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Sep 08, 2023

Startup Aims To Cover More Women By Right

Towel is a new company that makes towels in sizes 3X, 5X and 7X A new startup,

Towel is a new company that makes towels in sizes 3X, 5X and 7X

A new startup, TOWEL, has just secured funding for creating towels that actually fit the average size 16/18 woman - and beyond - in the United States.

"We have all seen the quintessential advertising image of a woman lounging around in a towel or bathrobe in a luxurious setting, getting ready for the day, representing the privilege of ease," starts Mary Carney, founder of TOWEL, a size-inclusive brand making towels to accommodate adults up to 7X. "This is a direct message that portrays limited access and sparse inclusion, leaving one longing for this experience. The reality is that most American adults don't have the privilege of finding a towel that wraps around their body, let alone the comfort of being able to walk around in that towel, hands free."

TOWEL founder, Mary Carney, says that her idea for TOWEL came out of frustration. "I have been faced with a too-small towel many times before, but it was early fall 2022 when I got out of the shower and thought ‘enough is enough.’ Not only do larger bodies have limited access to clothing, they don't even have access to bath towels." Carney says that the company was conceived from exhaustion and "dealing with what the world believes fat people deserve, and the ambition to change this."

Carney lives in Brooklyn, and identifies as a millennial woman, creative-freelancer and "Jill of all trades." She studied Apparel Design and Development but says her work has spanned product development, high-end tailoring, technical design, patternmaking, graphic design and marketing. "One thing stays true," says Carney. "I always find my way back to my love of fit. Throughout my career I have seen firsthand the lack of size inclusion all around me. This will be my fourth consumer-facing textile-related business I’ve started and the first to make it to large-scale production, which is very exciting."

Carney says that TOWEL represents something very personal to her: healing from learned fatphobia and body dysmorphia. "I grew up an athlete and dancer and always wished I could just, frankly, be smaller. It felt as though life would be easier and I would finally be ‘good enough.’ Funny how 10 years later when this actually happened, I was sick and miserable." Carney recalls her weight rapidly fluctuating in her mid-twenties. Finally in 2014 she was at her lowest weight and says she had never been less healthy. "I was praised for being thin," says Carney. "I was surviving major depression and PTSD and also working in high intensity fashion environments. Most rooms I walked into clients would consistently discuss body envy or comment on the bodies around them. ‘Wow you look great. Have you lost weight?’ might as well have been your normal greeting in these spaces." Eventually Carney was able to gain back the weight she had lost, enter therapy and begin learning how to accept her body no matter what size it was.

Carney points out that having unconditional self-worth in a larger body is challenging in a world that won't even provide something as simple as a towel that fits. Expecting that a towel won't fit is a part of accepting fatphobia. "While traveling, the risk of the location you are staying not providing you with a towel that wraps around your body is very high," says Carney. "At this point when I travel, I pretty much know for a fact the hotel towel will not wrap around my body." Not having a towel that wraps around your body, especially when you’re away from home, can feel humiliating. Carney says that one of her goals is that TOWEL will exist in so many spaces that hotel guests will no longer have to worry about bringing their own beach towel to cover up after a swim. "It is already vulnerable enough to be in public half naked," says Carney. "Then add on toweling off after with a too-small towel and you can imagine the aversion one might have to enjoy a pool party."

"I personally believe ‘one size fits all’ should just be deleted from our vernacular," says Carney. Towels have long been labeled within the ‘one size fits all’ category. TOWEL, alternatively, comes in three sizes: 3X, 5X and 7X. The fit is based on the median of many popular plus-size sizing guides, and fit suggestions are based on the ability to wrap your TOWEL around the widest part of your body and still easily tuck your TOWEL. "As someone who has developed sizing for many companies across a variety of categories, I know that size standards are actually just entirely made up. Each company gets to make up their own rules, and so why let these rules define you?" asks Carney. She says she made sizing decisions that were "anti-towel sizing." She gave each size a human name: Ava (suggested for up to 3X), Joni (suggested for up to 5X), and Gemma (suggested for up to 7X). Carney says she uses the word "suggested" because people prefer different fits. "Just because you identify with 1X sizing doesn't mean you cannot buy Gemma as your preferred TOWEL," says Carney.

Each TOWEL is made from 100% cotton terry. "TOWEL terry is particularly plush and soft on sensitive skin due to the special weaving technique I've chosen," says Carney. "Not only is our terry soft, but it is strong, durable, quickly drying, and pills less than your average terry due to the shape of fiber. Our towels maximize coverage while still being light enough to dry quickly." Beyond fabrication, Carney says it was important to think about TOWEL's long-term footprint. "I am actively working with TOWEL's production partners to choose the most sustainable options for manufacturing and fulfillment. It is important to me that by inevitably putting more fabric into the world, we will combat this by reducing fabric waste with a recycling program."

TOWEL raised over $72,000 this year through a Kickstarter campaign. Carney says that it still feels surreal that TOWEL hit its fundraising goal on Kickstarter. "I am currently reeling in shock and exhaustion from the last few months of launching the campaign and trying to be a human at the same time," says Carney.

Carney says she chose Kickstarter because it felt more familiar than going the venture capital route. "I come from a hard working middle class family," says Carney. "My mom is a teacher and my dad is an engineer. So the VC world just feels so foreign to me. I don't know a lot about VC but I know for now I want to be calling the shots. Maybe one day I will explore this option but for now I am so grateful and excited that the community has supported TOWEL and myself with this opportunity and a fighting chance to bring people size-inclusive towels."

Carney says she went into the campaign with optimism and naivete. "I fully believed that with the traction we were gaining on social media and with the plus-size community's support, we were going to meet our goal in the first 72 hours," says Carney. That did not happen. "We had many incredible backers, yet it was highly discouraging to see how many people did not get behind the movement until we had more prominent recognition." Carney says that the campaign also faced unanticipated algorithm bias. She almost ended the campaign several times, but ultimately made it through to the end, surpassing her initial goal. TOWEL raised $72,985 from 695 backers.

"This is our first and only round of funding thus far," says Carney. "I knew it was going to be difficult but I don't think anyone can prepare (you) for the mental hurdles that a first time crowdfunding campaign comes with, especially when doing it as a solopreneur. This is my fourth business with dreams of full scale production, and it's finally happening."

Today Carney identifies as a fat person and finds that creating TOWEL has been a pathway to believing in the unconditional worthiness of all bodies. In the spring of 2020 Carney says she ended up finding time for painting and created her first "All Bodies Are Good Bodies" series. "This was a huge part of facing and navigating the fatphobia within myself and around me," shares Carney. She says that "All Bodies Are Good Bodies" has now become a core belief and tagline for TOWEL.

Carney says TOWEL is not just about towels, it is about people. "I decided I was going to break into this industry and make a change, because people deserve access to the simple necessity that is a towel. Everyone deserves that wrapped in a towel feeling of warmth and care."