Woman Patents First Underwire Bra Alternative in 88 Years

Bree McKeen was getting tension headaches every day, hunched over her desk at a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Her posture looked perfect, but her physiologist found the real culprit: her bra was triggering a pain response that made her body automatically curl inward.

That revelation changed everything. McKeen left venture capital and moved to Portland to reinvent the bra from scratch.

She had zero fashion experience but plenty of determination. McKeen filed for a utility patent within a year, becoming one of just 12% of women to hold U.S. patents as of 2019.

The underwire bra design had gone untouched since 1931, when inventor Helene Pons created the uncomfortable wire loop that still dominates the $60 billion global bra market. McKeen became the first person in 88 years to file a patent for an underwire replacement.

Working from her garage, she developed a 3D-sling technology that mimics wire support without the pain. She named her company Evelyn & Bobbie after her grandmother and aunt.

What makes her bras different goes beyond comfort. Most brands design with one or two fit models and simply scale up from a 34B, which is why larger sizes rarely fit well.

McKeen uses 270 fit models across seven sizes, grading each style individually. The average U.S. bra size is 34F, yet most brands design for much smaller sizes.

Early investors were skeptical. McKeen spent 50 minutes of every hour-long pitch just convincing them that comfort mattered in bras.

Why This Inspires

McKeen turned personal pain into innovation that helps thousands of women. She now holds 16 international patents protecting her technology.

A New York plastic surgeon sends Evelyn & Bobbie bras home with every post-operative patient. The company has a Slack channel dedicated entirely to customer love letters.

At $98 per bra, the price reflects premium quality, but for women dealing with chronic pain from traditional bras, comfort has become the new luxury. McKeen is proving that solving real problems for real women builds brands that last.