Happy Valentine’s Day from Maker’s Row and PantryProp! We’re spotlighting this incredible black entrepreneur and touting body love and self care by showcasing a company designed to break the taboo on hygiene. Read on to learn how Crystal Etienne built a million dollar company around body care.
The most successful businesses solve real problems for real people. Crystal Etienne is the first African American woman to build a million dollar company in two years based on a common, yet taboo topic: hygiene.
Crystal asked, why settle for products that were designed decades ago, are uncomfortable, unsafe, and which often fail? For example, she felt it was unacceptable to give young girls chemical-ridden products to insert into their bodies, or for men and women to stress over the embarrassment of leaks, stained clothes and sheets. She created the solution: PantyProp.
PantyProp is an American-made e-commerce fashion forward hygiene brand that offers a comprehensive collection of 30 unique items, including activewear, swimwear, sleepwear, and underwear. The collection reinvents how men, women, boys and girls navigate puberty and life’s other pesky leaks; PantyProp is distributed to happy customers in all 195 countries.
Crystal spent years testing hundreds of prototypes to result in the perfect equation of design, fit, and most importantly, leak-proof security behind each PantyProp product.
PantyProp includes patent-pending organic cotton technology that is absorbent, moisture wicking, chemical-free and antimicrobial. The expanding line of fashion products are manufactured with love in America from the highest quality local artisans who receive a fair wage.
Since its launch in 2015, PantyProp has experienced explosive growth; in 2017 it has grown by 400% to cross $1 million in revenues through word of mouth only. Crystal has been self-funded and profitable since its inception. She is propelled by the mission to ensure men, women, and girls can #doanything in comfort, confidence, and courage.
Crystal and PantyProp have been featured in People, Seventeen, Bustle, Cosmopolitan, Hello Giggles, Business Insider, Racked, SheKnows, TeenVogue, Refinery29, Allure, Daily Mail , and SELF Magazine. Crystal is a mother of two children, a daughter and son. She lives with her family in New York.
