This CEO Wanted to Build an Intimate Apparel Company With Empathy and Experimentation. It worked.

How Evelyn & Bobbie Is Reinventing the Bra by Challenging Industry Norms

BY INC. CUSTOM STUDIO

At Inc. Founders House during SXSW, moderator Morgan Brady (at left) led a discussion with Evelyn & Bobbie founder and CEO, Bree McKeen.

Bree McKeen had been struggling to find a bra that truly delivered—until she recognized the gap as something far larger than her own experience. What seemed like a personal frustration revealed an industry-wide blind spot hiding in plain sight: The modern bra, despite decades of iteration, had gone nearly a century without meaningful structural innovation. Unwilling to accept discomfort as the default, McKeen took matters into her own hands, setting out to reimagine the category with a level of precision and intention rarely applied to everyday essentials. 

“I was on a bra quest,” she told Morgan Brady, Inc.’s director of community, during the Inc. Founders House event at SXSW. “You know what I wanted? A bra that looked good under my clothes and was comfortable all day long. That seemed like a pretty low bar, yet it truly didn’t exist” 

In 2018, she officially launched Evelyn & Bobbie, an intimate apparel brand offering wire-free bras that provide lift and comfort. As the founder and CEO, McKeen collaborated with designers and advanced performance athletic manufacturers to develop the company’s already-patented EB Core innovation. The world’s first true underwire alternative since the underwire was patented in 1931, her design uses bonded 3D layers forming a “sling”........

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