Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary-Cathryn Kolb.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
After spending the first part of my career in sales at wonderful fast-growing companies like Spanx, Seven7 jeans, TOMS Shoes and Von Dutch, I really gravitated toward the functionality of fabrics that we wear and use every single day.
I wanted to explore what our clothes could DO for us. Could they wick away sweat better? Could they even cool us off?
So with that curiosity, brrr° was founded in 2014 with a mission to develop innovative fabrics that improve our clothes and other products we touch and use all the time.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Because we had connections in the fashion world, we made a big splash with retailers and sold a lot of wrap dresses, wraps and scarves right away. It was very humbling and exciting to see our startup brand take off.
We got pulled into the fashion world, and our conversations drifted from brrrº’s technology to trend boards, color swatches and debates about whether hemlines were getting longer or shorter.
brrr° had strayed from its original vision, which was to make fabric that improves our lives.
So brrrº pivoted, did a reset and focused entirely on textile technology and innovation.
We opened an office in Taiwan to build closer relationships with manufacturers and hired a local textile expert to run that office and our global innovation. We brought in new leadership to strengthen our financial and operational functions, and to protect our intellectual property and improve our processes.
We hired a PhD in material sciences to double down on our R&D efforts, and we brought in a new head of sales to commercialize these achievements.
Most importantly, we repositioned brrrº as an innovative ingredient brand. Our technology and processes can make almost any fabric perform better, whether we are licensing it for use or manufacturing the fabric ourselves.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with brrr° – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
brrr° is a textile innovation firm, and we have patented technology and processes for making fabric that cools the skin on contact and keeps cooling continuously. It is so much more comfortable to wear. It wicks sweat away better, and lets more air flow through the fabric.
Unlike other brands that have temporary washes or coatings that create a cooling sensation, our technology is embedded right in the yarn and in the way we make the material, so it’s permanent — it won’t fade or wash out.
We were very pleased when our fabrics achieved Qmax scores — that’s an important cooling test in our industry — that were 30-85% better than “virgin” nylon, polyester or cotton. And a prestigious independent research group in Germany called the Hohenstein Institute did lab tests and verified the cooling properties of our fabric.
A few weeks ago, samples of our fabric were added to the Material ConneXion library, the world’s largest subscription-based fabric library that’s used by Fortune 500 companies.
We’re really proud of the wide variety of customers who are buying or about to buy brrr° fabrics — bedding manufacturers, clothing companies, manufacturers of uniforms, athletic apparel brands, and automotive companies.
Our R&D lineup has never been stronger, and we recently filed some new patents.
We look forward to continuously improving the materials that people touch and use every day.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Our industry is evolving at an incredibly fast pace. Today’s clothes and fabrics will seem rudimentary and primitive a decade from now.
People want better materials that DO something for them — wick away sweat, stretch and move with them, feel softer against their skin, transition from daytime to evening or from the work week to the weekend.
Our material is proven to keep people cooler, whether they are in a stressful meeting at work, playing 18 holes on a sunny day in August or chasing after toddlers on a playground.
Discerning consumers are willing to pay a little more for clothes that feel better and enhance their lifestyle, and brrr° wants to be part of that equation.
Contact Info:
- Address: 550 Pharr Road NE, Suite 215, Atlanta GA 30305
- Website: www.brrr.com
- Phone: 731-434-2777
- Email: info@brrr.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brrrcooltech/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brrrcool/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/brrrcooltech
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
