Ellery Linder has a word of advice for her potential customers: “There’s a good chance you’re wearing the wrong bra.” With Fruutfull, she plans to change that.
Last year, Linder launched Fruutfull with her friend and business partner, Danielle Rushton. Through the Tampa-based lingerie startup, they aim to reinvent the bra, beginning with a strapless version to complement contemporary clothing styles.
“Bras are a necessary evil,” Linder said. “We feel like women have been suffering in silence. Bras poke and prod and never really fit us correctly. And while women’s style has changed a lot over the past hundred years, bras really haven’t.”
The idea for Fruutfull originated with Rushton who, unable to find bras that suited her different outfits, decided to build one herself. She bought a sewing machine and taught herself to sew by watching YouTube videos. She grabbed bras from her closet, cut them up and sewed them into prototypes.
“We call those early prototypes the ‘Franken-bras,’” Linder said. Soon, they realized there was a demand among women for better-fitting bras.
Since bodies don’t come in cookie-cutter shapes, Linder and Rushton — both of whom left jobs at HSN to pursue Fruutfull full-time — decided to make bras that are easy to personalize.
“Instead of using generic band sizes that fit only even numbered measurements, our back band design will allow a woman to personalize her bra fit to the exact centimeter that she needs,” Linder said.
Lingerie is a $14 billion industry and a number of startups have entered the market over the past few years to claim their piece of the pie. Some of Fruutfull’s competition include companies like ThirdLove and Lively, which specialize in providing more inclusive bra sizes.
Fruutfull aims to have its first bra available by the end of 2019; the company is still finalizing sourcing and costs. It expects the product to fall in the mid-price range.
Fruutfull aims to capitalize on being inclusive to its customers. For now, that means offering 30 sizes. Later on, the company hopes to provide more designs for women from all walks of life.
“Everybody from athletes to teachers to working moms,” Linder said. “We want to appeal to women across the board.”
