Apricotton
Apricotton is a Toronto-based teen bra brand that helps girls feel confident in their first bra. The brand is the only bra brand globally that designs bras that grow as the girl grows, lasting multiple stages of puberty. This means that you can wear the same bra when you develop from an AA to a D cup!
The story of Apricotton started when Jessica took her 12-year-old sister, Cindy, bra shopping but struggled to find options that fit her body type. The mature lingerie stores and intimidating sales associates made Cindy feel uncomfortable. To make matters worse, the only bras that were suitable for her age group were the smallest sized sports bras. 90% of girls feel uncomfortable and intimidated when buying their first bra. Every girl wears a bra, so why is it such a struggle to find a perfect fit at traditional lingerie or department stores?
If chosen to receive the $10,000 fund, what would you use it for?
We will leverage half of the $10,000 in funding to grow our community through professional content creation and the other half to conduct product development to launch our next adjustable bra line. We have seen great success with content creators supporting our platform and helping to build our community and we hope to continue to scale that in a big way next year to help build Apricotton’s awareness for teens through our community. As the community grows, having more products to offer them will also be important. We will begin working on our next 3 bra launches using our current customer analytics. Currently, Apricotton has 6 bra designs, with customer return rate spiking to over 50% everytime a new bra is launched. Increasing from 3 to 6 bra designs led to a very significant increase in average order value, and we are projecting to increase the order value by again when the new bras are launched.
What is one of your goals for 2023?
In 2023, our main goal is to really grow our community on social. Through our community, we’re able to develop genuine connections with girls, where they ask us personal puberty questions on social media that they are too embarrassed to ask their parents and peers. Not only does building this loyalty help girls feel confident during puberty, it also converts the strongest, out of any tactic, into revenue.
Why do you think you deserve to receive this fund?
Teen girls are a forgotten niche within the bra industry. We personally struggled with bra shopping as teens, showcasing that the industry has not changed in the past 10 years. Since launching Apricotton, we’ve had over 2K girls actually enjoying wearing our bras, leaving reviews like “I finally feel confident in my body”. Research from the UN shows that helping girls feel confident can lead to improvements in their mental health and grades, and help them choose leadership positions in business and government leading to a strong economic impact on society.
So far, we’ve only spent $15K in marketing to build our community. We started Apricotton straight out of university and left our jobs to pursue Apricotton full-time in June. With a limited budget from our personal savings and our small team of two, we reached a 340% Marketing ROI and have been featured in major press such as Buzzfeed and Seventeen Magazine because of our innovative bras and rapidly growing community. With Pier Five x Mastercard’s $10K in funding, we will be able to exponentially grow Apricotton to ensure no girl goes through puberty alone.