When Rob Ranson presented to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s personal protection panel in Amsterdam this May, it marked a major milestone for his startup, Win-Shield Devices.
Out of 20 companies, Win-Shield has been awarded a one-year contract by the Canadian government to develop an inclusive respirator for federal law enforcement, one that protects people with beards and religious head coverings. Since then, countries around the world have expressed interest in the Winnipeg-based company’s solutions.
“There is a disproportionate amount of success happening in Manitoba that a lot of people don’t know about.”
Rob Ranson, Win-Shield Devices
“I’m a testament that we’re walking onto the world stage, and they’re saying, ‘We need to hear more,’” Ranson said.
It’s a remarkable trajectory for a business that started with a middle-of-the-night idea and a sprint to prototype a solution in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2020, Ranson’s daughter, a front-line X-ray technician, told him she had been exposed to two people with COVID-19.
The news hit close to home.
As managing director of University Medical Group in Winnipeg, Ranson was responsible for securing personal protective equipment for the hospital where he and his daughter worked. A team of surgeons had expressed concerns that same day about the effectiveness of existing face shields.
At 3:00 a.m. the next morning, Ranson woke up and designed a new face and head shield.
“That’s when I reached out to North Forge,” Ranson recalled.
He knew he needed help to turn his idea into a usable product fast. North Forge, a Winnipeg-based startup incubator and accelerator with one of North America’s largest fabrication labs, became essential to the effort.
“I needed somebody to help me do CAD drawings, somebody else to create a mould, and then someone to show me how to use a vacuum forming machine. All of which I knew I could find at North Forge. Within three days, I had a working prototype,” he said.
North Forge provides cost-free programming and resources to help science-based, tech-enabled, and advanced manufacturing startups grow from ideation to securing funding. At the heart of the organization is the FabLab, where members can access state-of-the-art tools for rapid prototyping, 3D printing, woodworking, metalworking, plastics forming, and more.
Ranson used every resource available, and not just for prototyping. He relied on the FabLab to begin fulfilling orders when demand for the face shields skyrocketed to four million units in just five weeks.
Things moved quickly after he brought the prototype—a full coverage shield that protects the face, forehead, and top of the head—to the hospital. He left 10 samples in the emergency ward for a full-day test. The infection control team and health and safety leaders reviewed them and agreed the shields exceeded expectations.
The hospital placed an initial order for 1,000 shields, then called back for 20,000. Then one million.
At the same time, Ranson was introduced to a response team within the provincial government that placed an order for four million shields.
Then, it was time to get these made.
It was a collaborative effort. Ranson brought on several people from North Forge to help with fulfillment and partnered with companies across Manitoba, Ontario, and British Columbia to manufacture the plastic components and headbands. Together, they also set up a shipping and receiving facility to package everything and move it out.
The chaos lasted about five and a half months, and the order was fulfilled by January 2021.
“I knew COVID was going to change the culture and mindset of people, so there was an opportunity to better diversify into other products,” Ranson said. “The success of that one contract allowed me to quietly hire people and say, ‘Let’s build this.’”
From that momentum, he officially launched Win-Shield Devices — a manufacturing company that now creates innovative and affordable law enforcement, military, industrial, and medical equipment.
Today, the company operates with a team of 15 and continues to develop new solutions out of its collaborative space at the North Forge FabLab.
“The biggest value of North Forge is access. We have access to over $4 million worth of equipment,” Ranson said. “Plus, the people who are walking through that facility… they’re experts in their own right, so we can pick their brains. Or, they’ll ask us something, and we’ll help them.”
“I have known Rob for over 15 years and witnessed his entrepreneurial drive across many ventures, but Win-Shield is transformative,” said North Forge President and CEO, Joelle Foster.
Foster believes Win-Shield’s latest product addresses a critical problem and has the potential to redefine global safety standards while saving lives. “The world isn’t just noticing, it’s responding, and that speaks volumes about the scale and urgency of what Rob has created,” Foster added.
Ranson sees both the challenge and the opportunity of building a company in a city where the innovation economy is still growing.
“We have to do a little more work,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of dozens of suppliers like you would in a city like Toronto. But the encouragement you get here is hard to compare.”
Despite limited resources, Ranson has built Win-Shield from the ground up with support from North Forge and funding from federal programs. It’s a bootstrapped journey that he said reflects the grit and potential of Manitoba’s growing tech ecosystem.
“There is a disproportionate amount of success happening in Manitoba that a lot of people don’t know about.”
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North Forge is a not-for-profit tech incubator, accelerator, and state-of-the-art fabrication lab. We fuel Manitoba’s innovative science-based, technology-enabled, and advanced manufacturing startups from ideation to funding by offering unparalleled programming and resources to help startups grow.
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All photos provided by North Forge.