Ling Zhang’s experience as a new mother spurred her to design a nursing bra that’s comfortable, practical, and stylish.
After becoming a mother, Ling Zhang soon discovered how unappealing nursing bras can be.
Sensing an opportunity, she set out to design a better one, becoming an entrepreneur in the process.
“Personal experience contains a lot of ideas for practical research,” says Zhang, an associate professor in Iowa State’s Department of Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management. “I tell students to examine their own lives for research topics.”
Innovation with Mom in mind
Being a mom wasn’t Zhang’s only qualification for her undertaking. She has both a master’s and doctorate in apparel design from Iowa State and five years of professional experience as a bra designer.
Her improved nursing bra uses bamboo jersey, “which is soft, stretchy, lightweight, cool, and sustainable,” she explains. Touches of lace add to the bra’s visual appeal. “We designed the bra so it provides the support women want but without uncomfortable underwire or stiff materials that can contribute to health problems like blocked milk ducts.”
Zhang’s nursing bra has given birth to MUQIN, a business that takes its name from the Mandarin word for “mother.” MUQIN’s gestation received considerable support from Iowa State.
A business is born
A College of Human Sciences Early Career Faculty Research Grant and a faculty startup fund helped Zhang finance a survey of 1,300 mothers in the U.S. whose opinions helped shaped Zhang’s design. The funding also helped her to buy materials and equipment, and to hire students.
She’s worked with the ISU Office of Innovation Commercialization to patent her designs. If granted, it would be the first design patent in Iowa State’s history. Her project also earned a $50,000 award from the Regents Innovation Fund.
—Ling Zhang
Participating in the Startup Factory, a Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship program which helps turn innovations into businesses that generate revenue and create jobs, gave Zhang “the knowledge and confidence to move forward.”
“I’m an artist, my brain does not function like a businessperson’s,” she says. “I want to know how to collaborate and how to change my language from academic to business.”
Zhang hopes to launch her first collection online during the holiday season, and plans to develop more styles for new moms, as well as dads and siblings.
