This seems like a good time to mention the history of the Apollo space suits, which were made for the manliest of men in the highly gender normed 1950's by the largest corset and bra maker in the country. Why? Because bras and girdles require incredibly high skill design and fabrication engineering, as bra theory is discovering and as no other garment manufacturer of the day could equal.<p>[0] <a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/82726/how-playtex-helped-win-space-race" rel="nofollow">http://mentalfloss.com/article/82726/how-playtex-helped-win-...</a>
There's a really good point in here that I had to learn the hard way: one of a founder's most valuable assets is a deep understanding of the customer's problem(s) and how to solve them.<p>The tech is far less important.<p>She first tried a naive tech-focused approach and realized that she didn't understand the problem well enough and making adjustments to the tech was slowing her learning down too much.<p>She made a great decision to optimize for learning speed and temporarily build a more traditional custom-fit bra business. She has learned a lot about the problem space and what makes a good solution.<p>Now she's using technology as a tool to enhance and optimize the process that already arrives at a good solution.<p>We do the same thing when we write code:<p><pre><code> 1. understand the problem
2. write a correct solution
3. optimize the solution
</code></pre>
When it comes to coding we know Knuth's Law of optimization by heart, but still make the same mistake in other contexts.
The many concerns in this thread (and their upvotes) about price (350$) are one of the best examples of the risks of gender imbalance in venture funding I've yet seen.<p>I suspect pretty much any woman in North America, regardless of ability to afford it, would see that as a totally rational price point.<p>And as someone who _can_ afford it, I'm seriously weighing a trip to NYC to be fitted.
This quote is great:<p>"Lesson #2: Be prepared to learn all the reasons why no one has solved your problem."<p>So often no progress gets made because there are five reasons people haven't made progress but everybody is making excuses about why they only need to solve three of them and wondering why their "minimal" product isn't viable.
For those in the Bay Area, I highly recommend Revelation In Fit, <a href="https://www.revelationinfit.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.revelationinfit.com</a> . It's completely changed how I think of fit; I'm an F cup, an H when I was nursing, and having a real fit is no comparison to the days of have a Nordstrom employee trying to convince me to squash into a D. Definitely visit Revelation In Fit before flying to New York, and then maybe fly out. It does sound awesome.
Lesson #4: Perfect is the enemy of good<p>I find myself re-learning or having to remind myself of this every so often. It's easy as a "person of a problem-solving nature" to want my solution to be problem-free. But what that usually ends up meaning is my solution never gets completed. Tackle the low-hanging fruit, then if there's enough demand/reason to continue development, do the rest.
Love write-ups like this: applying research methods to everyday scenarios. If you are going to go all out, definitely consider graphene as a candidate material. You can always put "Tactical" in the name and sell to the Defense industry ;)<p>Graphene fed spiders spin bionic silk<p><a href="https://newatlas.com/bionic-spider-silk-graphene/50908/" rel="nofollow">https://newatlas.com/bionic-spider-silk-graphene/50908/</a>
A lot of people in the comments seem to be forgetting that the relationship between quality (or utility) and price is almost never even close to linear, it is approximately logarithmic with price on the X axis. A $350 bra is well into the long tail. There is nothing "value" about it but it's not trying to be a good value, it's trying to be a superb product. The cost is basically just a number when you're at the very top end like that.
There's a lot of focus in this thread on the bras, specifically. But the lessons learned, as described in the article, are much more generalizable, and I found them valuable.<p>How many of us spend years perfecting products instead of launching an MVP and learning as we go? How many of us build automation before seeking domain expertise when we really should do it the other way around?
The linked article <a href="https://medium.com/@hazelynut/why-i-have-a-problem-with-bras-ff75f0e6fe23" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@hazelynut/why-i-have-a-problem-with-bras...</a> was a very interesting breakdown of what all it takes and why basically all bras are often just bad approxximations.
Something I didn’t see in the article: is their a pricing model for multiple bras? I can imagine that a lot of people who would buy a $350 bra would gladly pay $750 for, say, 10 bras. Or even for a smaller number of bras and a copy of the pattern that they can use to get new bras later from Bra Theory or elsewhere.
This doesn't make sense to me. Ok, so I understand that it is time consuming to take the first measurement, but I would assume that the first bra would be expensive, but all the next ones would be much cheaper (if it's the same model) or getting cheaper and cheaper with each order. What am I missing?
Maybe I missed in the article but it seems they're not using 3D modeling. Why not, esp. considering the prevalence of cheap 3D sensors? According to Google there are many people working in this area (as well as shoe fitting).<p>The goal should be to totally <i>smash</i> current custom fit prices, e.g. to ~$50 level, e.g. using a self-serve fitting station at Macy's. Many such stations can be monitored by one person, similar to how self-serve check out stations are monitored in grocery stores.<p>The above is for mass market. OP's manual approach can still be used as a high-end service for those who can afford it, e.g. pret-a-porter vs. tailor.
So the original post[1] commented that there is a combinatorial explosion of possible bras from having, the author says, 10 parameters to work with.<p>I read that there was a similar scenario in the design of airplane cockpits, such that there were enough different dimensions of human variation that it was hopeless to design for the "average pilot": even assuming that each dimension had 80% of pilots within the acceptable range, it was basically guaranteed to be unacceptable for the vast majority of pilots. I read that the solution was to make all the relevant aspects of the cockpit adjustable; and that this was deemed expensive and dismissed at first, but it became obviously necessary and they sucked it up and did it.<p>A simple, cheap, and effective process for custom-made bras seems ideal if they have it, but if that is difficult, then I wonder: could it work to make as many dimensions as possible adjustable, and then suffer only mild combinatorial explosion on the remainder?<p>[1] <a href="https://medium.com/@hazelynut/why-i-have-a-problem-with-bras-ff75f0e6fe23" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@hazelynut/why-i-have-a-problem-with-bras...</a> , linked from the article.
It seems to me that the hardproblem here is reliably measuring breasts, and then reliably (and repeatably!) manufacturing the perfect bra.<p>It is not a question of designing the perfect bra given a set of measurements. It’s more “can we make it perfectly?” And “are the measurements accurate?”<p>as any seamstress or seamster would tell you, it takes a life time to sew perfectly. It’s a CNC mill where you need to tension the materials and threads just perfectly while you move the x/y table.<p>And if you’ve ever had a suit measured, you know the person taking measurements needs to be in sync with the manufacturer, otherwise it’s a waste of time.<p>And for what it’s worth, my partner would not pay $350 for a perfect bra (and I mean perfect!).
Interesting. I wonder if they only do product design tests (design to their best ability and ask for feedback from trial users) or do they hire a mechanical engineer to run FEA simulation through something like COMSOL or ANSYS.
Since the interest here comes from the engineering angle, there's another interesting tool to bring up, Reusable Adhesive Silicone Nipple Covers. If I had breasts, I'd probably wear those instead, for better freedom of motion and heat dissipation. afaict, bras don't prevent breasts from sagging anyway[0]. Looking at the top results just on Amazon's store, there appears to be huge interest developing in using those and I see lots of reviews of women saying they're so happy not to have to wear a bra anymore.<p>0: <a href="https://www.thelingerieaddict.com/2013/11/last-time-tribal-african-women-proof-bras-prevent-breast-sagging.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.thelingerieaddict.com/2013/11/last-time-tribal-a...</a>
> Launch the NYC experience<p>> Nude<p>> Colors<p>Who’s “nude”? When is the industry going to update this term? If a female person of color outsider won’t, I guess it’s not important to anyone
> Temperature of the measuring tape at time of measuring<p>Can't tell if this is real or not. I'm fairly confident that the thermal expansion of the measuring tape is not going to make even a tenth of a millimeter difference in precision: does it have to do with the temperature of the skin?
> we have learned through firsthand experience many of the variables behind bra-making. I will name a short list:<p>> [...]<p>> Temperature of the measuring tape at time of measuring<p>Are you sure?<p>If the measuring tape is made of steel, it expands by a factor of 13e-6[0] for every degree C that it heats up. If you measure first with a 0 degree C tape measure, and then with a 100 degree C tape measure (both of which are absurd and will be extremely uncomfortable), then the second measurement will differ from the first by a factor of 13e-4. A measurement of 100mm will become 100.0013mm. Can you even cut the fabric precisely enough for that to matter?<p>[0] <a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Tables/thexp.html" rel="nofollow">http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Tables/thexp.html</a><p>EDIT: But see replies below: it's more likely that the temperature of the tape causes changes in the shape of the skin.<p>EDIT2: Also just realised I initially missed out the second factor of 100, so it becomes 100.13mm instead of 100.0013mm, which is <i>almost</i> close enough to matter, but only in the extreme scenario of 100 degrees C change in temperature.
350$ for a garment? For an undergarment?! What?! That's 48 hours of minimum wage in my state for <i>maybe</i> 15$ of material IF it includes hand-made lace.<p>You can buy custom-made corsets for cheaper than this (yes they can be far more expensive but most of that is exotic material cost). You can buy custom made lifting boots/shoes for this that have a considerably higher material cost.<p>I work in international freight currently, I know extremely well what imported textiles cost including bras, even if these are hand-made in the US per customer there's an awful lot of profit there unless they are made out of unobtanium.<p>This is a prime example of 'pink tax' in my opinion and/or inefficient manufacturing processes (again, even if hand made) and/or unreasonable salaries.