After witnessing their own daughters not wanting to take part in sport when they were on their period, Francesca Hansen and Vanessa Smith wanted this to change and make their children comfortable playing sport all month round.
They both went from having a job in finance and as a PE teacher, respectively, to setting up ICENI Silver – a company which make period proof underwear, ensuring eight hours of protection from leaks and accidents.
Hansen and Smith spoke about how difficult it was getting from concept to manufacture, how the knickers actually work and their plans for the future of the business which will bring the world closer to ending period poverty.
Why did you want to make period and leak proof underwear?
Francesca Hansen: It all came about, Vanessa and I met because both of us have very sporty girls and that’s how we became friends. And as usual, mums get together every now and then and we chat about how we can change the world and make things better and we were both saying how we’ve noticed our girls when they’re at training, some of their friends weren’t turning up and we would be like: “What’s wrong with so and so?” And they’d say: “Oh, she’s not playing because she’s on her period.” And then we started noticing when our girls started their periods they didn’t want to go to training at times because they were frightened of accidents.
Vanessa Smith: And they were very young. Primary school, my daughter was at primary school and that’s really young to have that responsibility to be able to change.
F: My daughter was 11 and you worry about them when they’re at school to deal with things like that. And we said there must be something we can do and then we actually thought well we haven’t reinvented the wheel, that’s when we came across other people that did it. But what we did realise was that we could make it (the underwear) better. And that’s how really this all started.
It was for us to help our daughters because there’s lots of things involved in the fact that when you’ve got very young girls, they don’t want to be messing around with having to change all the time and also from my personal point of view I’ve suffered from endometriosis in the past and I know there’s chemicals in Tampax and things like that – you don’t want things like that happening with young girls in particular. Also, there’s the risk of infection, there’s the risk of toxic shock and really young girls shouldn’t have to worry about that. We just thought if we could get these pants, they’re reusable, they’re eco-friendly, they’re healthier and that’s how we got onto them.
V: That’s how it started, and our girls did try other brands and what they did struggle with is the fit under their kits when they were moving around, when they were jumping, they felt bulky, they felt uncomfortable. So, then we decided, right, let’s make them for sport. So, let’s actually have them cut and tailored and designed for different movements.
It’s taken us two years to develop the knickers so that they are actually tailored for different kinds of sports, for example if you’re doing football or rugby, we have our Warrior short, so it’s really good for that kind of agility and movements and stuff like that so there’s been a lot of technical design going into it to make the knickers good for different activities and sports. We’ve only been in business for about five months.
F: But it’s with two years of work behind it.
V: This was all during Covid.
F: So, we’ve had to do a lot of stuff over Zoom.
V: But we’ve had some fantastic feedback, so we couldn’t ask for much more.
Was it a straightforward process to make the underwear or did it take a long time to develop the idea from concept to putting the knickers on the market?
V: No, it’s not our industry. Francesca was in finance, I was a PE teacher, so we had no idea of anything to do with manufacturing a product, especially like we were doing. It’s taken a lot of research and we have been bitten quite badly. We went to a couple of agencies and said this is our product, we want your help and basically, we threw away a lot of money and we got stung quite badly at the start and we lost quite a lot of money and we thought, do we pack it in now and just forget it. But we decided no, we’re going to finish off what we’ve started.
F: And see it through.
V: So, no, it’s not been easy.
F: It’s not been easy, but it’s been good to see it all finally work out. And every time we get a great review, it’s just worth it’s weight in gold to us. We’re just thrilled.
What ensures that your underwear works and prevents leaks?
V: There are different layers in them which absorb the blood basically and moisture or anything else, and it doesn’t come back up, so you don’t feel it. Some of the other brands which we’ve tried they felt wet, and it was like how can you be in these all day?
F: We’ve got the absorbent layer; we’ve got a waterproof layer for even more protection.
V: And we have Silverdur and we’re the only company that have that. It cost us a fortune to get but this material is amazing because there are no smells. Again, that was another thing that with other brands they actually did smell which was just like ugh, awful.
F: The great properties of having silver in something is that it’s antimicrobial, antibacterial and odour resistant. People are very self-conscious aren’t they, it’s not just of leaking, they’re also very self-conscious about the smell.
V: But you’ll be really surprised, you can wear them for eight hours on a heavy flow. All of my friends at the beginning were like, oh I’ll wear them around the house, not sure if I can go out and trust them. And now so many people and so many of our friends just wear the knickers with nothing else.
F: For instance, one thing once again, which is great as a parent for my daughter is if she’s at school, she’s put them on at seven in the morning and then gone through a whole day at school until she’s gone to bed at night, just in one pair.
V: I get it’s a change in mindset for many people. Younger girls seem to just accept it but those that have always had other products, they often can’t get their head round it until them try them. Then they’re like, oh my God this actually works.
F: Once they try them, that’s it, they’re hooked.
V: Especially night-time ones, at night-time that’s the worse time isn’t it when you’re moving around, you’re worrying about the sheets. Well in our night-time ones, the padding goes all the way up the back, so it just covers everything, so for when you’re moving around in your sleep or etcetera. In our reviews we have had people, elite athletes, wearing them for big games and we recently had Kadeen and Sasha Corbin that are England netballers and they’ve been wearing them. They’ve been on TV every weekend, so they’re wearing them during their matches, and they’ve come back and said they’re just game changing for them.
F: There’s been the odd occasion when we’ve seen a flash of their knicker while they’re playing the game and we’re excited saying: “That’s our knicker!” One of the big things as well for us is that you’ve got so much to do when you’re in a match or a competition, you just want to focus on that, you don’t want to have to be stopping and worrying and things like that.
My daughter plays hockey and she’s a goalie, so every weekend you see her dressed up looking like a transformer with all of her kit on and she doesn’t have time in half time to take everything off, go to the loo, check and put everything back on. Not just her, but lots of others in the goalie position, her goalie friends who have used them say they’re (the knickers) a godsend because they can just get on with it and not have to worry. We want them to concentrate on the game, you know, don’t worry about any accidents while you’re on matches, leave that worry with us and we’ll sort it out – which we have done. Vanessa will tell her yourself because she played netball for Great Britain.
V: I’ve had stories where I’ve leaked during games, international games in front of big crowds and that was just awful. I had to pretend I was injured once because there wasn’t enough time to go off and come back on. Things like that they really affect your performance. And it’s at every level, it’s not just elite level it’s from anyone from any activities.
We’ve also got a lot of nurses and we’re actually speaking to people at the minute from the army. So, it’s a product that’s really for people that are active and don’t have time to constantly change.
F: I’ve got a couple of friends that are policewomen and of course when you’re out on the beat for hours and hours on end and they said the knickers are great, they just don’t have to worry. So, we’re catering for all.
Was sustainability an important factor for you when coming up with the concept of the products?
V: Yeah, you want it to be sustainable.
F: Actually, if you think how much money you probably spend on tampons and sanitary towels it just gets ridiculous. And it’s money at the end of the day which just gets thrown away.
V: And the waste of the products, the amount of tampons and sanitary towels that are found and it’s just getting out of control.
F: We thought, if you can just keep reusing things, one it saves you money, two it’s environmentally friendly and we do want to save people money. We’re very conscious of period poverty, Vanessa has come across it first-hand with being a teacher.
V: I used to have lots of girls in a London school and it was quite a tough school, and we wouldn’t have girls come into school because they were on their periods because they couldn’t afford sanitary wear. So, us as a PE department we’d make sure we had sanitary wear that we’d buy ourselves just to keep there for some of the girls. Now there is a red box, the government scheme did a red box to put in schools but again it’s having that having to go and ask for it and it’s quite embarrassing.
Part of our plan is to give these knickers to people who need it so that’s part of our charity plan to try and provide sanitary wear for those that need it because all they’ve got to do then is to wash them and they’ve always got them again to reuse.
How significant would it be to you if your products were used to end period poverty all over the world?
V: It is huge, the whole thing about this was to provide something to help people and we’ve got a whole list of things, sometimes we just sit there and we’re like it could help this person and these people in hospital. There’s so many areas.
F: We constantly say if we change this little bit here, that’ll be able to help those people there. We’re quite boring, that’s all we ever talk about these days.
V: But it would be good if we could go out to other countries and provide the products. I was reading the other day about how in Africa they are provided now with some kind of padding, there are reusable sanitary pads and things but they’re not great. Again, with a knicker that would really solve a lot of issues and we’d like to eventually, but we are a start-up business.
For example, for every pair we sell, a pair could go to another country, a developing country or to period poverty in the UK. We do manufacture in the UK as well which is really important to us, so everything is manufactured here.
F: Actually, we’re the only one that does manufacture in the UK. There’s another brand that say they’re UK, they say designed in the UK, but it’s made abroad, made in China. We’re the only ones that are designed and manufactured, in the UK, actually in Manchester.
V: We were actually at the factory in Manchester a couple of weeks ago and it was lovely to see it actually getting made and obviously the quality is a lot better and you’re giving it back to our economy.
F: Which I think is really important at the moment with everything that’s happened with Brexit, with the pandemic – I really think we should be supporting our own industries.
Where does the name ICENI come from?
F: ICENI came from the fact that we wanted a name that was strong, and we were batting around saying what we can we do, then we thought strong women, and a strong woman that came from this area was Boudica and she was a warrior, she took on a Roman army, she was also well known for protecting her daughters.
So, we thought well Boudica is a bit of a mouthful for a knicker, but she was Queen of the ICENI tribe, and she was a local lass. It’s keeping it all in the area and that’s how it came about. We want all women, all females, to be warriors – not worriers.
Visit the ICENI Silver website for more information, www.icenisilver.com, or give them a follow on Instagram, @iceniperiodwear.
Words by Lucy Roberts for Female First, who you can follow @Lucy_Roberts_72 on Twitter.