NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio — The sewing machines at VersaFlex Manufacturing have been stitching masks together since the pandemic began.
“About 300 orders a day, and we are playing catch up constantly. And I’m working weekends and seven days a week just trying to get ahead of the game,” said owner Larry Nolan.
Nolan has been making camera bags for the movie industry for more than 30 years. But since the start of the pandemic, he began making masks that don’t fog up eye glasses.
“All my orders for the motion picture industry died down. I started making masks and then my sister Bridget, who works at Saint Augusta Manor in Cleveland, said that the biggest problems with masks is the glasses fogging up,” said Nolan.
Nolan considers himself an inventor of sorts, so it didn’t take long for him to figure out the fogging issue.
“It took me a minute and a half to come up with a gasket to go above the nose to prevent the fogging of the glasses,” Nolan explained.
Nolan is a disabled Navy veteran so he enjoys making masks for his brothers in the armed forces. He’s currently applying for a patent for his mask designs.
“Right now, I’m just trying to take care of people, trying to make sure everything works out right,” Nolan said.
