It’s often said that great ideas are born out of necessity, and that is certainly true in the case of Evolvetogether. CFDA member Cynthia Sakai, best known for the luxury jewelry label Vita Fede, embarked on her new business venture in the early days of the pandemic when the need for PPE equipment was more urgent than ever. Stores were depleted and you could hardly find a mask anywhere – let alone a stylish one. 

Sakai sprang into action. Leveraging her existing factory network connections, Sakai shifted her resources to produce as many masks as possible. Now, the FDA-approved company has sold upwards of 25 million masks and has a wait list of over 500,000 customers. Everyone from Hailey and Justin Bieber to Angelina Jolie have sported their medical-grade masks, and the company shows no signs of slowing down with the launch of a personal care line and upcoming collaborations on the way. 

We sat down with Sakai to hear more about how she brought the company to life. 

What inspired you to start this business, and how were you able to launch so quickly?

We have always had my mind set on being a full daily essentials brand  — and, because we launched at the start of the pandemic, our first product was naturally an everyday medical mask. Anyone living in NYC at that time remembers how chaotic and uncertain it was — and it was almost impossible to find a medical mask at an affordable price that actually worked, let alone one that looked good and was easy to style. So, our team got to work and launched our first daily essential, the everyday medical mask!

Luckily, we had existing connections at an FDA-registered factory that had long specialized in PPE production for healthcare and government, and the factory’s President was a younger woman who understood our vision and was willing to help us get to market quickly, so that helped tremendously.

Since then, we’ve been expanding that same mentality — quality, thoughtfully-designed daily essentials that make a positive impact on people and the planet — to a wider range of products, and are so grateful for the outpouring of support we’ve received from everyone from editors and stylists to customers and celebs who’ve embraced our mission and product.

The products have become a staple for A-list celebrities. Were you surprised by the response of the community? 

It has been surprising. When I began my career, I never imagined I’d be making masks, let alone waitlisted ones celebrities would wear. But here we are. We responded to a moment of crisis with a medical mask that was comfortable, actually worked, and looked good — and people, including celebs and stylists, felt and saw the difference. It’s been amazing to see our masks embraced by everyone and to see how our mission of doing good every day brings people from all sorts of backgrounds together. 

You obviously have extensive design experience, but was it daunting to create something “medical-grade?” 

All the technical rules, regulations, and jargon can feel overwhelming at first — but we’ve luckily had fantastic support from trusted and credible partners who, so it’s easy for each of us to bring each of our own strengths to the table in order to make the best product possible. It’s also why we chose to work with two of the largest third-party consumer-testing companies in the world (SGS and Nelson) so we could build in that additional layer of feedback and review, because when it comes to people’s health and safety, quality, trust, and performance is everything.

What was the most difficult part of launching the business? What was the most rewarding? 

What wasn’t difficult!? The start of any company has a certain amount of risk and uncertainty, but launching during lockdown at the height of the pandemic’s first wave with an entirely remote team and a new-to-us product was a whole other experience. Everything was chaotic, from day-to-day communications to handling global logistics to navigating misinformation and rapidly changing guidelines. At first, we couldn’t find a factory that would work with us to create custom masks. No one saw the value in helping us make anything other blue surgical masks. Luckily, we had a connection to an FDA-registered factory with a young female President who was willing to partner with us. But even then, we had to commit to a million piece minimum before we ever sold one mask. 

It’s been a wild ride, but a wonderful one, too. Especially when I take a step back to really appreciate how far we’ve come and how many people we’ve helped, particularly our masks. We still receive daily emails and texts from customers letting us know how much they love our mission, or how much wearing our masks has helped keep them safe and reduce their anxiety. Just hearing how we’ve been able to be a positive part of people’s lives during this time (even when our day-to-day operations are super chaotic) has been beyond rewarding. 

You also just launched a personal care line as well. What can you tell us about this? 

There’s a lot of personal care out there that’s either super sustainable or performance-driven, but not very luxe, or luxe, but not really super sustainable or performance-driven. We wanted to make a personal care collection that could do it all without sacrificing the things that matter most to our customers.

Our personal care collection focuses on simple, hardworking plant-based formulas made in the USA that actually work with signature gender-neutral scents and minimal designs, and luxe-looking packaging that’s either biodegradable, reusable, or recyclable to minimize single-use plastic and landfill waste. 

Our current personal care lineup has a refillable hand sanitizer, natural deodorants, and hydrating hand creams — with more to come including a new Gone Today collection that takes our commitment to the next level with products that can use waterless formulas and 100 percent dissolvable, plant-based packaging.

Where do you want to take this brand in the future? 

 We founded our brand on the idea that nearly 8 billion of us share this one beautiful world, and we’re all connected no matter our race, gender, religion, or where we live. We want to continue our mission of doing good every day and keep the connection we have with our customers — passionate, caring people who, like us, are wanting to do their part to make the world a better place for everyone.

In the future, we hope to become a full 360 brand that includes our own retail, DTC, and new ways to connect with our customers. We’ll keep expanding our collection with quality, thoughtfully-designed daily essentials that are environmentally friendly in the personal care, home and travel, health and wellness, and everyday clothing categories — but we’ll have new ways to shop and experience our products. Lots of exciting stuff is in the works!

Our hope is to become the go-to for luxe, earth-friendly daily essentials, the brand consumers reach for when they’re looking for everyday items that are made with care, and that are made to take care of each other and the planet.

evolvetogether.com

@evolvetogether