New mask contest finalists

Two recent Wichita State University graduates are among the finalists for a $1 million prize pool in a contest that seeks to design a better mask.

Jared Goering and Spencer Steinert are in the top 10 after beating out nearly 1,000 other mask designs from 70 countries. They hope to win the $500,000 grand prize or a $250,000 secondary prize, and they also want to take their mask to market. XPrize surveyed thousands of people and came up with the top 10 reasons that people don’t like wearing face masks:

• 53% — They’re too hot.
• 47% — They fog my glasses.
• 36% — It’s difficult to breathe.
• 35% — They are uncomfortable.
• 20% — It’s difficult to exercise.
• 19% — They hurt my face.
• 18% — It’s hard to eat or drink.
• 15% — People can’t see my expressions.
• 5% — They are not ecofriendly.
• 5% — They are hard to get.
• 5% — They are ugly.

“We started with the form because we’ve all been wearing masks for a few months, and we have a pretty good understanding of what is comfortable and uncomfortable,” Steinert said. “We thought that taking a very user-centered approach to the design of the mask would be the most efficient.”

Both men are graduates of Wichita State’s innovation design master’s program, and they’re both in an apparel start-up called Montana Shirt Co.