Tigé Boats making face shields, personal protective equipment for COVID-19 responders

Brian Bethel
Abilene Reporter-News

Tigé Boats is taking on the fight against COVID-19 directly, shifting focus in its Abilene boat manufacturing facility to producing 1,000 face shields a day, along with other high-demand personal protective equipment, including face masks.

"We're currently setting up our assembly line, and we have materials to make 500 face shields," said Jean Wagner, corporate relations manager with Tigé, before production began Friday.

The goal then was to make 500 face shields a day, she said.

Scott Lowery cuts lengths of sheet plastic Friday at Tigé Boats. The company has retooled to make personal protective equipment in the form of face shields and cloth masks during the pandemic.

"Our plan is ... to make as many of them as we can," Wagner said. "Our team is ready and we have a lot of sources for supplies. We're reaching out to all of them."

By Friday, that number and capacity had grown significantly.

"We have been able to ramp up our production pretty significantly," said Courtney Wagley, Tigé's director of marketing, in an email. "We are estimating to produce 1,000 masks and face shields per day."

Pactiv, another Abilene company, "donated all of the plastic for us to use," Wagley said.

Wagner said earlier in the week that Tigé was "looking to design some gowns, as well." 

And the company has donated more than 2,000 protective suits to local hospitals.

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And there's more 

Charlie Pigeon, founder, owner and CEO of Tige Boats, models one of the face shields the Abilene-based boat manufacturing company will be making for first responders to protect against coronavirus COVID-19.

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The emphasis is on serving first responders and those supporting efforts on the front line, with priority given to Abilene and the Big Country. 

"We've got the infrastructure in place, we've got an awesome team that works out here," Wagner said. "We assemble a very high quality product, and we wanted to take that skill and hopefully fulfill a need."

Around 200 employees are to work in alternative shifts, transitioning efforts from building surf/wake boats to PPE necessities, a company statement said.

The company will produce the items as long as they are in high demand.

Anjelica Miramontez stitches the headband for a face shield Friday at Tigé Boats. The company estimates it might be able to make 1000 shields in a month's time.

Part of the solution

On his personal Facebook page, Charlie Pigeon, founder, owner and CEO of Tigé, wrote of his own pride in the project, saying that "everyone jumped in and took pride in being part of a solution."

Pigeon modeled one of the face shields in the post, which garnered hundreds of likes, reposts and comments, the majority praising Pigeon and others for their insight and generosity. 

"We are donating as long as we can and (as long as) our great partners continue to work with us," Pigeon said, adding that he wanted to see increases in the amount of equipment "ASAP," based on manifold requests from the medical community.

Monica Guajardo (left) and Berta Miranda sew cloth masks Friday at Tigé Boats. The mask are based on designs from Hendrick Health System.

Some responses to the post were from area medical providers, including home health agencies, Abilene Diagnostic Clinic and Haskell Memorial Hospital, all of which lauded the idea and asked to be considered to receive some of the PPE supplies if sufficient supplies were available.

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In a statement released later Wednesday, Pigeon said Tigé's team has been "working tirelessly and moving quickly to support ... first responders during such a tough and unprecedented time.” 

“Our goal is to embrace the talents of our workforce to combat COVID-19 and return to normal life as quickly as possible," Pigeon said.

Others can help

Tigé also wants to spread the effort to other businesses. 

The company created a training video and templates for several boat manufacturing companies so that they can start mass-producing face shields.

Andrew Monroy, buffs away the sharp edges on the newly cut plastic which will be used as face shields like the one he is wearing Friday.

Companies with the manufacturing means and desire to produce personal protective equipment can acquire design specifications and instructions from Tigé.

Those entities should contact Wagner via email at jwagner@tige.com for more information.

Brian Bethel covers city and county government and general news for the Abilene Reporter-News.  If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com