Kim (00:01.545)
Hi, Lauren, thank you so much for joining me. I am really interested to learn more about your product. I've been following you for a really long time. Obviously, anybody who's talking about pelvic health stuff is of interest to me, but I'm really excited to have you on the show today and learn more about what got you started, learn more about your amazing product and how you're supporting the pelvic health community. So welcome, can you tell us a little bit more about...
who you are and what led you to becoming a designer and producer of a pelvic health garment.
Lauren Fleming (00:36.591)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, Kim. I'm excited to be here. Yeah. So I was launched into this space unexpectedly. So after having my first baby in May of 2020, I was really like blindsided by a pelvic organ prolapse diagnosis. Thankfully I had had resources lined out where I could quickly work with a pelvic floor physical therapist. And so that really helped me, you know, get on the right path for recovery. And as part of working with her,
she recommended that I wear a pelvic floor support garment to help mitigate my symptoms while I was working with her on my recovery plan. And what I realized right away was that with the garments she was recommending, I could find garments that provided the needed support. So they did in fact help alleviate my symptoms, but they were all uncomfortable for me to wear for various reasons. So I would find that they would have thick elastic waistbands that would dig into my waist or
thick bands that would show through my clothing or I would be at the top end of a size range and really need to go to the next size, but they didn't have that option. And it was really through that experience that I had, you know, I was researching more about public organ prolapse, how many people does this impact? And, and through that education and then the pains that I was experiencing, it was my aha moment of, wow, this is something that impacts a huge community of people.
And it was very apparent to me that it was an underserved market. I'm very thankful for the resources I have, but when you look at how much resources and innovation and things go into other spaces, it was clear to me that there was an opportunity here to invest in this space more and provide more options for people so that they could have additional choices. And what works well for some person may not work well for someone else. So that was really what led me to this space and inspired me going through it personally.
to see if I couldn't figure out how to do something better. And that's what led me to start HEM SupportWare.
Kim (02:35.421)
Yeah, classic entrepreneur story, right? We have our own struggles and our own pain. We're like, I can do this. I can fix this. And this is a need. yeah, very much so. HEM Supportware is the name of your company. Where did the name come from?
Lauren Fleming (02:38.199)
Yeah.
Lauren Fleming (02:49.441)
It's actually an acronym. So him, of course, like in terms of like hems for clothing, but it's actually an acronym. So the first two letters are my two, the initials of my daughters. And then the third initial is, is my beloved dog. So it their initials coming together. So it's kind of a play on words in that coming together. Yeah. Yes.
Kim (03:06.745)
that's cool. I'd always wondered that. I have a friend who did a similar thing. She has a skincare company, Sola, and Sola was Sophie and Lai was for Laila, her two daughters. So that's where Sola came from. So similar. Okay, that's cool. I like hearing that. All right, so tell us a little bit about, I know, because I've done the same thing where I was manufacturing a product, I had no flipping clue what I was doing. thankfully had the internet, we sort of...
Lauren Fleming (03:18.369)
yep.
Kim (03:35.064)
doing a bit of research but i didn't even know where to start so tell us a little bit about that journey of how you so you had tried some things you knew what was not working well similar to when we did belly zinc we there was a few products out there not very many but we knew what we wanted to change tell us a little bit about how you started to create prototypes and what led you down the path of now what your produced product is
Lauren Fleming (04:02.243)
Yeah, it's been an interesting journey for sure, especially because my background was not in garment design and development and that in itself is this huge steep learning curve, as I think you know. So I, you know, with the internet and like having so many of those resources at my fingertips, I was able to get plugged into a couple of different resources and then a community actually called Startup Fashion. And she essentially creates like a blueprint for
you know, idea to like launching in the market. And it's nice because it was broad enough that it could be, if I wanted to do a handbag or my own clothing, but it could also be more technical garments, like the garment that I designed, the pelvic floor support garment. And so I really followed her plan from idea through production to launching. And then I got connected with a couple of different resources more locally, like kind of within Texas to start.
to work on that design and development for me. And it was honestly a very hard journey. I mean, we had, for various reasons, it was hard to find the right fit for people who could really understand like what the garment needed to do and have that then translate into what they knew for technical clothing. And then also just finding people who you could work with who would meet the high quality standards or who had the turnaround times you needed. And also being a small player.
was challenging because you're, mean, think that happens to a lot of entrepreneurs. mean, for these businesses, they see a lot of entrepreneurs coming through and, you know, most of them don't, you know, make it to the end. so understandably, they're like, okay, yeah, here comes another one. So it can be hard to kind of get the attention that you need. So I switched through, throughout the process to a couple of different people and ultimately landed with a couple of great production partners. But yeah, we had, we had over 20 prototypes.
Kim (05:33.599)
Yeah.
Kim (05:53.386)
Wow.
Lauren Fleming (05:53.487)
And it was a lot of refining. Yeah, so we, I did a ton of research. I think I have almost every available pelvic floor support garment that was on the market. I have all of them, you know, tried them on, them and did very detailed requirements. What works about them? What doesn't work? What do I, like you were saying, what do we want to change? And then iterated through those 20 plus prototypes to get to the version that we have today. And like some of the key things were, we're just making sure that it was meeting.
the supportive quality that it needs to, but also that comfort quality. Those are the two big, of course, pillars that we focused on. And then as we navigated through the prototyping, was hundreds of hours of wear testing. I wore it, had family members wear it. We reached out to people in the community where we had about, I think it was 12 to 15 women over the course of time who also, once we were closer to the in -stage prototype is when we really engaged them to do the wear testing for us.
provide feedback before we did the final version that ultimately made it to production. So yeah, that's kind of a glimpse into what that looked like from, okay, I think I can do this too. We have a final version that's now available for folks to wear.
Kim (06:55.456)
Cool.
Kim (06:59.657)
Yep.
Yeah, that's very cool. what was, after all of those prototypes and testing, where did you land? Tell us about the kind of the structure or component of the HEM support wear. How do you wear it?
Lauren Fleming (07:17.219)
Yep. So for our garment, it's designed as underwear. And so that was one of the key things for me that I saw as a drawback to some of the others. With some of the others, they're designed as leggings or biker shorts and things like that. And what I was finding was if I didn't always want to wear those kinds of garments, it was harder to keep the support I needed with different wardrobe choices. So from the early on stages, I was like, what if we could do this designed like underwear? And that was what I started with.
And that's where we landed ultimately. And some of the key design elements that we incorporated were that it's relatively high -waisted, so it hits right about your belly button, plus or minus a little bit, depending on how long your torso is. And then it has high -cut leg openings, and that was another key thing for me because I have larger legs. And so a lot of times, a lot of underwear will dig into my legs, especially if I'm sitting down or things like that.
High cut leg openings was important to be more accommodating to different body shapes and sizes. And the way that the garment functions is it's a combination of woven and knit materials. So from front to back, it has a woven support panel that runs all the way from the front to the back. And then within that, we have a compressive fabric that is the support hammock. And so that is attached and that way when you pull the garment up, that hammock lifts up and provides
the compression to the pelvic floor externally to help, you know, promote the muscle signaling cues and provide that gentle compression. And so really the supportive aspect comes from that front to back and then the supportive hammock, which as of right now, it's a patent pending design. You know, we'll look and kind of see where that lands. working through that process. And then the side panels are also a gentle compression fabric that
is more stretchy. So it has like the stretch and recovery. And that's where we were able to accomplish having the more rigid support that was needed from the front to back with the stretchy compressive fabric and the handle, handle hammock, as well as the sides having that flexibility, which lets us have it also like move with you. So that's like another, you know, of course key with these garments is that like it can't be too tight and squeeze your abdomen. And so having that combination of fabrics,
Lauren Fleming (09:38.775)
lets us achieve the needed support while also still giving your body that room to move and breathe and not put the downward pressure that sometimes the garments can cause if they're too tight around your core.
Kim (09:50.614)
Yeah, yeah, perfect. what, like in terms of symptomatic relief, you mentioned you had prolapse and common symptoms with prolapse are the heaviness, the pressure, sometimes bulge, you know, close to or even out the opening for some people, back pain. What, from a user perspective, what sort of changes or I guess what are people reporting in terms of symptom relief from wearing your garment?
Lauren Fleming (10:20.367)
It's been really good to, we've gotten some great feedback from folks. So some of the things we're hearing and that I've even experienced personally is, know, like if you're the heaviness and the bulging, like let's say it's like, you know, a six or a seven on a scale of one to 10, they're finding that they can, you know, start wearing the garment at the beginning of the day and it will bring that, you know, back a few numbers for them. So maybe they're at like a two or a three. So it's really like lessening those symptoms for them throughout the day.
which has been huge because as anybody with this knows, it's one of those things that when before prolapse, you don't think about that at all. You just go about your day and then with prolapse all of a sudden it's just this kind of constant nagging thing until you can work on getting those symptoms under control. So the symptom relief can help remove that from being top of mind. And so that's a lot of what we've experienced is just like lessening whatever those kind of key symptoms are that you mentioned, lessening, you know, it doesn't,
It doesn't solve it, it doesn't fix the problem. But as you are working on some of those core things like the physical therapy, strength training, various things, it can help mitigate your symptoms enough to help you live meaningful days while you're on that path to recovery. So those are some of the key things, especially with like pelvic organ prolapse. We've also had people with vulvar varicosities who have experienced a lot of relief in wearing the garment. I didn't have that use case in mind when I first developed it, but as I've...
talked with more folks who are experts in this space and then had people try it with that condition, they are also experiencing relief from their symptoms.
Kim (11:57.963)
Yeah, didn't even think about that. That's awesome. And this is something that people like my mind is also thinking of symptom relief for exercise because sometimes the symptoms get in the way of your motivation or your drive. You just don't you feel like just sitting down and doing nothing and yet exercise can be beneficial to helping us overcome these symptoms. So if we have something that's mitigate or manage those symptoms, it could also
Lauren Fleming (12:00.014)
Mm
Kim (12:25.376)
it allows it opens some doors, I guess, for a movement. So this is something that as it's underwear, you could wear it during exercise, correct?
Lauren Fleming (12:32.121)
Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we've had a lot of people who are then able to wear it under whatever their favorite leggings or exercise clothing choices are. And another kind of key thing I thought of too, as you were saying that is, I recently heard from someone who, she was like a nurse who she has to stand all day and experiences the symptoms from pelvic organ prolapse and is able to wear the garment under her scrubs and then experience.
symptom relief. And of course, as you're standing and gravity takes its toll, it's always towards that end of the day when it can really start to mess with you. So it's use cases like that too, where this can be really helpful.
Kim (13:10.07)
Yeah. What about in pregnancy? Could somebody, can there be accommodation? don't like, would just going to a larger size be able to accommodate the growing belly as well?
Lauren Fleming (13:20.975)
That's a great question and it's something I really want to invest more resources in like understanding better with our fit. So for people who wear, like let's say you have a medium for that size that won't carry you all the way through pregnancy because it's only so stretchy. We have had some people anecdotally who have been able to size up and still find it supportive, but.
on my product roadmap is putting more resources into understanding one, could I develop another version that we can still prove the support but is more accommodating where it's like just a guarantee like, yes, it works versus being like, I think it will work for you. You could try sizing up, maybe, maybe not. So that's definitely an area where we want to improve and have it be more accommodating of the growing pregnant belly, especially in like that third trimester.
Kim (13:59.885)
Maybe, yeah.
Kim (14:12.674)
Yeah, I'd be interested about people who have synthesis pubic, synthesis pubis pain during pregnancy as well too, if this is something that could help alleviate that, that's kind of where my mind is going, know, and I, as you were saying with varicosities and stuff too, so that's really, really cool. And I would think even, you know, some of the, the back, like the changes that are happening within the pelvis, given as you were talking to the different types of compression you have within there, I think.
Lauren Fleming (14:19.076)
Hmm.
Lauren Fleming (14:25.421)
Yeah, that's a great one to consider for sure. Yeah.
Kim (14:42.02)
could definitely provide an element of support there coupled with their exercise. But that's really cool. So is this something that you mentioned somebody putting it on earlier in the day and it helps kind of delay the onset or reduce the severity of their symptoms? So from a user, I mean, we put underwear on typically at the beginning of the day and take it off at night, similar with yours. I'm assuming this is an all day thing. Yeah.
Lauren Fleming (15:05.241)
Yes, yes, that's correct. So the way I've like explained it to people who are interested in learning more is that it can be an all day thing. Absolutely just throw it on in the morning, wear it throughout your day, change into just your regular underwear at night. Or if you find maybe that you're not as like symptomatic during certain parts of your day, but you know you're gonna go like, take a break from work and go do like your workout or a really long walk, then you could just throw it on more.
based on what the activity is that you're doing. I had found actually like for me, I work from my desk a lot. And so a lot of times for me during the week, especially like earlier postpartum with my second, I wasn't as symptomatic, know, sitting and doing those things, but it was always the weekend. Like when I had my two girls and I'm lugging them around. And so I found for a while there, I wasn't wearing it as much during the week, but every weekend it was, you know, Saturday morning, as soon as I was up, I was throwing it on through the course of Sunday.
until I was in kind of back in that mode where I wasn't lugging two kids around all the time.
Kim (16:05.131)
Yeah, yeah. Can you talk a little bit about the fabric that you chose? And I asked this because there's many different underwear companies and there's a lot of attention being placed to the the what's in especially in the gusset and what the fabric is composed or comprised of. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Lauren Fleming (16:26.445)
Yeah, that's a great one. And that's another area where like as we mature and grow as a company, I would like to like improve and just like learn even more about some of those different options. And it's certainly for us in the early stages is like this balance of like support versus some of those other like benefits of other fabrics. So ours is the the part that is the hammock is a
A nylon spandex blend and that one in particular has antimicrobial properties and then the woven panel that goes front to back is 100 % polyester and so it doesn't stretch. And then I forget to as well. I believe it also has antimicrobial properties and I'm forgetting it had another element as well. And then this outer shell is also a nylon spandex blend.
The Pahamac and that are both nylon spandex, but different fabrics. And it's just more kind of your traditional like a legging, you know, type of fabric with that compressive property. And so, yeah, some customers, you know, have talked about how they prefer to only wear, you know, organic cotton or things like that, especially with it being against your skin.
Kim (17:29.186)
Right. Yep.
Lauren Fleming (17:41.763)
So that's one of the things that I'm curious to learn more about, because even with the antimicrobial properties that are built into the fabrics that we currently have, I know that a lot of people are trying to move away from synthetic fabric for underwear. And so I would love to be able to explore, can we get fabrics that provide the technical requirements that we need and then also meet those other components for, yeah, not synthetics or synthetics that are...
Kim (18:02.243)
Right.
Lauren Fleming (18:10.165)
enhanced with other things, which also was like, you're always like, if it's being enhanced, is that good? I don't know. So that's where just kind of trying in, in like the world of fabrics, it's, it's so vast. And, so, and then it's interesting too, where I've, you know, I've read about like, okay, cotton and those things are good, but then there are also, if you don't change them right away, then they're like wet and on you. Whereas these more technical fabrics will like wick moisture away and actually in fact, they can be good. So I think there's kind of two camps to one. Should you wear cotton underwear? Should you wear a high performance material that will
Kim (18:15.383)
I know.
Kim (18:19.719)
yeah.
Kim (18:39.438)
Yep.
Lauren Fleming (18:39.865)
pull sweat and stuff away. So it's an area where I'm constantly trying to learn more and then plan what kind of versions we could have for future releases to be more accommodating of people's different fabric choices for underwear.
Kim (18:41.806)
Yep.
Kim (18:52.229)
Right. Yeah, that's really cool. And how long do these last? Is it 50 wears, 100 wears? Is it a timeline of years, days, months?
Lauren Fleming (19:05.241)
Great question. So far, we are finding that they last a really good amount of time. So I've, I wore test like early prototypes and have found, and that would have been a couple of years ago now, and have found that they are still holding up the fabric. Sometimes, know, like when you buy a swimsuit and the elastic starts to kind of come out of it and you're like, okay, my fabric's already not performing, you know, a year later. I have not found that at all with these fabrics. We are finding that they last a really good amount of time.
Kim (19:27.64)
Mm
Lauren Fleming (19:35.501)
which is nice, especially considering the investment. So you can get a couple of pairs and expect to last you a few years for sure.
Kim (19:41.39)
That's awesome. That's really cool. And do you pay attention to things like, you know, do you have seasonal colors or anything like that? Are people asking about, I want patterns or I want... Yeah.
Lauren Fleming (19:50.255)
People are asking for colors and so far we launched and we only have black. I do have it on my roadmap to do a lighter color so that if you were wearing lighter color pants, wouldn't show through. So that's definitely on the roadmap to consider other color choices at some point.
Kim (20:09.539)
Yeah, very, very cool. So we talked a little bit about symptoms when things lessening throughout the day or not coming on as strong. there other reports of things that you hadn't like you said you hadn't necessarily thought about from a pregnancy perspective or vaginal varicosities? Are there reported symptom reliefs that people are recommending to you or telling you about that are different from what you had expected?
Lauren Fleming (20:39.321)
Yeah, that's a great one. One of the kind of the keys is just the benefits of them in general postpartum. I was thinking of them more if you have a pelvic floor disorder, things like that. But in talking with a handful of different PTs and like one in particular, she was talking to me about how just the gentle compressive like aspect of this, especially given like, you know, blood flow and like fluids, general postpartum with vaginal delivery, it could be extremely beneficial.
to just have that external support to help potentially speed up recovery and just have things reduce symptoms from that. And then also with C -section recovery, if you have the additional fluids and stuff that are more in the abdomen versus lower, then you would have the gentle compression could be beneficial for that too. So those are some of the use cases I'm starting to hear more about that I hadn't initially considered.
that I'm curious to learn more about and talk to people who are getting to try it in those instances.
Kim (21:38.841)
Mm
Kim (21:42.629)
Yeah, postpartum recovery, definitely, think. And also, I'm curious if you know of anybody who's used it post -op, like pelvic, say, prolapse surgery, or you mentioned caesarean, so that's obviously abdominal surgery. But my mind is also thinking it could be beneficial and helpful for that post -op population as well.
Lauren Fleming (21:53.187)
Mm.
Mm
Lauren Fleming (22:05.731)
That's, I, you know, I actually did have, there was a customer who she was wearing the garment pre having a surgery to manage her symptoms. And she did end up actually having a procedure to help with her, her prolapse symptoms and did wear it post -op. But I haven't gotten to hear from her about what her experience is like, but I know she had told me like she was glad she had them and was planning to wear them for her recovery period.
Kim (22:29.733)
Yeah. Yeah. I wish that it had been around when I had my rectocele surgery in 2020 and I didn't buy a brace. didn't, I didn't know what to expect really. So I didn't buy one, but around, you know, kind of week five, I sort of, I was starting to get a bit more active and, and sort of felt some general, I didn't feel bulge per se, but I felt kind of weak and felt like I wanted some support. And I used a, I used, looked like a jockstrap. It looked like a female jockstrap was the one that I.
Lauren Fleming (22:56.559)
Thank you.
Kim (22:58.085)
that I had and it was placed outside. It wasn't underwear, you placed it on top of leggings or something like that. And it was helpful, I think I did like it, but this just sounds like something I would have really liked a lot better. Too bad it wasn't there. But no, it's something I get, you know, in my community, there's a lot of people with prolapse, there's a lot of people with, who either have had a surgery or who are going ahead with.
Lauren Fleming (23:13.399)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Kim (23:27.875)
some sort of a surgery as well. So this is a really great resource to point them in the direction too. And I'm excited about the evolution as with anything you start when you like, this is what I've done it. now, and you think, okay, I'm just going to sell it now. And then you're like, but look, I can do this. And then just based on what your customer feedback is, right? Yeah.
Lauren Fleming (23:36.953)
Yes.
Lauren Fleming (23:42.729)
Absolutely, I know. Yes, yeah, yeah, I'm continually asking people like, how do you like it? What could be better? Because I know where we are now is not what the garment will look like, you know, three years from now, five years from now, because yeah, and technology gets better with, you know, fabric technology, construction of the garments, all those kinds of things. So yeah, this was just the beginning for sure.
Kim (23:52.953)
Totally.
Kim (24:02.542)
Yeah, very cool. Where can people learn more and find your product? also, what's the price point of it, if you could tell us a little bit about that?
Lauren Fleming (24:12.685)
Absolutely, so you can find us. Right now we're selling direct to consumer. We did also recently launch a wholesale program with healthcare professionals. And so depending on whether or not the clinic you go to ends up opting into that, that will be an option for some people. But for the website, it's hemsupportwear .com, H -E and then support, and W -E -A -R. And then we're also on Instagram and Facebook with that same handle.
And then the price point right now we're at $89, which is we're not the most expensive, but we're definitely not the budget option. We do have like a bundle discount so that if you buy multiple, you can get a discount and we run sales occasionally. But yeah, we are also made in the USA. So for folks who value that with the products that they purchase, that's another differentiator of us against a couple of the others is we are able to work with production partners in the United States.
Kim (25:05.946)
Very cool. And do you ship worldwide or just within the North America?
Lauren Fleming (25:09.379)
We are just on the brink of expanding to four to, so right now we ship just in the U S I was working. That's another like hurdle of all of this for, that you kind of can take for granted because you have to find like, least in the States, like where do we fall on the FDA's medical device, you know, spectrum. And what does that mean? And so I've been trying to understand that for other companies and make other countries and make sure I'm doing everything accordingly before we launched, but we are about to launch in.
or be able to sell to customers in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. And that's within the next week or so. We're going to be able to make that live on the website, which I'm super excited about. Yeah, we've had a lot of people just being like, please, please, please turn this on in your country. So we are about to do that as well.
Kim (25:45.858)
Amazing.
Kim (25:51.78)
Yeah.
Kim (25:56.431)
That's amazing. Congratulations. know firsthand how hard and long this journey is and, and, but it's also rewarding once you have this finished product and you're getting amazing reviews from people and you're changing people's lives. And I think that's really, really amazing. So thank you for creating the product that you do and supporting this world of pelvic health that we're all, that we're all in. Well, most people who are listening here, not all of us, but the majority, when you think of, you know, it's a lot of
Lauren Fleming (25:58.564)
Thank you.
Lauren Fleming (26:02.604)
Yes.
Lauren Fleming (26:17.913)
Yes.
Kim (26:22.31)
50 % of women who've given birth have some degree of prolapse. So it's a lot of us and you have a very large market to serve and it sounds like you're doing a really great job. Thank you.
Lauren Fleming (26:33.177)
Thank you, Kim, I appreciate it.
