In 2015, I got sick while on a trip to China. The hotel I was staying in called a doctor because I was having trouble breathing. The doctor told me I had most likely got a respiratory infection from the plane, or it could also have been due to the smoke and air pollution in Shanghai. When I asked the doctor what I could do to protect myself in the future, he said that the only thing that I could do was to wear a mask. I replied: "one of those white masks that make you look like you are sick?", to which he responded, "Yep!".

When I arrived home, I couldn't stop thinking about it and feeling like there had to be something better.  I had an idea: Instead of wearing a mask, why couldn't we build filters into regular clothes? Stuff that looked cool and fashionable that functioned like normal clothes, but that could also help protect the wearer at the same time. I immediately got to work researching filtration materials and started designing the first Bioscarf prototype.

One key hurdle to overcome was I had to create a filtration material that was durable enough to be used in apparel and washable for repeated wear. Most mask filters are single-use and lose their effectiveness after being worn. Pretty much every one of the filtration manufacturers I approached thought I was crazy, but I knew I was onto something and refused to give up. Finally, after months of searching, I found a very specialized manufacturing group to help me make it happen, together we developed our one of a kind G95 filtration material.In late 2016, I filed our first patent for sandwiching reusable and washable particulate filtration material between fabric in apparel. In 2018, within a few months of launching our first product, the Bioscarf, the San Francisco Bay Area experienced the worst wildfires in its history. A large area of Northern California became smothered with thick, choking smoke. I knew that our filtration could provide people with precisely the protection they needed during this crisis, and sent all the inventory I had to friends and family to distribute.

That crisis was our first "real world" test, and the Bioscarves did the job, outperforming my wildest ambitions. Not only did I have our proof of concept, but I also had terrific feedback from the people who wore the scarves during the fire. Even in thick smoke, the G95 filtration material worked so well that the wearers could not even smell smoke.  It's been an adventure with considerable challenges to overcome along the way, but that is how G95 came to life! We call it PPA, Personal Protective Apparel.  Last year we began extending the G95 range beyond scarves and created designs for our Biogaiters and our amazing Biohoodie. This year, in response to the global health crisis, we developed our Bioshield, the only washable and re-useable mask with built-in protective filtration.

We couldn't have done it without all of you and our incredible team. We hope you like it.

Carlton Solle, September 2020.