OYA Femtech Apparel | Legging “Sis-tem”

Athletic apparel brand Oya Femtech Apparel, wanted to redesign the insert for the crotch of their “Happy Vagina” leggings, which are meant to comfortably absorb and retain feminine fluids for the wearer during movement. The insert needed to be foldable, removable and washable, while still maintaining its performance and integrity. The insert design Oya was using at the time was made up of three primary layers: one for comfort and wicking, one for absorbency, and one for waterproofing. We established that we could improve the performance of the insert not only by using higher performing materials, but also by altering the construction method of the insert.

Our team began the project by ordering a variety of benchmarking products from varying brands to determine the industry standards for wearable absorbent products. Through our research, we discovered a variety of technical textiles that address our performance concerns and then ordered them for their respective test methods. We combined the fabrics that performed best in their category and combined them into three different prototypes, based on their compatibility with three different construction methods: laser cutting, seam tape, and ultrasonic welding.

When we practiced these methods, we found that laser cutting was unable to properly attach the layers and that seam tape application was incompatible with the insert shape. Ultrasonic welding became our main construction method for our final three prototypes because it successfully welded a clean cut edge around the insert. We ultimately developed three prototypes:

- Prototype 1a had a 65% polyester, 35% nylon sports jersey treated with silver as the wicking layer, a 100% polyester microfiber terry cloth for the absorbent layer, and a 100% polyester ECO-PUL silver-treated fabric for the waterproof barrier fabric layer.

- Prototype 1b had the same absorbent and waterproof layers with 94% polyester 6% spandex Gridface fabric for the wicking layer.

- Prototype 2 had a 100% polyester REPREVE Interlock Knit wicking layer, an absorbent layer made up of cotton, tencel, bamboo viscose, polyester, and nylon, and a waterproof layer of bamboo viscose, polyurethane, organic cotton, and polyester.

All three prototypes performed significantly better than the benchmark products, including Oya. Of these prototypes, prototype 2 performed better than prototype 1b, and prototype 1b performed better than prototype 1a. However, each prototype performed well enough to provide with Oya three different options for redesigning their insert.