Bad underwear can really define your day. And in a world of bold claims, social media ads that want to sell you the most comfortable, the latest trend, the never been done before – who can you put your trust in?
Dani St James just wanted a pair of underwear she could put on in the morning and forget about the rest of the day. The catch? St James was sick of being directed to one track focused websites that had decided underwear for trans people meant fetish and sex gear.
“I found it so degrading. It comes from an issue in the broad consciousness that trans people are either on the picket line or prostitutes. But we exist outside of those misinformed tropes, so I started Zoah to be the antithesis”.
For most people who are not trans, underwear is something they put it on as soon as they wake up, and face the day, never thinking about it again.
But for trans people who want to tuck, which flattens the space between the legs, it’s not as simple as that. Or at least it wasn’t until brands like Zoah came along.
The brand made its mission to build on the existing market in the area but with a focus on comfort.
Zoah went on to launch a product for trans femme people looking for comfortable tucking products and sold thousands of units in just four years.
How Zoah used research and development to create a new unique product
When a UK government innovation grant round became available, St James seized the opportunity. She used it to expand comfort to trans people who wanted to use binders as a way to affirm their gender expression.
“You can literally feel like unbearable pain for your whole day if you are wearing the wrong tucking underwear, so when I was giving the opportunity to think about, well, what would you do if you could expand on that? You can be sure that binding is not a comfortable experience, so my question was: How can I make that comfortable?”
Before making her tucking product, she had decades of experience and knowledge of what she would need from a product like that. But she wasn’t trans masc, so the first piece of the puzzle for finding comfort in a binder product? Listening.
She embarked on a research journey funded by Innovate UK, pulling together big focus groups of trans guys from all over the UK.
The first challenge was the variety of bodies a single product line would need to cater for “Some of them started off with an A cup, some of them started up with a double G cup, their experiences were so different – it was like learning Mandarin”.
However, after three focus groups and a survey of over 400 trans masculine people, development began. St James told me the balance to be found was not only between the differing and often competing needs of those they spoke to, but also finding the proper comfort, and compelling Zoah fashion brand approach in the design too.
The grant enabled UK companies to fund research and development projects to boost the economy with new innovative products and technology.
Using it, Zoah not only developed a new product that has gone to have a strong set of initial sales – but also a unique insights piece. It was designed to contextualise the need for the product and inform a broader community conversation.
It investigated the healthcare, education and workplace needs of trans masculine individuals in the UK, and paints a raw and detailed picture of their lives.
It found alarming rates of poor well-being, bullying and discrimination for this community. It also found, that even with some of the well-recognised health challenges with poorly designed binders, their temporary reprieve for long waiting lists was evident. It ultimately concluded that if timely gender affirming care were available, there would be less of a market for them.
Why brands are publishing research they did for their own products
Zoah isn’t the only brand working in this space and innovating for transgender people either, so are big brands. Last year E45 won a Channel 4 Diversity In Advertising Award for its advert about the way trans people use their product.
The moving advert was hailed for being informed at every stage by consultations with trans and non-binary people from various backgrounds. It, too, published the insights it developed to develop its approach.
“What was really exciting about that was the consumer insights piece that they did before they even did the advert,” St James tells mem who was on the panel that decided it would win the award.
A big part of the reason she tells me it did was because behind it, like Zoah’s new product, was an insights piece. It too was made publically available to enable a better and broader understanding of the needs of trans communities.
The research identified several conditions that could be helped with skincare regimes during transition, including issues related to gender affirming surgery, social transitioning, testosterone therapy and oestrogen and anti-androgen therapy. All of this is now included on its website.
“The advert was about the idea that many people’s transitions start in the bathroom. That you’re looking in the mirror and trying to work out who you are,” and ultimately, that E45 can play a part of that both most vulnerable and empowering moments.
Its impact was compounded by the positive way it portrayed the community in the background context of a much more divisive conversation about trans people and bathrooms. “So it was just such a great way for a company to show up authentically”
What can you learn from brands like Zoah and E45?
So what do you need to do to tap into an exciting market in the way brands like Zoah and E45 have? While both brands invested in research and development in an authentic, nuanced and careful way – their approach also shared another crucial element:
“I get asked all the time by big corps have been better allies. And I always ask them in return to look around your decision-making table, and see who’s informing these decisions? If it’s eight men who all look the same, then it’s probably time to bring in some new voices.”
St James says the “really horrible mistakes” made by brands and companies are the ones who try to appeal to marginalised communities without putting the work in to make their own teams reflective of the consumers they want to serve.
“So when it comes to specifically trying to profit from it has, it has to come from an authentic viewpoint”. If you can’t hire someone, St James points to the many talented consultants who work in this space and will jump at the opportunity to get involved and collaborate.
Either way, St James doesn’t need to make bold claims with her brand because, thanks to listening, researching and developing a product with her consumer in min,d she’s helped thousands of trans people find comfort every day and sold even more products along the way.
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