STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Nick Harman was forever forgetting to take his face mask with him when he left home in the morning. And hand sanitizer? It was just too inconvenient to pocket.
He decided there must be a better way. And, so, the Ketchum man came up with a novel solution—a Novel Corona Kit that covers someone hand to mouth with sanitizer, mask and even an AirPod system.
A slap band holds a refillable sanitizer bottle holster that can be atomized with a squirt.
The liquid sanitizer atomizers, which also fit Apple and many other watches, can hold 45 pump dispenses per fill. Each Band Sanitizer comes with four bottles and a dropper for filling the bottles.
“We touch up to 30 objects a minute so this has you covered,” Harman said. “In the time it takes you to look at your watch, you can sanitize your hands.”
The face masks, which comes in black or pink, features an adjustable CorokEZ strap that allow the wearer to hang the mask around his neck when not in use.
“My slogan for it--‘always around,’ ” said Harman. You no longer have to dangle the mask from one ear or wear it as a chin guard. But it’s there—handy—when you need it.”
Harman, who worked at Smith’s Optics for a dozen years, has even added a “Dangle Dongle” strap that can be integrated into the mask system so the wearer never loses his AirPod.
“One lady even found a way to make it work with her hearing aids, which had been flying off every time she took off her mask,” he said.
Harman has been assembling his Novel Corona Kits in office space loaned him by Ketchum Works II above the former CIRO restaurant.
The venture launches this week at www.NovelCoronaKit.com. Bands and kits are also available in Ketchum at Zenergy Health Club & Spa, Madeleine + Oliver, Chateau Drugs, Atkinsons’ Market and The Apothecary.
The Band Sanitizer costs $24.99. The Novel Corona Kit, which contains the Band Sanitizer, mask, CorokEZ, AirPod/Mask integration system, and four refillable liquid sanitizer atomizers and dropper, costs $34.99.
Harman has already been approached by two weddings parties, each of whom want 150 kits as gifts for guests who can use the masks and sanitizer during the wedding party.
“It makes a novel gift in the time of the novel coronavirus,” Harman said. “Now I wake up each morning and I put my pants on, I put my socks on, I put my mask on and I put my sanitizer band on. And I’m covered for the day. Everything I need is close at hand.”