After graduating from the University of Oregon’s Masters of Sports Product Management program in Portland, Oregon in March 2020, the founder of OreShield, as well as the whole world, are facing the most devastating pandemic in recent history. Most companies are on a hiring freeze and many businesses are struggling to pay employees and keep their doors open. To many this is a hopeless time, compounded with fear of an invisible enemy. “When life gives you lemons, there isn’t much else to do” says Ryan, CEO of OreShield. “I was in an uncomfortable position. I had just accrued substantial student loan debt only to be entering a job market at the beginning of a global pandemic and economic recession. With uncertainty ahead there was only one thing to do” he said, “help flatten the curve and get things back to normal.”
After reading numerous articles about the spread of COVID-19 and watching videos illustrating how easily the virus can spread, Ryan was inspired to create something that could help reduce the risk of spreading the Virus. One afternoon, while taking off his gloves and face mask after a grocery shopping outing, he realized that his phone had come into contact with his gloves and everything he had touched that day. “We go through all these rituals to protect ourselves from contracting or spreading the virus but for some reason we don’t think to protect our phones. I thought this was absurd!” And he’s right. There are more than 25,000 bacteria per square inch on your mobile device. Everything we touch throughout the day eventually makes it on to our mobile devices.
Having studied Industrial Design for his undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon, Ryan set out to create something that would protect from and even eliminate bacteria on phones. After conducting weeks of research and reaching out to manufacturers to see if his idea was viable, he found a break. Copper was the answer. It provided all of the antimicrobial elements needed to disinfect, without the addition of chemicals. The rest was history. Well, not exactly. After several ideations, multiple rounds of sampling, and product testing, Ryan created a mobile device pouch that utilized a copper lining on the interior of the pouch to kill harmful bacteria and viruses. The pouch features a durable yet smooth neoprene shell with a magnetic closure to secure your phone into place. “I pulled from everything I learned at the U of O to create this pouch. Design, costing, manufacturing, and everything in between happened in only a few weeks. However, I view OreShield as a project that was nearly 7 years in the making. I also knew I was against the clock, I had to make it simple enough that the pouch could be manufactured quickly so we can get them in the hands of our customers and frontline workers that need them.”
