March has been a weird month, but it's about to get weirder. Razer, a company known for its gaming accessories, will be shifting production from gaming mice and headphones, to surgical masks. The CEO of the company took to Facebook to announce a new initiative that will see Razer step up to help produce masks during the shortage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Each region that Razer has offices in will receive a donation of surgical masks, with Singapore (Razer's HQ) receiving the first shipment. This will be, according to the CEO, the first step of many that Razer will be taking to help, with plans to donate 1 million masks to various countries in need.

So I haven’t had much sleep over the past couple of days to get this initiative up and running, but I’m happy to be able to announce this on behalf of the team here at Razer

With the worsening of the COVID-19 situation, health authorities worldwide are facing an extreme shortage of surgical masks used by the frontline healthcare staff in the battle against the virus. Some countries have even banned the export of masks in face of the dire shortage.

While there has been incredible demand for our products during this time with many staying home to avoid the crowds (and to play games), the team at Razer understands that all of us have a part to play in fighting the virus – no matter which industry we come from.

Over the past few days, our designers and engineers have been working 24-hour shifts to convert some of our existing manufacturing lines to produce surgical masks so that we can donate them to countries around the world.

We intend to donate up to 1M masks to the health authorities of different countries globally. For starters, we’ve been in touch with the authorities in Singapore (where Razer SEA HQ is based) to donate some of the initial shipments to assist their fight against COVID-19.

The rest of our Razer global/regional offices will also be reaching out to their respective governments/health authorities to see how we can prioritize our support and donations of surgical masks in the various countries and regions where we have a presence.

All of us have a part to play and we should be doing whatever we can with the situation getting more serious. Please keep yourself and your family safe – and do lets support each other in these trying times. The team at Razer is stepping up to do what we can.

This emergency conversion of some of our lines and donation of masks is the first step of many that Razer will take. We are committed to contributing our extra time, resources, effort and talent toward the fight against COVID-19.

If you’d like to get involved with our fight against the virus, please follow the Razer social media channels. If you’re a corporate or an individual who just wants to help– do reach out to us. We need all the help we can.

#razerforlife #covid_19 #forgamersbygamers #razermask

tl;dr:

We've converted some of our manufacturing lines to making surgical masks and will be donating up to 1M to health authorities worldwide.

Source

 

[DBlaze]

Do they come with the razer logo?
Nice to see how companies are stepping up to help out.

 

[Kioku]

Do they come with the razer logo?
Nice to see how companies are stepping up to help out.

I hope not. I can only imagine people hoarding Razer masks to try and sell later.

 

[RyRyIV]

Definitely not the headline I expected to read this morning. I love that they're finding something they can do to help, while keeping their workers employed.

 

[Chary]

Hopefully the quality of the masks aren't as bad as the quality of their gaming products.

All jokes aside, this is pretty great, though. People need masks, and they're donating them. Good on Razer.

 

[DBlaze]

I hope not. I can only imagine people hoarding Razer masks to try and sell later.

Yeah it was a joke to be fair, I hope they will exclusively, or at least at the start exclusively, ship them to places (read: hospitals and other medical facilities) that actually need them

 

[banjo2]

Now I can finally say that gaming keeps me alive

 

[gnmmarechal]

I want an RGB mask pls, controllable with Razer Synapse or something

 

[linuxares]

A bit cynical but since people aren't out buying razer products they need to adapt to keep earning money. But I'm happy it might help people in need.

 

[DBlaze]

A bit cynical but since people aren't out buying razer products they need to adapt to keep earning money. But I'm happy it might help people in need.

except the part that they're donating them, not selling them

 

[DANTENDO]

Ther logo though does look like a wormy bacteria

 

[linuxares]

except the part that they're donating them, not selling them

Cool, that's good :3

 

[Clydefrosch]

what parts of their manufacturing could they possibly use to make masks? i know they work with fabrics for mousepads and cords, but those aren't easily changed.
unless 95% of the work is done by human hands

 

[FGFlann]

Can't wait.

 

[FAST6191]

Do we know what sort of lead time they are expecting for this?

Retooling machines, rapid fabrication and the like are somewhat my thing but from where I sit there is something of a gulf between injection moulded plastic parts and some PCBs (which might well be outsourced) and the average surgical mask (never mind if they are thinking about going for something you want to be certified in like N95 if you want a currently popular designation). That or they are more low volume than I thought and have some flexible machines to do it with.

I could possibly see some of their mats be redone for it (they are glued plastic layers with some wires in the middle), and maybe some of the bags (though they look like stock designs with logos plastered on and some choice trim).

 

[wonkeytonk]

That's selfish.

 

[JavaScribe]

what parts of their manufacturing could they possibly use to make masks? i know they work with fabrics for mousepads and cords, but those aren't easily changed.
unless 95% of the work is done by human hands

Wondering the same thing. If I had to choose a company to temporarily shift production to masks, I probably wouldn't even think of gaming accessory manufacturers.

 

[Clydefrosch]

I mean, maybe the fabric cutting and sewing machinery is like cnc based, it's not exactly impossible, but I really hope this isn't just putting more asians workers through the wringer for some good pr.

 

[DarkCoffe64]

"Hey gamers, here's XxPuss1DStro7erxX gonna make an unboxing vid of the new gnarly gamer masks to fight off that corona MF, gamers rise up!!"

 

[codezer0]

literally nobody actually in healthcare wants seizure inducing RGB lighting on their facemasks. or to have to wear a mini ITX computer with enough RAM to run their stupid manager program, either.