InstaShield

Winner of the 2020 COVID-19 Response Award, InstaShield is a comfortable and affordable face shield that fits on the bill of a ball cap or visor. It is 100 percent made in the U.S. from recyclable plastic, and it can be easily disinfected and reused. InstaShield was created by CEO Dan Brown Jr. and his father Dan Brown Sr., a serial inventor and professor at Northwestern, to fill the PPE shortage at the beginning of the pandemic. When they saw people using 3-D printers to make face shields, they decided to apply their design and commercialization experience to mass manufacture affordable shields that do not require manufacturing for headgear for everyone.