Early in the pandemic, Pillow Guy Mike Lindell sidelined a portion of his pillow business to make masks when he thought they would be important. The company had a new building with hundreds of new sewing machines.
The company had initially intended to donate the masks, but Lindell decided to take advantage of the business opportunity to sell them.
Today, Lindell is sitting on millions of masks that nobody wants, with many thanks to his idol Donald Trump’s culture war.
Lindell says his company retrofitted about 75 percent of MyPillow’s manufacturing line to sew cloth masks, but now the machinery and space he’d invested in sits idle and empty.
The CEO estimates he was able to offload about 5 percent of his mask inventory, but the operation cost his company and him personally a combined $7 million.
Lindell says there were many bad people in the mask industry.
“All of a sudden, there was masks everywhere, almost as if the industry knew it was coming and waited for prices to go up,” the businessman said. “Now I probably got $7 million out of my pocket that we’re just stuck with.”
Lindell first announced the failed project last March when Trump called on American companies to step up production of protective equipment because …….. Obama.
Lindell responded by pronouncing Trump as “chosen by God” for the moment.
Now Lindell doesn’t know what to do with the unused masks, saying, “I got calls into other countries but don’t know if I even want to give them now, because they don’t work.”
Story at Daily Beast and HillReporter