By Ali Cudby
Get a bunch of MBA’s in a room and you might expect them to focus on the next big technology play or Wall Street bull, but in the 2012 Harvard Business School competition for Alumni Entrepreneurs, Knock Out!® panties KO’d the other 130 new companies in the field to take home the championship belt.
Knock Out!®, owned by Harvard MBA Angela Newnam, is the first woman-owned venture to win the competition. The company had to impress 18 judges (of which 17 were men) to take home the prize for her high-performance undergarments. Knock Out!’s® edge comes from an odor and moisture control fabric that uses a patented NoTrace® technology.
NoTrace® gives the cotton performance properties, in two ways: 1) The cotton wicks moisture away to keep clothes and the wearer dry while also eliminating odor. 2) Odor technology is built into the natural cotton fabric using “specialized glucose (sugar) molecules which act like tiny ‘pockets’ that encapsulate odor,” according to Newnam. The pockets store the odor until the garment is washed. After washing, the pockets are once again “empty” and ready to be used again. The safe, natural odor absorbing properties of the garments will not wash out or rub off – they last as long as the product.
“We are asking consumers to think differently about undergarments and about cotton – to think of them as the ‘softwear that protects your hardware’, says Newnam. “Outerwear and athletic wear have long been associated with higher tech fabrics, but NoTrace® technology is raising the performance bar for intimates.”
Knock Out!’s® line of products includes women’s panties in a variety of chic styles and colors – in standard, plus and maternity sizes. Other offerings include men’s underwear, yoga pants, and t-shirts for both men and women. All products are Made in America using premium Supima® cotton.
