As The New York Times reports, the CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff, was impressed with the face covering that Peas frontman will.i.am was wearing during that performance, which was a weird gas mask-type thing. When he called will to find out what it was, he told Benioff it was an idea for a high-tech mask he’d been working on since March of 2020.
Benioff then introduced will to the CEO of Honeywell, a company that was making N95 face masks, and presto: the new product, called the Xupermask, will arrive April 8.
According to the Times, the mask, a joint venture between will and Honeywell, is made of silicon and mesh. It has three fans, a Honeywell HEPA filtration system, noise-canceling headphones, LED lights, a rechargeable battery and Bluetooth. Best of all, it even seals over the nose so your glasses won’t fog up.
The Times reports that the mask costs $299 and was designed by Jose Fernandez, who created costumes for movies like Black Panther, The Avengers and X-Men 2.
“We are living in sci-fi times,” will.i.am told the Times. Describing the pandemic as being “straight out of a friggin’ movie,” he added, “We are wearing masks from yesterday’s movie. So I wanted to make a mask to fit the era that we’re in.”
And he’s “gotta feeling” — sorry — that masks are here to stay, despite what happens with COVID-19.
“SARS happened in Japan and Southeast Asia, and they got over it, and they still wear masks,” he pointed out.
By Andrea Dresdale
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