A few months ago, entrepreneur William Kremer ’21 and Samuel (Schmeel) Sternberg, a senior at SAR, started FACECASE NYC, a disposable mask company. The Rampage interviewed the partners to learn about their product, inspiration, and production process.

Charles Spielfogel: Can you please explain what FACECASE NYC is? 

William Kremer: FACECASE NYC is a disposable mask company. We sell masks with different designs on them. For example, we have a stars mask, marble mask, tie die mask, and cloud mask, which is probably our most popular product. We started the company a few months ago. Who wants to wear those plain blue masks? Everyone wants to look a little stylish! We decided it would be cool to put designs on masks. We donate a portion of our proceeds to Covid relief funds. 

CS: Who is your targeted audience?

WK: We target everyone that wears a mask! Students are a huge target of ours because they have to wear masks every day. Moms often buy masks for their families as well.

CS: Could you walk us through the production of your masks?

WK: At first, it took some time for us to find a manufacturer. We went on Alibaba, which is a website where one can connect with different producers for clothing, etc. We did some searching and connected with a lot of different manufacturers. We finally found one that we found had the best price and got some samples of the masks. After testing them for comfort and good quality, we went ahead and ordered 20,000 of them.

CS: What inspired you to start this business?

WK: What inspired us was simply that we saw a space in the market for something people needed and wanted. We thought it would be a good idea to make and donate some money. We saw room for creativity and putting our own touch on the masks. 

CS: What has been the greatest challenge when getting your company off the ground?

WK: The beginning is a challenge for any company. We didn’t have the biggest fan base: the only fans we had were people we know. So, we did some advertisements and asked people to shout us out (on Instagram).

Samuel Sternberg: I think the biggest challenge was to balance branding with a good product. We wanted to print the name FACECASE (on the masks), but we understood that if we wrote FACECASE on the masks, it would be ugly. So, we decided we weren’t going to do that, but then we had to decide how we were going to keep ourselves branded. Selling masks is different than selling t-shirts with our brand name on them, so we had to decide where to sell the masks — on Amazon, in stores. We are still figuring that out.

CS: What distinguishes your product from other masks?

WK: You should buy our product because it is comfortable. We have gotten so much positive feedback about the comfort of our masks. It’s stylish — the designs are simple and it can go with any outfit. People love FACECASE masks!

CS: Do you plan on expanding the concept of this product after Covid is over?

WK: We are not yet sure if people are still going to be wearing masks once Covid ends. We are going to go to college soon, so I don’t think this will be a lasting brand. 

CS: Thanks for enlightening the Ramaz community. It sounds like a really good idea and we are excited to see what you are going to do in the future.