had laying around. We are a small business and like many other small businesses, we are struggling right now to stay open, and we also insist on not letting any of our employees go. These are hard times but we all do what we can.
We decided to offer the masks for sale to the public as is and also with a donation program. We’ve already donated some of the qty we had, and we hope to be able to donate more masks in the future and possibly make a big impact.
If we could just donate the whole amount we bought, that could have been amazing. But we cant. Instead, we thought of some ways for our community to help us donate masks to health care workers who need them and also have them available for other people who would highly benefit from having access to this mask.
