Speaking to Lusa news agency, André Facote, founder of the Skizo ‘startup’, explained that on the company’s first anniversary in March 2020, they were “challenged” by the Covid-19 pandemic.

With sales on national territory, which represent 60 percent of the ‘startup’s turnover, stopping “for two months,” the company, which turns the plastic collected from the oceans into custom footwear, decided to “roll up its sleeves” and “reinvent itself”.

“We were challenged, because we had people nearby who had sewing skills but did not have a bowl of soup to eat. That’s when we started producing masks,” he said.
In May, with sales of trainers “slowly recovering” and masks already certified, Skizo began producing, with the help of Portuguese seamstresses, and selling the level 3 model, commonly referred to as community use.

This two-layer model of masks consists of 44 percent organic cotton and 56 percent yarn that comes from plastic collected from the ocean.
According to André Facote, each mask of this type is equivalent to “about two plastic bottles”.

In addition to this model, Skizo started, at the beginning of September, to produce level 2 masks certified for professional use and which are equivalent to “about five plastic bottles”.
So far, André Facote said that the ‘startup’, which produces according to demand, has sold more than 4,000 masks that are certified by CITEVE for 25 washes, by AITEX (Spain) for 50 washes and by EUROFINS (European Union) for 100 washes.

Since Skizo was founded, he has revealed that for the trainers, bags and masks, “almost a tonne of plastic has been removed from the oceans, which is equivalent to more than 28,000 plastic bottles”.

Facote also told Lusa that the company was “recovering” sales, and that this month it could even reach the “record sales” of January with more than 46 pairs of trainers sold. TPN/Lusa