Face-mask shortages presented an emergency during the early stages of the COVID–19 pandemic. In the face of market failure and the government’s inability to mobilize hierarchically, quickly scaling up Taiwan’s mask machine production network was the key to solving the crisis. This study argues that the government’s conditional gift plan, the active involvement of industry associations, the empathic experience of manufacturers embedded in Taiwan’s collaborative production network, and the situational stress caused by the public health crisis all contributed to building collective trust. This not only helped to avoid opportunistic behaviors in the process of network restructuring, but also transformed the “motley crew” into a “national team” and promoted the activation of the mask machine production network. This study highlights the coordinated varieties of network production. State and industry associations that focus on decentralized embeddedness can also promote opportunities for network organization reconstruction and industrial institutional transformation.