The inspiration for Sara Marie Moylan's sports bra was pretty straightforward. "I was a mom with an idea. I knew other women were struggling with the same problem."
Moylan's product is the patent-pending
Shefit, an innovative sports bra that has competitive sports and fitness benefits as well as medical applications for post-surgical recovery.
The Shefit story begins with the birth of Moylan's daughter over nine years ago. Moylan found that existing sports bras were insufficient for her body type and often times found herself wearing two or more sports bras in order to make workouts tolerable. At the same time she also found out she wasn't alone as she noticed other women with a large bust size experiencing the same frustrations at the gym.
Not wanting to compromise her fitness goals, Moylan literally pieced together her own version of a sports bra and soon had a working prototype. After fine-tuning the design Moylan was able to create a product that allowed her to have strenuous workouts without pain.
Encouraged by how her prototype worked and positive feedback, she began developing a business plan and, two years ago, quit her job to focus on launching Shefit.
Since then, Moylan has hit several significant milestones. Perhaps most importantly, she was able to enlist Dr. Bradley Bengtson from the Bengtson Center to help with the design of the product for a post-surgery recovery application, a "stamp of approval," says Moylan, that positions the utility of Shefit beyond the health and fitness market.
Most recently, Moylan completed a successful Kickstarter campaign, raising over $20,000 to help with first-run production.
Moylan has an impressive resume as an advocate for fitness and a healthy lifestyle. She was Miss Michigan Teen USA (1999), 1st runner up Miss Michigan USA (2001), and wore the title of Mrs. Michigan America (2008).
From those competitions, she entered the fitness world and earned top spots in the Fitness America circuit, winning the Arnold Classic in 2011 and in the same year earning a pro card, leading to a 3rd-place world finish with the World Beauty Fitness and Fashion (WBFF).
Although she is the only full-time employee at this time, Moylan's business has a strong West Michigan influence with all web, video, marketing and P.R. services sourced from area firms.
To learn more about Shefit including ordering information you can visit their website
here.
Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs News Editor,
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