Smith, Yeti & Black Diamond Team Up to Produce PPE

GOLDEN, CO (April 14, 2020) – Joining forces to support continued shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) in Colorado, Smith and Black Diamond support Colorado mountain bike manufacturer Yeti Cycles as they shift focus to produce face shields for health care professionals fighting COVID-19 from the front lines.

Smith’s donation of 4,000 yards of goggle strap material, along with Black Diamond’s donation of 5,000 headlamp straps, will help Yeti Cycles complete 10,000 face shields being manufactured at its headquarters in Golden, Colorado. Calling on the Yeti Tribe to connect with those in need through social media efforts, the initial run of face shields had been claimed by healthcare workers and first responders across Colorado within the first 24 hours. The group is looking to source additional materials to increase shield production quantities in order to meet urgent demand.

Yeti began production of the face shields on Saturday, following an open-source shield template shared by students from the University of Wisconsin. The first delivery of finished shields to doctors, first responders and hospital workers will leave Yeti HQ this week.

“Yeti typically designs products from the ground up, but in this case we wanted an efficient way to make the most effective thing. Time is critical, so we’re doing it with materials we’ve pulled together from industry friends and available through our supply chain. It’s not surprising, but everyone we contacted wanted to help and their help was critical in this coming together so quickly,” said Steve Hoogendoorn, co-owner of Yeti.