About Jane – Our Story

To begin with…..my name is Carol not Jane! I came up with the idea for the Janestrap after the birth of our first child. Being a runner, I was very eager to get back my pre-baby body and get back into running. Days after she was born, I made a lofty goal of running in the Royal Victoria Marathon which was only 5 short months away! I

One week after delivery, I stepped back onto the treadmill but soon found that my breasts, which had since doubled in size, were not up to the challenge. Running became uncomfortable, embarrassing and painful! I tried several different sport bras and nothing seemed to stop the bounce. I eventually wore two bras but was still puzzled why we could put a man on the moon and clone a human but we couldn’t make a sport bra that stopped the bounce! Why is that? I jumped up and down and exclaimed to my bewildered husband, “If you just apply some pressure here (above the breasts) you can stop the bounce. So why can’t you have a bra with that idea in mind?”

The seed was firmly planted in my head. I filed the idea in the far corners of my brain and carried on with my life. I threw myself into motherhood with gusto and even ran that marathon finishing in a respectable 4:09:00. It wasn’t until about 15 months later that the idea came to life yet again. Still complaining about my annoying breast bounce, my husband suggested that I explore the idea. So I did.

The very first Janestrap™ prototype was literally the tie-belt to my bathrobe. I put on my most useless sports bra and then wrapped the tie-belt around my chest and fastened it with some safety pins. I then went for a run and was completely blown away! This crazy idea works! There was no bounce. I knew that this idea had potential so I set about to come up with an idea that would be marketable.

Several designs and three years later, I came up with the final Janestrap™. I had a design that worked and now what? My husband, Bill, who was very encouraging, gently nudged me along. Of course, the thought “Who am I to bring a product to market?” ran through my head daily but with each little step forward, I got closer and closer to that reality. Fear and doubt were my poisons but the words “BELIEVE IN YOURSELF” were my antidote.

Then came the business of starting a business; patents and trademarks, manufacturers, fabric mills, financing and marketing to mention a few. I surrounded myself with smart people and I asked a million questions.

After my first visit to our manufacturer, I left the meeting feeling completely overwhelmed, confused and slightly crazy. “What am I doing here?” I asked myself. I prayed for a sign that would let me know that I wasn’t crazy and that I had to stay on track. Well, not 30 minutes later I was in the car with my sister and a road sign flashed by me. The sign said “Jane St.”! Seeing that I had already decided to call the product the Janestrap™, I thought that was a pretty good sign!

I named this product the Janestrap as tribute to the first sports bra. In 1977 two American women took a pair of jockstraps, cut them apart, and sewed them together, thus creating the first sports bra!