New York, NY As the country continues to navigate best practices for cleaning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, woman-owned business Silver Defender is helping other businesses nationwide by offering stretchable films with built-in antimicrobial protection to protect the film. 

Silver Defender’s patent-pending films cover everything from door handles, elevator buttons and handrails to credit card machines, bathroom faucets and shopping carts. Activated by light, air pressure and touch, the propriety designs contain an antimicrobial agent that protects the film from bacteria, mold, mildew and fungi. Silver ions react with and affect multiple sites in bacterial cells on the exterior of the film, keeping it clean. 

“We created Silver Defender to raise the bar on clean in areas frequented by people. Now, at such a novel time in this country, a new standard of clean is needed more than ever,” said Zeynep Ekemen, managing partner of Silver Defender. 

Ekemen, the principal of a commercial real estate firm in northern New Jersey for over a decade, visited a coffee shop in her neighborhood two years ago when she and her friend commented on the bathroom’s lack of cleanliness. An entrepreneur at heart, she envisioned a business that could help businesses stay clean and began the arduous task of meeting with scientists, testing products and establishing the business and its supply chain. 

Silver Defender is the only product of its kind to have initiated the EPA pesticide registration process. Manufactured in the United States, the product officially launched in 2018 but when the COVID-19 pandemic reached the country earlier this year, demand unsurprisingly skyrocketed. 

“Cleanliness has taken on a whole new meaning,” Ekemen said. “This is a new standard of clean that gives customers, co-workers and more a heightened level of safety critical in the world today.” 

In response, Silver Defender also launched new films for touch screens, adding another layer of cleanliness to frequently touched surfaces.