LA retailer Buck Mason aims to make 1M masks amid coronavirus

Buck Mason Co-Founder Sasha Koehn joins Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith to break down how the company completed its goal of making and donating one million masks and what the retailer is aiming for next.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance. Now as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, we've seen many large companies in the US and abroad turn idled factories into facilities to make masks and also other medical equipment. Well, large companies aren't the only people to do this. Small companies are doing their part too, and for this I want to bring in Sasha Koehn, cofounder of LA-based retailer Buck Mason. And, Sasha, thanks so much for joining us this afternoon.

Let's talk about that shift. You're shifting your focus over the last couple weeks with a new goal to donate a million masks. Talk to us about this transition from making clothes to masks, and just how difficult was it?

SASHA KOEHN: Yeah. Yeah, thank you. So we've been designing and manufacturing classic menswear, both domestically here in LA and globally, for a little over seven years. When this crisis happened, my partner, Eric, and I, we both really wanted to address reality and ask ourselves what can we do that's useful, both to our customers and our communities?

So really in a matter of a week's time from those conversations we were able to retool a majority of our supply chain to start making masks. The transition wasn't-- was pretty seamless. You know, we're manufacturing washable cloth cotton masks. So, you know, from-- switching sewing machines was really-- and the tools was quite simple.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, Sasha, from my understanding, for every mask you sell, you're donating a mask. How are you getting the product out there? How are you-- are you doing anything with marketing at this point?

SASHA KOEHN: Yeah, I mean, really, when we launched this, our goal was to donate 100,000 masks. And within a couple days we exceeded that goal, and we upped it to a million. Really what happened was our community just overwhelmingly was responding to us and asking for help. We were overwhelmed with the response from health-care workers. Originally we thought this was going to be all about the essential non-health-care workers, but health-care workers specifically have been reaching out to us left and right asking for donations.

So we've been-- we have a very sophisticated system now of sending donations all throughout the country. It's not just locally here in Los Angeles anymore.

SEANA SMITH: Sasha, is this giving you the opportunity to keep workers employed? Because we've been talking about so many retailers over the last several weeks have been forced to either lay off or furlough the majority of their workers. Where does Buck Mason stand on that?

SASHA KOEHN: Yeah, I mean, listen, like, no retailer is going to go through this unscathed. This has certainly allowed us to keep many employees-- many people employed, but more importantly, give a lot of purpose right now to both our staff and our customers right now who are kind of all part of this with us.

SEANA SMITH: Sasha, what kind of impact has the coronavirus had on your business? Because from my understanding, you have 11 retail locations, all of which have been shut down during this pandemic.

SASHA KOEHN: Yeah. Yeah. It's been-- it's been tough. I mean, there's no-- there's no doubt about that. I think that, you know, the-- what we had prior to this business was a pretty sophisticated e-commerce business, so we were very fortunate to rely on that with the closure of all our stores. Obviously with the switching of our supply chain to masks, we've been able to serve our customer in a different way than just making jeans and Ts. So we're just doing what we can right now at a time that is clearly uncertain, and I think we're doing what we can to get by.

SEANA SMITH: So it's interesting. We've been talking about how this outbreak could change consumer behavior, and there was an interesting survey from Piper Sandler just about how people will now-- you have people buying online and had never bought certain products online before. So with that, as a retailer, how are you-- or do you have plans at all to change some of your business plans and some of your expansion strategies down the road just in terms of adapting to what the changing consumer behavior is?

SASHA KOEHN: Yeah, we certainly are. It's-- you know, the thought shift has gone from protecting your liquidity, cutting your expenses, to now thinking about the future, especially as it relates to our retail stores.

I think you can't-- you know, we all can look at what the essential stores that are open are doing right now. I mean, like, I still want to go grab a cup of coffee, but the only difference is that my behavior changes. I order in advance on an app. I wear a mask. I go pick it up. They drop it off on the counter. It's completely a contactless transaction, and I think that that's the type of thinking that we're taking as many-- I think any retailer who wants to adapt and survive in the new normal should be taking.

So, yeah, we have all sorts of ideas internally that we're ready to roll out when our stores are able to reopen. But definitely addressing a new type of consumer behavior and putting convenience and safety first is going to be top priority.

SEANA SMITH: All right, Sasha Koehn, cofounder of Buck Mason, thanks so much for joining the show today.

SASHA KOEHN: Thanks, Seana. Appreciate it.