As health-care workers continue to face a dire shortage of personal protective equipment and fashion designers and manufacturers struggle to address the dearth, Brooks Brothers announced on Monday that it will begin producing medical-grade masks and gowns, converting its New York, North Carolina, and Massachusetts factories from manufacturing ties, shirts, and suits to producing masks and gowns for health-care workers and others fighting the spread of coronavirus. The company—which, at over 200 years old, is America’s oldest retailer—says it will be able to produce up to 150,000 masks per day.

While a number of designers have struggled to make masks that meet the Centers for Disease Control’s standards for personal protective equipment, or PPE, Brooks Brothers has been able to harness its size—including its domestic factory infrastructure—and status to muscle the guidance and support needed from federal and health officials to produce equipment that should have a meaningful impact on the shortage. In a press release, Brooks Brothers notes that it has been working on the plan over the past two weeks in tandem with federal and state governments, and developed its mask prototype in partnership with universities that specialize in textiles and technology.

The company has also been working with the United States Food and Drug Administration to expedite the approval process for the masks as medically sound. Many of the masks created by fashion brands and designers have been cotton or other non-medical-grade fabrics, which are considered by the Centers for Disease Control a “last resort.” By escalating its efforts to involve such officials, Brooks Brothers seems to have come closer to closing the gap between the fashion community that wants to help and the medical experts who know what kinds of designs are needed.

Brooks Brothers also has a big leg up on many other major American brands: They make 70 percent of their suits in Massachusetts, 100 percent of their ties in New York, and 10 percent of their shirts in North Carolina, according to a 2015 Forbes story. Other designers have struggled to turn their fashion production over to the mask-making efforts in part because they rely on manufacturers in China, India, Bangladesh, and Italy. In fact, Brooks Brothers has decreased its foreign manufacturing over the past decade, bucking current trends; only about 3 percent of clothing sold in America is manufactured here. As the company’s press release highlights, Brooks Brothers has had a long history of creating practical garments in times of national crisis, making uniforms for the U.S. military since the Civil War.

While American fashion brands have been slower than their European counterparts to address the challenges presented by coronavirus, that is beginning to shift, with Ralph Lauren’s monumental $10 million donation last week, as well as Vogue and the CFDA’s A Common Thread effort. But not every designer is the size of Brooks Brothers or Ralph Lauren—and the question of how larger brands can lead the way, or whether they might help smaller brands unite somehow to move forward, remains to be seen.