Nick and Billy Smith have design in their DNA.

The Smith brothers are also producing Bilio masks in the U.S. And I put it on, and sure enough, we both ended up with a really awful case of staph infection.". He still has a scar from an operation to treat the infection. Billy Smith. Election 2020: Cities And Businesses Prepare For Post-Election Unrest, Violence, Pandemic Forces Georgia Counties To Get Creative With Polling Places, Days After Zeta, Crews Work To Remove Fallen Trees, Repair Power Lines, Investors Can't Pressure Homeowners Into Selling Under New Atlanta Rule, List Of Metro Atlanta Schools Closed On Election Day, Democrats, GOP Duel For Georgia's 6th And 7th District Congressional Seats. Billy says it was one of the "biggest scares" he has ever had: "I was in the hospital for about two and a half weeks, and I lost nearly 20 pounds," he recalls. He still has a scar from an operation to treat the infection. Two years later, Billy was designing wetsuits for Patagonia.

San Francisco Bay Area. Originally published on July 6, 2020 8:34 pm. Brothers Billy (left) and Nick Smith collaborate in the Bilio lab on iterations to current mask designs. The brothers are pretty dogmatic about certain design principles.

"There's really beautiful things happening in America around knitting," he says. BLAIR: Some have suggested that wearing masks keeps us from touching our face.

In 2015, Billy founded his own design and product development company called Bilio. Like so many of the coronavirus challenges, optimal face mask design is a moving target — and so the Smiths keep tinkering. “We’ve never done a mask before,” explains Billy. Austin, Texas Area. Five years before the coronavirus pandemic, Bill Gates didn't mince words: "If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it's most likely to be a highly infectious virus, rather than a war," he said at the 2015 TED conference in Vancouver, Canada. But, Furey asks, "what if the mask itself is contaminated and you're touching the mask?" We've done footwear.

Nick says sentiments around how a mask should perform are "changing rapidly. When the pandemic hit, they and a team of 12 designers and engineers got to work to create a face mask for the first time. They've been testing the performance of a range of masks, measuring to see how well they protect the wearer from inhaling particles that may carry the coronavirus. Growing up in Mill Valley, Calif., the brothers turned their parents' garage into an industrial arts paradise where they tinkered with all kinds of materials, including fabric, fiberglass and wood. Billy Smith. In 2015, Billy Smith founded his own design and product development company called Bilio. Billy Smith counts rows in the knit structure of a mask to assure specifications for fit and sizing meet company standards. Billy Smith Cabling – A/V – Sound Masking – Cell Boosters – PoE Lighting . He still has a scar from an operation to treat the infection.

Billy and Nick Smith say they continue to refine the Bilio mask based on testing and feedback from customers. Billy Smith CDM Manager at Jacobs. Nick handles business development and innovation for the company. "I take a bit of offense to seams and stitching and sewing," says Billy, who believes the results with knitting are infinitely better at creating "uninterrupted surfaces" and "transitions.". Also at the conference, the Gates Foundation invited attendees to don plastic boots, overalls, masks and gloves in a hands-on demo designed to help people experience how difficult it was for doctors — at the time fighting Ebola — to protect themselves while working. For reference, Mueller says, the results for the more than 50 cloth masks they tested ranged from a low of 28% to a high of 94%. Billy Smith. "Billy contracted it first," says Nick.

So between the knitted design and the materials, is the Bilio mask effective? They've been testing the performance of a range of masks, measuring to see how well they protect the wearer from inhaling particles that may carry the coronavirus. Dundonald. Another one of the Smith brothers' principles: sustainability. Nick Rubalcava/Bilio Image: Billy Smith/Bilio, Myrrhia Resneck, in front of Bilio's flat-bed knitting machine, engineers mask prototypes using different techniques and yarn colors. "We're using a process where we only knit what we need, which is different from a traditional die-cut and sew approach," says Nick. And I put it on, and sure enough, we both ended up with a really awful case of staph infection.". "There's really beautiful things happening in America around knitting," he says.

Billy Smith Founder & CEO at Bilio. Billy Smith I can help you to stay the course during this difficult period and deliver the plan to a highly profitable company. Billy and Nick Smith say they continue to refine the Bilio mask based on testing and feedback from customers.