The Startup Fixing the Problem No One Talks About

I have a confession: I’ve basically stopped wearing underwear.

Not always. Not with jeans. But in the stretchy, sweat-wicking second skin that now makes up most of my waking life — leggings, bike shorts, compression everything — I keep wondering: what exactly is the point?

The lines show.
Nothing stays put.
Everything bunches, rides, creeps, or wedges.

Also: aren’t leggings basically one giant piece of underwear anyway?

They go straight into the wash after a workout. I shower or soak, change into sweatpants, move on. Adding another layer feels pointless.

Turns out I’m not alone. In a CivicScience poll, 21% of women who identify as athletes said they now wear underwear less often — or not at all. (Where do you stand? the Pittsburgh-based research firm asks.)

Then I spoke with Sarah Weihman, founder of performance underwear startup Paradis Sport, and realized this quirk of mine may be due to a design failure in the macroeconomy of undies.

She told me about runners cutting underwear out mid-race, ultra athletes ditching pairs in porta-potties, and college athletes split between wearing cotton underwear that stays wet and simply going without.

Nobody, in other words, was thriving.

So she decided to do something about it. Here’s what she told me.

AMC: You didn’t come from fashion. What pushed you to start an athletic underwear company?

Sarah: I had worn the same performance underwear for about ten years, and then the brand changed the fabric and the cut. Suddenly it didn’t stay in place, it felt itchy, and it just didn’t work anymore. I tried a lot of other brands and didn’t like any of them.

With my design background, I kept wondering why they would change something people loved. I found reviews from women begging for the old version back. They never did. My husband encouraged me and said, “I bet you could design something better.” So I found a technical designer, built a prototype, and tested it with athletes.

AMC: Why do you think athletic underwear has been so overlooked compared with sports bras or shoes?

Sarah: It’s usually an afterthought. Many apparel brands that make a lot of different products try to add underwear, thinking it’s easy. It isn’t. Designing something that stays put, doesn’t chafe, and works across sports requires a lot of attention.

There’s also very little education. When I surveyed female athletes, about half were wearing cotton or lace underwear during workouts. Cotton stays wet. Lace isn’t designed for movement. But people just hadn’t thought about it.

AMC: How can the wrong underwear affect performance and health?

Sarah: Fit is huge. If you’re constantly adjusting or dealing with chafing, that’s a distraction during training or competition.

The other issue is fabric chemistry. Many major brands have been found to contain BPA or PFAS. When you’re sweaty and staying in that clothing, those chemicals can absorb through the skin. A lot of women don’t realize that.

AMC: You’re competing with giants like Nike and Lululemon. Where can a startup realistically win?

Sarah: Focus. We’re doing one thing really well — the first layer. Underwear and bras. Larger brands are spread across dozens of categories, and it’s hard to perfect something this technical when it’s just a small part of the business.

Community is the other advantage. Our ambassador athletes help fit-test our products to refine them. They tell us exactly what they need, and we build from there.

AMC: You’ve self-funded the company so far. What does growth look like now?

Sarah: Early on I funded it through my architecture work and personal savings, with almost no marketing. Last year our sales grew about 175 percent. This year we’ve planned inventory to maintain that growth.

If things go as projected, we expect to be cash-flow positive by midyear. If not, we may need to raise outside capital. Scaling manufacturing while staying profitable is the big challenge.

AMC: What’s next for the company?

Sarah: We want to stay laser-focused on the first layer — underwear and bras. We have two styles of seamless sports bras coming out this summer, along with new base layers and natural-fiber products designed with athletes.

I don’t want to expand into full apparel. I want us to be known as the authority on undergarments — the company you trust for what goes closest to your body. If we can solve that layer really well, everything else works better.