From Idea to Product

Once we recuperated from our “eureka” moment of creating The Racktrap, the undetectable one-size-fits-all bra pocket, we needed to stop high-fiving each other long enough to decide….what now?

Having a great idea is one thing. That and a Metrocard gets us on the subway. So now we actually had to believe in our great idea enough to figure out how to turn an idea into a real life, tangible, cash hiding reality.

Back in our conference room, we started lining up bras (attention male readers: NOT the ones we were wearing) and stared at white ones, beige ones, black ones, lacy ones with no obvious reason to exist, sports bras, strapless ones, backless ones and sideless ones. Industry research states that 36B is the most common bra size in the US (albeit not in that conference room), so we had to create something that would be a perfect fit for 36B girls, as well as both our less endowed and more voluptuous sisters. 

We also learned that the most commonly purchased bras were white, black and nude, so we decided to create a White Lace, Nude Lace, Black Lace and a sweat-proof Sports version to go inside the sports bra. It’s all about the options. 

Colors, check. But what shape? Circle? Square? Parallelogram? Isosceles triangle? The possibilities were endless. And yet, we finally decided on a half moon to better mirror the shape of the bra and fit neatly inside. We began to sketch out the most natural size and shape for The Racktrap on a crisp sheet of white loose-leaf paper, ripped from the best notebook that CVS had to offer.

Staring at the stark rendering, we realized that our combined sales, marketing, public relations and stand-up comedy skills wouldn’t allow us to magically transform the one dimensional Racktrap into an actual sample. Short of Tinkerbell and her magic wand appearing (or Samantha and her twitching nose for you Nick at Nite fans), we needed to find someone experienced who could turn our idea into a product.

Luckily, we are some well-connected gals and we know people who know people who know other people, and so we were confident that we would be able to find someone to guide us. We reached out to everyone in our combined networks, speaking in generalities for fear of letting our great idea slip out. All we needed was one person who knew the lingerie industry inside and out.

And lo and behold, one of our friends had owned a lingerie website several years back (before we knew him well enough to ask for discounts) and his ex-partner was well-connected. Not in a mobbed up way, in a bra-industry way. 

As it turns out, he was raised in the garment industry and his family owned a well-known bathing suit company founded in the 1940s. So he had a great foundation in foundations! We started calling him “Charlie,” as he was always a phone call away and it sounded mysterious and alluring. And so Charlie became the behind the scenes partner to us, the “angels.” Don’t ask me who’s who in our trio of angels. We still fight over being Farrah.

We threw the gauntlet down for Charlie, as assertive NY women are prone to doing, throwing demands about materials, deadlines, colors, logos and fonts at him. And he never blinked (or maybe he did; it was always over the phone). 

Within two months, he had taken our loose-leaf drawing and delivered the first mockup of The Racktrap, a perfect semi-circle made out of random material featuring the cast of High School Musical. Now, I like Zac Efron as much as the next cougar, but clearly this wasn’t the right look. So now that our sketch had become an actual 3D product, the next step was to select a material that was neutral and wouldn’t cause any major media companies to sue us.

One month later, the next mockup of The Racktrap arrived in a very pleasing, soft gold fabric, with our magical newly designed logo front and center.
The day that sample arrived, we tested it repeatedly. Insert driver’s license, cash, credit cards, Metrocard, etc. Place in bra. Pull shirt tight to see if you can see it underneath. Remove from bra. Repeat. I hadn’t stuffed my bra that much since I was still reading Judy Blume books! 

And to our delight, The Racktrap held all the necessities, slipped easily into place, stayed there as we jumped up and down, and removed effortlessly. Oh, and looked totally cool!!

The sample had surpassed our expectations. It was time to green light the first round of production and get the samples out to press so we could start building the buzz.