Just when the world is in need of protective equipment to avoid being infected by COVID-19, images of bra-cup face masks surfaced on the web and made rounds on social media. However, a Japanese company decided to leverage on the idea and they sold out right away.
The Japanese company, Atsumi Fashion, is an apparel manufacturer in the city of Himi, Toyama Prefecture in Japan.
According to SoraNews24, the lace bra face mask started out as a joke. But the company underestimated Japanese consumers’ appetite for ingenuity and sexy underwear; as the prototype Atsumi Fashion originally showcased got a lot of attention online.
People became even more interested in the accessory after the company posted a photo of model; and TV personality Aya Kondo wearing a lace bra face mask. Shortly, a whole collection of bra face masks was announced.
Millions of people around the globe flocked to the company’s website but the masks were not available due to scarcity.
The company, however, took to its social media page to address the shortage. The company announced it would not be able to supply face masks on Saturday as earlier expected after running out of stock due to high demand.
“This Saturday’s sales will be skipped once as the shipping work cannot keep up. I’m sorry. We will postpone to sell our mask on this Saturday since we have no enough capacity to deliver the parcels, sorry,” it wrote on Twitter.
Are face masks effective?
Japan presently has 12,694 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus. However the use of face masks in the public is believed to curb the spread of the dreaded virus.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated that the use of face masks could halt the spread of the disease in places where social distancing is difficult to maintain.
The World Health Organization (WHO), however, warned that while face masks may help curb the spread of COVID-19; they were insufficient on their own.