Mitchella Gilbert, CEO of Oya Femtech Apparel, joined Cheddar News, to discuss how its performance wear can help women.

Closing Bell

Oya Femtech's Performance Wear Designed for Women's Health

Toya fem tech apparel. That's a company offering a line of performance wear engineered for feminine health startup recently, raising 1.3 million in a pre seed round? Led by six serves innovation lap Toya says its performance wear is made specifically to promote feminine health and comfort by using innovative fabrics and sweat absorption technology. The company says it's leggings are designed with doctors to combat common feminine health issues like U. T. I. S. And joining me now is Mitchell Gilbert ceo of Oia Fintech apparel Mitchell. Thank you so much for coming on this show. Such an important topic, share some more details about how your performance. Where can help women? Yes, thank you so much for having me here. So based on our research and speaking to over 60 doctors who we worked with to design this apparel. Women need extra support around ventilation, moisture absorption and also bacteria reduction. And so we were able to work with these doctors to create a pet and pending. Uh I guess you can call it a system. And so our tops fight issues like boob, rash, back, knee, back irritation and then on below our leggings fight issues like U. T. I. S, bacterial vaginosis, yeast infections, urinary incontinence. And we aim to do all of those things while Also creating cute designs that don't make women feel any different. Um and we've seen that our customers are very happy with these results. Well I know the National Library of Medicine also saying that in 2022 women in the US spent $43 billion dollars on feminine health issues. How can your products help be a solution for this? Yes. So we see a lot of women are spending so much money dealing with moisture related issues health issues. And we see that these issues um we see that these issues get even worse when you're in things like Activewear because Activewear kind of acts like a it's almost like a garbage bag. So if you're working out you're an athlete and you're trying to be active, what happens is when you're when you're wearing these clothes they don't breathe or absorb moisture. And so it's kind of like a garbage bag and women leak. So they that makes it even worse. Our clothes are specifically designed to reduce those issues because they are breathable moisture absorbent and antimicrobial. So it's getting rid of all that nasty bacteria and hopefully preventing a lot of these issues before they even occur. Um Look I I get it that's for sure. I think it's an impact an issue impacting many women. You get it too. Obviously Mitchell because he started the ceo of this company. So another person who gets it is well known actress Sophia Bush. I know she was a backer here actually recently took to instagram. I see to announce that she was excited to participate in this round was a name like Sophia Bush helped in terms of elevating the brand and getting your product out there. Yeah so having the faith and support of someone like Sophia Bush really, I think adds a level of credibility and even with just exposure also, she is an amazing feminist who just has a lot of great ideas and a lot of great connections. Um, I appreciate as a woman founder of color being, you know, uh, encouraged to think big to think outside the box. I'm one of the 1st 200 black women to ever raise over a million dollars in venture capital. So we don't even necessarily get these opportunities. So being able to work with someone like Sofia and Nia who are very encouraging and who have a great network, especially around retail and also athletes with their previous investment work has been a great opportunity for someone like me. Amazing, well look feminine health. Such a matter of the moment also, we know since the summer in june when roe v wade was actually overturned Mitchell, can you use that as an opportunity in terms of spreading your message and promoting feminine health? Yes, that was a very sad turn for the state of America. And it, I think it really goes to show how people can know so little about them in in health and yet they're trying to make laws around it. And what we found is that it really helped to build a community women by women getting upset and seeing some of their rights restricted. They begin to look for all alternatives in ways that they can use Fintech to help support their health. And so it's really helped us lean deep into our community. We've increased our, I guess you can say our contributions to different charity partners who focus on feminine health and we've also increased our number of community events. I think a lot of women are sad and frustrated because feminine health and roe v wade is only one part of the equation. What about women leadership numbers not changing that much? What about feminine health like issues not changing that much. And so we're excited to be a place where women can have a voice and where they can be part of a change. Alright Mitchell. Gilbert, c O f M Tech apparel Mitchell. Thanks so much for coming on the show.