ThirdLove is an American company producing and selling bras, underwear, loungewear and nightwear.
ThirdLove was the first bra and underwear brand to offer trademarked half cup sizing and a mobile app allowing women to measure themselves at home. It also uses a technology referred to as Fit Finder which combines machine learning algorithms and customer feedback to select the best bra size.
History
ThirdLove was founded by husband and wife Heidi Zak and David Spector. They left their jobs and launched the company in a loft in downtown San Francisco in November 2013. Through a Craigslist ad, the company gathered one hundred participants, who were told to take a photo of themselves wearing a tight tank top over their bras. While the R&D session was intended to refine an app for calculating bust size, Zak found that the bras themselves needed improving. When the participants tried on ThirdLove’s bra prototype, they found out that 37 percent of them fell between cup sizes.
Ra’el Cohen, founder of lingerie company Luv & Honey, joined ThirdLove and used the data from the Craigslist fittings to create the company’s own proprietary molds. ThirdLove became the first bra company to create half-sizes. ThirdLove was introduced to startup Indi Custom who was developing a smartphone-based technology to customize jeans without fit models. They acquired the company and adapted the technology for bras, taking two years to develop the company’s patented technology app. They launched the company bra line in the spring of 2014 with seven distinct styles. Within three months, they identified “24/7” as their best style and discontinued producing the other six styles. In 2015, they found a manufacturing partner in China that was willing to include their proprietary design elements. As of late 2016, the company shipped approximately 50,000 bras a month. ThirdLove expanded into underwear, as well as lounge and sleepwear.
In June 2018, the company added 24 new larger. As of October 2018, Forbes estimated ThirdLove to be worth $750 million and was placed on the Forbes Next Billion Dollar Startup List.
In 2019, they opened their first pop-up shop in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood from July 24 through the year’s end.
