We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amanda Hunt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amanda below.

Hi Amanda, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I had my first baby in 2016, and quickly realized the selection of bras for new moms was lacking. I couldn’t believe how few options there were for nursing and pumping, especially functional options. After having my 2nd baby in 2019, I had enough of trying to make poor quality bras work for my breast pumps. As a former Senior Technical Designer and Product Development Specialist of Intimate apparel and swimwear for 15 years, I knew I could offer my industry something better. I wanted to create not only functional options for nursing and pumping, but also something modern, young and beautiful for the moms. I started designing options for myself to test during my own breastfeeding journey and quickly used my experience in both design and product development to bring the product to market.

I started asking my groups of mom friends what they hated the most about their choices for nursing and pumping bras, and they agreed with everything I also wanted to change. This group became my product testers and helped me move from concept to creation.

In 2021, I had my 3rd baby which gave me the opportunity to use every one of my products myself. Product testing and applying customer feedback are the most important parts of this brand. Not a day has gone by in the last 3 years that I have not personally worn one of my bras. It’s truly amazing being able to help breastfeeding mothers on their journey and solve all moms frustration in poor quality nursing and pumping bras.

Amanda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Amanda and I am the CEO and Founder of Davin & Adley Maternity, Nursing and Pumping Bras. I am a bra designer, a wife and mom of 3 boys! I always had a love for fashion design and finally found my specialty in lingerie over 15 years ago. I am extremely passionate about all things motherhood and I absolutely love making functional lingerie for moms just like myself. All of my bras not only have to look good on all different body shapes and sizes, they also have to support growing breast tissue from pregnancy through postpartum and hold every single breast pumps available on the market. It’s quite a challenge, but I did it! I could not be more proud to be able to make moms feel beautiful in their postpartum bodies.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I never wanted to start my own business because I didn’t think I had the money to do it. I do not come from wealth and I have had to work 2 jobs for 3 years to get to where I am today. I was convinced back in 2019 to start my brand with only a small amount of money from my personal savings to buy inventory, open a website, and make it official and legal. I was surprised as to how I was able to create something from nothing and be extremely scrappy along the way. I did EVERYTHING myself for a very long time. We are now 4 years in (3 years of selling) and still self funded. We rely on financing our inventory with our factory and bank loans when we don’t have enough cash for inventory and to pay employees. For now, we are trying to stick to this plan until we need to bring on additional funding. But I hope this is enough proof that it can be done.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2020 an entire shipment of my bras fell off a boat in the middle of the ocean during a hurricane. I wanted to give up! It took some creative thinking but I was able to pivot and gather enough materials to make a local batch to back fill preorders, and then wait for the replacement inventory to arrive. I lost a bunch of unhappy customers. I lost a ton of money in the process, but by pivoting and creating this extra inventory I was able to keep the business afloat and customers coming in the door.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.davinandadley.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davinandadley/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davinandadley
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIYbZtj7h2MRKJaI6sVL89w?app=desktop

Image Credits
Kate & Jill Photography