Boost is a female founded design and innovation company that makes ethical, environmental and human-centred products for women after breast cancer, inspired by Co- Founder Sam Jackman’s Mum’s experience of
mastectomy. Our first product, the Boost Breast Form, launched in October 2020. With a radical open structured new design and a production process that enabled us to create a product that was accessible and more comfortable (around 50% lighter and 50% cheaper than traditional counterparts), we began to explore the ways our service design could also work better to support women who increasingly sought access to products online.
Usually, breast form fittings are undertaken in a face-to-face retail or clinical setting. Clearly, this presented problems during the Covid pandemic and did not reflect the increasing desire to move online. With the Brarista team’s existing work in developing algorithm based bra fitting software, we developed a partnership to tailor the Brarista technology to increase the accessibility and accuracy of online breast form fitting.
With funding from Innovate UK, we undertook an R&D to develop a service that will allow women to receive a recommendation for their breast form size as part of the online shopping experience, using measurements from scan data uploaded via their smart phones. Our algorithm then matches the data points from the women’s bodies to find the best fit recommendation, rather than relying on a self- disclosed bra/cup size which can be an inaccurate indicator (up to 80% of women wear the wrong size bra). Helping women to receive accurate guidance on breast forms in their own homes will empower women to choose products that appeal to them. We believe that effective online services will also ease the pressure for clinical settings that host fitting sessions, and support women’s wellbeing and agency after treatment.
