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BraBall

Breakthrough:
BraBall is a laundry device that machine washes bras, but delivers hand washing results. The strong plastic cage protects delicates from the rough and tumble of the washing machine and increases their longevity, thereby saving consumers money.

Inventor:
Kieu Phan, United States

Financial reward:
$100,000

The Story:
BraBall

Machine washing is not very bra friendly. A few spins even at low temperatures can put delicates in an even more precarious position. Bras are flattened, stretched, dented, and they quickly lose shape, emerging with lump, bumps, and unflattering wrinkles. It leaves women with three options; throw the bras away, try to ignore the imperfections or spend hours hand washing them. This is a huge problem especially when you consider that padded bras can cost anywhere between $20 and $100. Traditional mesh bags usually work well for unpadded bras but offer no protection for the padded variety.

Bras Given a Battering

Vietnam native Kieu Phan became increasingly bothered by the battering of her bras, “the straps would lose their elasticity and I would have to throw them out and buy new ones. The chore of hand washing, however, was very time-consuming and impractical.” So she set out to see if there was a way that bras could emerge unscathed from washing machines. She ended up with an appliance that has thrown a lifeline to bras everywhere.

Phan had a reasonably clear idea of what she wanted her invention to look like and began to play around with prototypes. She experimented with wire sheets and tape to create a model that she could give to a prototyper. Phan spent nearly four years testing and refining prototype after prototype, putting them through more than a thousand tests. There were times that she got so frustrated that she would cry, but she never stopped believing that her invention would change the way women wash their bras.

Eventually Phan came up with a device that she was happy with. It is a plastic bright blue ball-shaped cage that opens and then closes once the bra is in place. An outer chamber protects the undergarment from being battered whilst an inner chamber supports the contours of the bra cup. A storage compartment provides a space for bra straps so as to preserve their elasticity, and there are 472holes throughout the laundry device to allow multiple bras to be cleaned. A sturdy locking mechanism and latch guard keep the undergarments in place. She recruited engineer Jack Lander to help her develop the device which she named the BraBall, and unable to afford an attorney she wrote her own patent in 2000 and it was awarded - U.S. Patent No. 6,742,683.

Challenges

Phan faced many challenges during the prototyping process including getting the latch mechanism to stay in place and stiffening the outer chamber so that it would be tough enough to withstand the constant beating from washing machine drums.
The product had to be perfect, as Phan was going to produce and market it herself and could not afford to take short cuts.

During the development process, Phan, a resident of Austin, Texas, studied for a degree at McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Austin. When the BraBall was ready to be launched into the big wide world she took time out from the lecture hall and her books to start Phantastic Innovations, Inc., to market and distribute her innovation.

Marketability

To determine BraBall’s marketability Phan used focus groups and compiled her own surveys and questionnaires which she left in shopping malls. It included questions such as: “Would you purchase the BraBall for yourself?” “Do you think the BraBall is too big?” Do you think it might damage your washing machine?” “What specific changes or improvements would you make to the BraBall?”

Overall it took six years to go from concept to product but her entrée into the life of an inventor got off to a bad start when she paid $8,000 to an invention promotion company she had seen advertised on the television She fell for their market research and patent purchasing claims and they failed to deliver. But now she has a successful product on her hands that is currently available through her website, and through branches of Storables in the U.S and Canada. And thanks to her innovation, bras come out of washing machines looking like they did when they went in.

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