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FEATURES
December 17, 2020
Stitching a path to entrepreneurship
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Social Impact Entrepreneurship Students launch mask brand, FlipMask by Zoe Cote Staff Writer
S
eniors Honor Wood, Kate Wills and Lauren Stallings launched their much anticipated, multipurpose mask brand, FlipMask, on Dec. 1 with big plans to grow their small business. Next steps for the company include transitioning from homemade, small-scale production to securing patents, obtaining an LLC license and pursuing contract manufacturing. The idea originated in their Economics and Social Entrepreneurship class during a brainstorming activity in September. During the activity, all three of the soon-to-be founders addressed the habit of forgetting masks. Wood connected her tendency to forget hair ties as well and the trio unknowingly initiated FlipMask. “I had this consistent problem, so did a lot of other people, where I would be wearing my mask and I would sit down at a restaurant or get in the car, it would be dangling around, touching the ground, touching tables,” Wood said. “Plus, I was always forgetting to grab one on the way out of the house, and I had another similar problem where I would always forget hair ties, so we kind of combined these two issues to create FlipMask.” Designed by Kate Wills, the multipurpose, sustainable face mask aims for fast fashion and accessory efficiency. Wills’ design underwent many ‘first drafts,’ as well as cross-referencing with patented mask designs to prevent copyright infringement. “I prototyped and designed the idea,” Wills said. “I would make a mask, bring it to school, and have [Lauren and Honor] assess what was wrong with it. Then I’d go
photo by Lauren Stallings
Wood and Wills sport their FlipMasks while discussing product design.
back to the drawing board. I’ve made probably 30-40 prototype masks.” Their mock-ups faced many tedious trials and tribulations at the hands of Wills. “We’ve adjusted sizing, ear pieces, symmetry, different fabrics and many other design flaws,” Wills said. “I bruised my knuckles on safety scissors because I don’t have fabric scissors and I use a hair straightener to press the masks. It’s a very ‘return to your roots’ process.” The mask folds inside itself, protecting the inside fabric from germ exposure when consumers go mask-less in public. When the mask is tucked away, it exposes a hair tie. A clever seam design conceals the hair tie in the lining when the mask is in use. The hair tie can also function as an easy link for car keys and lanyards, or as a bracelet, making the product adaptable and redesigning masks in a more functional, transportable way. “It’s always there on-the-go so you’re never missing it,” Stallings said.
All three founders have prior experience in innovative projects from their former Social Impact class Anatomy, Evolution, and the Zoo, and intend to pursue innovation and entrepreneurship beyond Hockaday. “Honor is very business-y so she took the business route,” Stallings said. “Kate is our little crafty artist and got to sewing immediately, and I established myself as the communications person to advertise and market the mask.” Working with friends has thrown some obstacles their way in terms of delegating and separating business from emotions, but the trio said collaborating with friends has been ideal to foster their fun-loving, chique brand. “There’s always this caveat — don’t go into business with your friends — but being friends has actually made the process so much easier in terms of communication and made the work environment a lot more fun,” Wood said. “We have really similar goals and we’re really similar people so we
A whole new equation
have a similar brand vision.” The group also has faced challenges with manufacturing and licensing. “Wow it’s expensive,” Wills said. “They don’t tell you that a patent is $5,000-$10,000 and the LLC license is $600, (not including legal fees). We’ve spent $400 alone on production already. They make it seem so easy to start a business but manufacturers require a minimum of 200 masks of one color per order and we don’t have that kind of money yet.” Despite the setbacks, they are forging ahead with small-scale production as Wood and Stallings learn to sew and manufacture. “We’re trying to capitalize on the demand for masks before the vaccine comes out,” Wills said. News of their invention traveled throughout Upper School in October when they launched their company Instagram. Within the first week they received 50,000 views on an Instagram video and website viewership skyrocketed, with more than 160 people tapping the link before the online store had even launched. “Forty-thousand views to me is just crazy,” Stallings said. “I think it’s crazy that people would take time out of their days to watch something we made in Econ class.” Pre-orders launched with the website on Dec. 1, and the company received wover 365 website-taps on opening day. Holiday prints are launching soon, alongside their signature and limitededition collections, at myflipmask. com. Masks are listed for $14.99 on and supporters can follow their entrepreneurial journey on Instagram @flip.mask. “We have really big goals,” Wood said, “but we’re taking it one step at a time.”
Math Club teams compete in virtual Harvard MIT Math Tournament by Melody Hu Staff Writer Every year, the Hockaday Math Club holds tryouts for the Harvard MIT Mathematics Tournament. Typically, students compete in the Harvard or MIT lecture halls, but this year students competed virtually. Hockaday sent two teams of six students to the open. The Hockaday Math Club held virtual tryouts for the HMMT teams. Club officers sent out ten questions to students trying out, giving them a week to complete them. Then, the officers used the scores of the questions to make the teams. Typically, the students who make the HMMT tournament travel to Boston for the competition. In past years, the tournament took place at Harvard or MIT. “It is really fun to travel with your team and meet people all over the nation and all over the world who are passionate about math,” senior Jennifer Xiong said. “The competition itself is definitely
challenging, but I really enjoy the experience.” The Harvard MIT Mathematics Tournament, founded in 1998, usually consists of about 1,000 students from around the world. This year, the competition was changed to the Harvard MIT Mathematics Open to reflect this year’s virtual environment. The tournament was
organized by students at Harvard, MIT, and nearby schools. The competition consists of three rounds: teams, individual, and Guts. During the teams round, each of the Hockaday teams met with each other via Zoom or Microsoft Teams to solve problems. There were 10 questions, and teams were only able photo by Kelsey Chen
Students from Team 1 meet on Teams to compete in the team round.
to submit answers every minute. The individual round consisted of two parts: general and theme, and Hockaday students submitted answers individually. The general round contained questions about all high school math subjects, and the theme round was based on a common theme. During the Guts round, competitors were given 80 minutes to solve problems with their team. Each problem varied in difficulty and point values. The problems are given out in sets of three, and teams are only allowed to start the next set of problems once they finish the set before. “Solving the questions was similar to the in person competition, but it was the atmosphere that made it feel different because usually, you are surrounded by people working really hard so I would feel more motivated” junior Kyulee Kim said. Additionally, the competition held optional Zoom meetings called Friday Night Lives, featuring both math and non-math-related games.
