Founder: Leah Wyrick, 22
Business: Three Strands Recovery Wear
What it does: A recovery bra for breast cancer and cosmetic patients
Founded: 2019
No. Employees: 1 full-time, three summer interns, several contract workers
Website: https://threestrandsrecoverywear.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/three-strands-recovery-wear-corporation/about/
Instagram: @threestrandscorp
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/threestrandscorp/
When she was a teenager, Leah Wyrick watched as her mother suffered through painful recoveries from breast cancer surgeries. One of the biggest challenges her mother, Nancy, faced was an ill-fitting, uncomfortable recovery bra that didn’t even account for standard drain tubing.
So, Wyrick set out to design a better-functioning bra with the comfort of the patient in mind. What resulted is the patent-pending Resilience Bra, the first product of Wyrick’s company, Three Strands Recovery Wear.
Created with feedback from physicians, surgeons and patients, the bra is adjustable to a patient’s ribcage and chest, has a pocket for the drain tubing and will come in a variety of patterns and sizes.
Recently, Wyrick completed an initial beta test of the Resilience Bra with 60 women across the United States. She said that she will work with a local seamstress in Winston-Salem and a factory in Jakarta, Indonesia, to revise the bra based on the women’s feedback.
Wyrick hopes to do another test in the future in partnership with Wake Forest’s Center for Healthcare Innovation now that she has received institutional review board (IRB) approval.
Wyrick told TBJ that she plans to begin selling the Resilience Bra by 2023, with an expected retail price of $65 to $75. She said she will largely use e-commerce in a B2C model and supplement that with a B2B model that goes directly to physicians and hospitals.
“A lot of women [in recovery] use Facebook and Facebook groups as a really big support system. I think [we’ll be] targeting these women directly and potentially getting ambassadors to help promote the product and share their stories,” Wyrick said. “Word of mouth seems to be working really well for us right now.”
Last year, Wyrick was awarded a $10,000 NC IDEA MICRO grant. She also won approximately $10,000 from other pitch competitions and received $4,500 from the Wake Forest Center for Entrepreneurship, in addition to donations from family and friends. Due to timing challenges, Wyrick turned down a $25,000 loan from the Triad-based Center for Creative Economy last year.
Wyrick expects to apply for additional NC IDEA grants and has received interest from potential investors.
She is a member of Winston Starts and completed the Center for Creative Economy’s Velocity Accelerator. While a student at Wake Forest, she was a member of the Center for Entrepreneurship’s startup lab.
In October, Wyrick will be a vendor at the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event in Greensboro.
Wyrick said that she plans to keep Three Strands Recovery Wear in Winston-Salem due to the support she’s received from the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the area.
“Post-graduation, I still feel that support from my mentors at Winston Starts and Wake Forest,” Wyrick said. “I know that if I have an issue, I have someone that I can call and they are in full support mode of me and my company.”
