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The tampon hasn’t modified a lot because it was invented over 80 years in the past by a male physician named Earle Haas. Which may counsel the design was flawless — however ask the individuals who use them, and you will hear a unique story.
“Interval merchandise are unreliable in crucial moments,” says athlete and entrepreneur Amanda Calabrese. “For athletes, that may very well be sporting moments, however for a mother, it may very well be dropping your children off in school, or working by means of the airport.”
As an alternative of accepting the established order, Calabrese and her Stanford classmate and fellow athlete, Greta Meyer, got down to rethink the product solely. In 2019, they created Sequel, the world’s first spiral tampon, engineered by and for individuals who really use it.
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Engineering meets expertise
The concept for Sequel wasn’t born out of a want to generate income — it was about fixing an actual drawback. Calabrese and Meyer met at Stanford, the place they each majored in mechanical engineering. However their connection ran deeper than teachers. Each have been high-level athletes: Meyer performed Division I lacrosse for Stanford, whereas Calabrese is a six-time nationwide champion in lifesaving, which is an entire different story.
“I’ve competed world wide carrying nothing however a star-spangled Crew USA bikini, generally for 10-hour occasions on the seashore,” Calabrese says. “You are working, sweating, continuously going from moist to dry, after which add your interval on high of that.”
Meyer had related frustrations throughout her time on the lacrosse crew. She and her teammates, usually carrying white dwelling skirts, incessantly struggled with unreliable interval merchandise.
“Within the locker room, they have been at all times speaking about how they might enhance the expertise,” Calabrese recollects.
In the future in a shared entrepreneurship class, Meyer approached Calabrese with an thought: why not construct a greater interval product?
“She identified that we have been each engineering college students and athletes, and that this may be excellent for our Entrepreneurship venture,” Calabrese says. “I used to be instantly on board.”
Calabrese and Meyer have been so dedicated to the concept they expanded it into their senior capstone. At Stanford, capstones require a working proof of idea. So the duo went above and past, elevating $50,000 in grant funding to proceed the venture after commencement and show its potential past the classroom.
Whereas most school grads spent that first post-grad summer time stress-free or touring, Calabrese and Meyer traded in pool events for manufacturing plant excursions.
“We spent that summer time refining our thought and studying by means of Stanford’s accelerator, StartX,” Calabrese says. “We knew we might want funding to kick off R&D, so we centered on crafting our pitch, and never lengthy after COVID, we closed a $1 million pre-seed spherical to get issues off the bottom.”
Associated: WNBA Legend Lisa Leslie on Constructing Legacy Past the Recreation
From the lockeroom to the lab
Beginning with a clear drawback gave the co-founders path, however there have been extra inquiries to be answered earlier than they might begin creating options.
“Now we needed to ask: Why aren’t these merchandise doing their job?” Calabrese asks. “And what precisely is the job they’re purported to do?”
After conferring with numerous feminine athletes, they decided that the first challenge was what the trade calls “bypass leakage.”
Upon deeper reflection, the duo realized this challenge was the byproduct of a design flaw.
“Tampons have vertical channels that go high to backside on the surface of the product,” Calabrese explains. “This successfully funnels the fluid away from the absorbent core and down the facet of the product.”
Recognizing the mechanical inefficiency of this outdated design, the pair got here up with the idea for Sequel’s masthead product: the spiral tampon. By introducing a spiral into the tampon’s building, they created a horizontal move path alongside the prevailing vertical channels. This design will increase floor space, promotes even absorption and helps forestall untimely leaks by disrupting the downward move.
“We spent years testing the fluid mechanics behind the design,” Calabrese says. “I actually have a video from our dorm room the place we have been illustrating these ideas.”
Ultimately, they began hand-pressing prototypes.
“Greta was in a full cleanroom swimsuit, manually making use of warmth and strain to create and take a look at every one,” Calabrese recollects.
The capstone goes courtside
Since then, Sequel has flourished, changing into the primary tampon partnership within the historical past of the NCAA by sponsoring Stanford athletics. They’ve labored with Athletes Limitless, USL and Unequalled.
Now, the corporate is taking its subsequent large step, partnering with one of many WNBA’s premier groups, the Indiana Fever. The founders reached out to Fever star Lexie Hull, who attended Stanford herself, and left with an NCAA nationwide championship and a bachelor’s AND grasp’s in administration science and engineering to point out for it.
“Lexie remembered listening to about us for instance in one in every of her entrepreneurship lessons,” Calabrese shares. “We reached out to her to be our first WNBA ambassador, and he or she was so excited.”
The partnership presents clear monetary upside for Sequel, however for Calabrese, the intangibles matter much more. “These athletes are function fashions,” she says. “Hundreds of little women throughout the nation look as much as gamers on the Fever and see themselves in these athletes.”
She notes that the primary interval product somebody makes use of is commonly the one they persist with for all times.
“Attending to work with real-life superheroes like Lexie Hull means every thing to the younger viewers we need to attain,” Calabrese says. “However past that, we’re normalizing conversations round tampons and interval care, in the end aiming for them to be seen as important recreation day gear, similar to soccer cleats.”
After six years of analysis, testing, improvement, and navigating FDA industrial requirements, Sequel is starting to make waves in an trade that hasn’t advanced in many years.
“We consider Sequel can dramatically enhance the expertise of athletes and followers in every single place,” Calabrese says. “From little women enjoying softball to the mothers cheering them on, everybody deserves higher.”
With its spiral design and athlete-driven mission, Sequel is not simply redesigning a product. It is redefining the dialog round interval care.
