As Women’s History Month comes to a close, here’s a little tidbit for you: One of the most fundamental rights of bras hadn’t been touched or improved in 88 years. That was until Bree McKeen followed suit.
In 1931, designer Helene Pons was granted a US patent for a brassiere with open wire around the bottom and sides of each breast. This uncomfortable, unchanging design has remained unchanged for almost a century – and remains the dominant trend in the global bra market, which is expected to reach $60 billion by 2032.
No one had filed a patent for the underwire until McKeen, the founder of Evelyn & Bobbie, quit his job in Silicon Valley to try to fix his problem. At the end of long days at a boutique venture capital firm pitching to consumer health care companies, he would come home with divots on his shoulders and a chronic headache after being cooped up at his desk for hours.
As the world sought, guilt was not his business. It was her bra.
But McKeen had zero experience in fashion. He studied medical anthropology and received his MBA at Stanford. However, his transition was in the physiotherapist’s office, where McKeen was still working on his condition, along with regular bar training.
“He’s like, your condition looks great,” McKeen recalled Good luck. “And I vomit it: When I stand like this, I feel pain from my bra.”
The physiologist explained that it was a “neuromuscular feedback loop”, or the body’s response to pain, like a pebble in a shoe.
“Here I am doing all this work to behave with authority and poise, and I find that my bra is doing the complete opposite,” McKeen said. You don’t need to tell your body to shut down the pain.
She had no fashion experience. However, he filed a patent
That realization launched McKeen on a major career change, one that cost her a VC job—but found her one of the most enduring brands in women’s fashion (Evelyn & Bobbie is now Nordstrom’s fastest-growing brand). He moved to Portland, home of Nike, Adidas and Columbia for the inspiration of big brands and proximity to new connections.
He started tinkering with prototypes in his garage and immediately applied for intellectual property rights. That was based on her VC’s knowledge that a woman’s company would need that to get funding.
McKeen received his first utility patent (a harder, more protected type that covers how something works, not just how it looks) during the spring. The brand refused to disclose how much money it raised, but it now has 16 international patents protecting its EB Core technology, which mimics the support and structure of a phone without causing discomfort.
Photo courtesy of Evelyn & Bobbie
Setting the forecast is how important it is was to protect his intellectual property, only 12% of US patents existed given to women, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office as of 2019. McKeen has six of them, which protect the unique 3D-sling technology in her bras.
The brand McKeen built, Evelyn & Bobbie, was named after her maternal grandmother and aunt, and it’s about simplicity: a bra that fits well and feels great all day.
“I wanted a bra that made me look good in my clothes,” McKeen said — an inspiration reminiscent of how Spanx founder Sara Blakely started her $1.2 billion empire. “Wireless bras give you a toe-not a good figure. They make your clothes look sloppy. I wanted good lift, separation, good figure. I couldn’t find that bra.
The average US bra size is 34F. Many models design something very small
With major brands like Victoria’s Secret, Aerie, Love of the Three, Savage X Fenty, and many more on the market, Evelyn & Bobbie is undeniably in a crowded, competitive space. But as all women know, not all bras are suitable for wearing, especially for a long time.
“Every woman I talked to had 20 bras in her drawer, but she was wearing like two of them — the ugly, saggy ones that she felt like she shouldn’t be wearing,” McKeen said.
What sets Evelyn and Bobbie apart is their approach to size. McKeen designs 270 styles in seven convenient sizes, organizing each style rather than promoting a single sample.
“Most bra companies have one or two models that fit,” she said. “They’ll make a 34B and then push it up, that’s why it doesn’t fit right in the plus size.
Photo courtesy of Evelyn & Bobbie
The average bra size in America, McKeen pointed out, is a 34F, a statistic that surprised many people—including the early investors she had to convince that comfort was a viable selling point.
“I’ve had a lot of investor meetings where they were 60-minute meetings, and 50 minutes of it I was trying to convince them that compensation is important,” he said. “I mean, Victoria’s Secret has figured this out, right?
Today, McKeen has a Slack channel dedicated entirely to consumer love letters, a relationship with Dr. Nina Naidu, a plastic surgeon in New York who sends bras home with every patient after the operation, and a sports line in development.
With the luxury product comes a premium price point: Evelyn & Bobbie bras retail for $98 each. But that price may be worth it to avoid chronic pain for some women.
He said: “Comfort is a new life.” We spend money on yoga pants that make us look and feel good.
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