When tens of thousands of people descend on Nevada’s Black Rock Desert in August for Burning Man, they should expect dust. A windstorm could sweep through the site at any moment, swirling the highly alkaline playa sand into clouds, and shrouding the festival’s temporary city and its attendants under its cloak. It’s best to come prepared.

Vogmask, a reusable face mask with an air filter, was designed with Burners in mind, but is intended to address environmental concerns broadly. When Marc Brown attended Burning Man in 2011, he was disappointed that there were “no cool-looking, highly efficient filtering face masks” to be found on the playa, despite the risk of what Burners have termed “playa lung,” an infection caused by the inhalation of alkaline silica dust from the desert.

So he and his mother, Wendover Brown , decided to make their own, working with medical design engineers to ensure its efficacy . Since founding Vogmask in 2012, they have seen demand rise, not just in the United States but around the world.