We Found A Foot Disinfecting Mat That's Perfect For The Home

We've been reminded countless times to take precautionary safety measures to prevent COVID-19 infection even when we're just at home. Wash your hands properly and frequently, sanitize surfaces in the house, disinfect grocery items and deliveries, and take a shower every time you come home.

What usually comes as the last item in these lists of reminders is disinfecting your footwear. Just like how the coronavirus can live on surfaces and clothing, it could also stay on the shoes for a period of time and serve as a carrier. In a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about "Emerging Infectious Diseases," a study showed that "half of the samples from the soles of the ICU medical staff shoes tested positive. Therefore, the soles of medical staff shoes might function as carriers... We highly recommend that persons disinfect shoe soles before walking out of wards containing COVID-19 patients."

Instead of just wiping your shoes or spraying alcohol/disinfectant all over them, there's a more convenient and safer way to disinfect them: use a foot disinfecting mat.

There are many suppliers for all our other anti-COVID-19 essentials—like face masks, face shields, and PPEs—but there are currently few that offer foot disinfecting mat that's perfect for our home's doorstep. Enter BioMat.

BioMat is produced and distributed by Alpha Multi Core Advertising Corporation—an advertising, metal fabrication and creative agency—one of the businesses that had to pivot because of the great pause the COVID-19 quarantine and lockdown put on their operations. 

"It was a difficult time for the company as our main and only objective was for every member of the company to survive when we were obliged to temporarily stop our business operations," says Alpha Multi Core Advertising Corporation's Operations Manager Gian Enriquez. "Halfway through the lockdown, it is when BioMat Foot Disinfecting Mat came about. It allowed us not only to survive and cope; but thrive, provide for everyone in the company, and extend livelihood to individuals and organizations who have connected with us as resellers and distributors of the product." 

The idea for BioMat Foot Disinfecting Mat was born during the time when foot baths were still unheard of as a tool that could help prevent contamination in homes and establishments. To test the efficacy of the product in killing pathogens, the company collaborated with a doctor they previously worked with in producing Aerosol boxes as support to medical frontliners.

Gian shares, "Initially, it was not our intention to promote this as a product, as its purpose was mainly for friends and partners in the medical frontlines. After receiving positive feedback from doctors regarding BioMat’s quality and its potential to be used in homes and establishments, we just thought of posting it online. Then overnight, we were surprised to receive several inquiries and orders for BioMat. Following the increasing orders, then we decided to develop it as a product with several sizes and variations, complete with packaging and manual."

Aside from proving the product's ability to stop transmission, they also zoomed in on other details like sourcing a durable material and ensuring its design is safe. What they eventually came up with is a foot disinfecting mat whose main tray structure is made of powder-coated metal that has maximum resistance to wear-and-tear and and can endure prolonged use in a high stress environment. The tray frame has a slanted edge design to prevent tripping of users. There's also a rubber sheet attached at the base tray to ensure non-slippage. Finally, instead of the standard rubber coil mat for the scrubbing pad, they used faux grass that gives a stylish and cozier touch to one's doorstep, but there's also an option for a gray mat.   

To ensure perfect fit in every kind of doorstep, BioMat is available in four sizes: small (with a frame size of 16" x 17" 1.25"), medium (with a frame size of 20" x 21" x 1.25" and a mat size of 16" x 17"), large (with a frame size of 21" x 33" x 1.25" and a mat size of 18" x 30"), and extra large (with a frame size of 40" x 28.5" x 1.25" and a mat size of 24" x 36"). They're also offering debris and drying mats to supplement the disinfecting foot mat.

Today, when the number of COVID-19 cases is continuously increasing, we need to remain vigilant in order to stay safe and healthy. Small things like putting a foot disinfecting mat at the doorstep could make a huge difference. During this time, there's no such thing as being too careful. 

Available on BioMat's Facebook and Instagram, Lazada, Shopee, AllHome, MC Home Depot, and True Value

Photos from @laureen's YouTube Channel, BioMat - Foot Disinfecting Mat on Facebook, and gravityliciouscom on Pexels