We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Becky Connelly. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Becky below.
Hi Becky, thanks for joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
The time period between quitting my day job, to focus on developing a nipple concealing bra, and taking the first step towards actually developing it, was close to 6 months.
It took some time for the reality of “I’m actually doing this” to sink-in and for the remaining months, I was frozen in overwhelm.
I had no idea where to begin. The sheer magnitude of creating a bra from thin air was intimidating, to say the least. Plus, I had zero experience in the fashion industry, let alone lingerie design.
Looking back, I was just paralyzed in fear that I would fail.
Thank goodness, a friend of mine helped me break the spell. She saw that I was struggling and – on a day that I will never forget – suggested that I commit to doing just one thing a day.
Up until that point, I’d been focusing on the end result. It was incredibly daunting and since I didn’t know how to get from A to Z, I shut down. My friend’s brilliant concept of breaking it into micro-tasks sounded like something I could do. It helped me to hone-in on a starting point that didn’t seem so scary.
Taking her advice, I began searching online for lingerie developers. One email here, one phone call there and before I knew it, I’d scheduled a virtual meeting with a small lingerie developer in Texas. It finally felt like I was accomplishing something and I was over the moon excited about it
Turns out, the meeting never happened – we couldn’t agree on the terms of an NDA. I wanted to protect my bra idea, they wanted to own it, so the prospect of a development partner dissolved overnight. I was back to square one.
The good news: because of that tedious and fruitless experience, my brand name was born. Non Disclosure Apparel is a play on the legally binding agreement (or lack thereof) that squashed my first deal.
After the mental dust settled, I started making calls again. Luckily, each person I spoke with would offer a nugget of useful information. One day, a fabric supplier suggested I contact a garment manufacturer in Baltimore, adding that the company’s owner is known for helping start- ups with lingerie development. So I called.
The Baltimore manufacturer had recently acquired a small, seamless knitting facility outside of Charlotte, NC, and the owner was soon flying down to check on it. Charlotte is only a three hour drive from Charleston so I arranged to meet with him there.
That was ten years ago.
After our meeting, I got in my car and drove far enough away to be out of earshot. I rolled all the windows down and screamed, “Woooohoooo!” Tears were running down my face and I just kept yelling, “Woooohoooo!” at the top of my lungs. He had agreed to take on my project.
I couldn’t believe it – a real life manufacturer would help me develop a non padded, wire free, nipple concealing bralette!
The the bra of my dreams was finally going to happen and it felt so validating. To this day, I’ve never felt more proud of myself for not giving up.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’ve been self conscious about my nipples showing through my shirt since I was a preteen with budding breasts. And the bra industry’s solution for nipple coverage, adding foam padding to cups is less than ideal.
Like many young girls and women, I think that wearing a padded bra is the worst. Not only are bras with foam padding – removable or otherwise – uncomfortable, wearing a padded bra distorts the size of my breasts. Since drawing unwanted attention to my bust makes me feel self conscious, the last thing I want is a bra that makes my boobs look bigger.
Padded bras are terrible yet I don’t want my nipples to show through my shirt. You see the problem here?
In my mind, the ideal solution for this damned if you do, damned if you don’t dilemma, is an unlined bralette with nipple concealing petals in the cups. It’s such a simple concept, really, so why in the heck hasn’t anyone designed such a thing?
It finally dawned on me that this “anyone” person was apparently me, so I put on my big girl pants and became Becky Connelly, the creator of the nipple concealing bralette.
It took me 6 years to develop the Elli Bralette, most of which was spent on creating a concealing petal that was flexible enough to bend, discreet enough be invisible under clothing, thin enough to not add bulk, and strong enough to depress and erect nipple. Not an easy feat but eventually, I was able to pull it off.
The bralette I designed is seamless, meaning it’s a pullover bra with no back clasp. It’s called the Elli Bralette and it’s wirefree, unpadded, made of stretchy nylon and has concealing petals inside the cups for coverage. As opposed to being sewn-in, the concealing petals are heat sealed to the lining during production. This means that the petals are non removable, will not shift, crease, or get lost in the wash.
The Elli is softer than a baby’s blanket and super stretchy too. The only drawback is that it doesn’t fit every body type. The bra is designed for small busts – ahem, yours truly – so it’s perfect for small boobs. And with a nod to my preteen self, it’s also the best training bra on the market. The Elli Bralette is not only comfortable, it provides smoothing coverage so that an 8, 9, 10 year old girl doesn’t feel self conscious about her developing body.
I’d say the coolest, most surprising thing I’ve heard is that young girls find it to be so comfortable in fact, that they’re sleeping in it. To me, that speaks volumes.
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
Since the Elli Bralette is new concept: a bralette with concealing petals in the cups, we spend a great deal of time guiding customers through fit, feel, and sizing.
The passion we have for our products and online bra company shows through everything we do: from responding to customer inquiries to wrapping each order like a gift – complete with handwritten note.
And being raised in the South, people-pleasing is in my DNA so it’s of no surprise that customer service is our company’s #1 priority. We treat every customer like a friend.
We also foster communication and transparency by sending a weekly newsletter. In it, we share news, how-to resources, personal anecdotes and customer Q & A. All with a twist of comic relief.
How else do we foster brand loyalty? I think customers are loyal to the NDA brand because not only do they love the Elli Bralette, they feel part of our journey to deliver it to them.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
We’re an online bra company, creating bralettes specifically designed for nipple concealing. The Elli Bralette is such a niche product, we’ve written countless blog posts on what it is and who it’s for: developing young girls and women with small busts. Lots of long form social media posts too.
And because it’s the only bralette of its kind, women searching online for this particular bra solution: a bralette to hide their nipples from showing through their shirt, are pointed towards our website. Search engines want to provide users with the best answer to their query. Over the past 4 years, we’ve been able to establish our authority on nipple concealing bras.
We recently started using Meta Ads platform and have found it to be very successful. It’s an inexpensive way to get in front of customers that may not otherwise know our brand exists.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ndapparel.com/
- Instagram: @nondisclosureapparel
- Facebook: @nondisclosureapparel
Image Credits
Emily Cummings
John Apsey