Kelly Newton: Designing products to keep women moving

Kelly Newton is the founder of NIXI Body - absorbent & discreet underwear for periods and little bladder leaks. Nixi body has a focused mission – to keep women moving through menstruation, motherhood and menopause. 

Kelly is doing so much to open up the taboo conversation around female incontinence and is an expert on stress and urge incontinence in women – a topic which is incredibly relevant in sport.

A desire to stay active was the biggest driver for Kelly to design her first pair of leak-proof underwear back in 2019 as she knows the massive impact that exercise can have on mental and physical health.

It’s been a joy to watch the evolution of Kelly’s company with NIXI body products now sold in Boots, Superdrug, Decathlon & Mountain Warehouse, along with being on QVC and at Parkruns.

In this episode Kelly shares her journey in sports, the challenges women face with periods and incontinence and the importance of more open conversations about women's health. 

We explore Kelly’s motivation to create leak-proof underwear and the evolution of the business. Kelly also addresses the difficulties female entrepreneurs face in securing funding and highlights the collaborative spirit among women in the product space.

Sue and Kelly also celebrate the newfound confidence that comes with age.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Episode Transcript

Sue Anstiss (00:03):
Hello and welcome to the Game Changers.
I'm Sue Anstiss, and this isthe podcast where you'll hear
from trailblazing women in sportwho are knocking down barriers
and challenging the status quofor women and girls everywhere.
What can we learn from theirjourneys as we explore key
issues around equality in sportand beyond?
I'd like to start with a verybig thank you to our partners,

(00:24):
sport England, who support theGame Changers through a National
Lottery Award.
I'm excited to say that in this, the 18th series of the Game
Changers, I'll be talking tofounders and entrepreneurs the
women who have set uporganisations that help change
the landscape for all women andgirls in sport.

(00:48):
My guest today is Kelly Newton,the founder of Nixi Body
absorbent and discreet underwearfor periods and little bladder
leaks.
Nixi Body has a focused missionto keep women moving through
menstruation, motherhood andmenopause.
Kelly's doing so much to openup the taboo conversation around

(01:08):
female incontinence and is anexpert on stress and urge
incontinence in women, a topicwhich is incredibly relevant in
sport.
As we'll hear, a desire to stayactive was the biggest driver
for Kelly to design her firstpair of leak-proof underwear
back in 2019.

(01:29):
, and she knows the massiveimpact that exercise can have on
mental and physical health.
It's been a joy to watch theevolution of Kelly's company
with Nixie Body products, nowsold in Boots, Superdrug,
Decathlon and Mountain Warehouse, along with being on QVC and at
Parkruns.

(01:53):
So, Kelly, clearly your productsare now having a massive impact
, especially for young, activegirls.
So can I take you back to yourgrowing up and what was your
experience of sport and, I guess, of periods as well too

Kelly Newton (02:05):
Firstly, thank you so much for having me on.
You know I'm like overwhelmedto be on it, but yeah, so my
first sport that I ever playedwas actually football, and my
mum and dad weren't really intosports.
My mum was a keen sport fan.
She watched lots of sport onthe tv, but my dad wasn't really
a sporty person.
So I had the opportunity toplay in a football team on the

(02:28):
estate that I grew up on calledthe Ferrier Girls and actually
the Metropolitan Policeorganised.
Every summer they organised amassive tournament for all of
the kids growing up in Londonand yeah, so we were entered
into this team and I absolutelyloved it.
We had training every week andwe actually were one game away
from playing at Wembley, so weactually beat the Millwall

(02:52):
Lionesses in a semi-final at agame.
So I was nine years old.
They used to call me ChopperStreet.
My maiden name was Street,because we've got videos of me.
Just literally, I justliterally would go flying in and
take girls out and score goals.
It was absolutely brilliant.
So that was my first experienceof playing a kind of team game.
I really, really enjoyed it.
So when I went to secondaryschool and I went to an inner

(03:14):
London girls school, we had fourfemale PE teachers who were
really enthusiastic aboutgetting girls to play all kinds
of sports.
So yeah, so I played netball, Iplayed hockey, I was in all of
the teams at school, I playedtennis, I threw the javelin, I
did the hurdles, I did crosscountry, I did dance and

(03:36):
gymnastics as well, so all ofthese amazing sports that we
played in my girls' school.
You know back in the early 80s,which I look back now and think
actually it was quite unusualfor us to do all of that
Periods-wise.
I didn't start my period till Iwas about 14.
And it was a total shock to me.
I mean, I knew kind of we'd hadlike a half an hour lesson on
it in biology, so I kind of knewwhat was happening, but my mum

(03:57):
never really spoke about periods.
I had two younger sisters and Istarted my period and was
absolutely mortified and thefirst thing I did was go home
and steal one of my mum'sabsolutely ginormous sanitary
towels and didn't tell her aboutit for about three months.
She actually almost confrontedme like where have my sanitary
towels been going?
And I remember crying because Iwas so embarrassed and my mum

(04:19):
was just from there and was youknow, just help yourself and
I'll just get extra and you cantake them.
So there wasn't a lot ofinnovation.
There still isn't a great dealof innovation, I think, around
period products, but that wasthe only product that was
available to me at the timeuntil, obviously, when I was
later and I started to discoverthere were tampons and started
to use those.
But I always had very, veryheavy periods and actually when

(04:41):
we went to the doctor I was in alot of pain.
They put me on the pill, whichI now know is just kind of
masked all of those kind ofsymptoms that I had over the
years.
So, yeah, that was my start inlife, through playing sports and
my period experience.

Sue Anstiss (04:56):
How old were you when they put you on the pill
for?

Kelly Newton (04:58):
you, I was 16.
So, yeah, so I was about 14when I started my period, I
think.
Do you know what?
I think, because of playingsports, always been very active
and I was quite a skinny child.
My, I don't think I wore myfirst bra until I was 15, and
even then I didn't want to wearthis bra.
I had to.
I used to play.
I remember playing sports andwe didn't have sports bras in
those days either and I justwould undo the bra because it

(05:20):
was so uncomfortable.
I was obviously in the wrongsize.
I didn't really have a lot ofboobs until I left school, and
then I didn't do a bit of sport.
When I left school, my boobsjust got absolutely massive, and
I think that's because I wasn'tplaying as much sport.
I don't know.
It's very weird, very strangebody I've got.

Sue Anstiss (05:36):
And did it impact your playing sport?
Then, when I say your periodscame a bit later perhaps than
average, but did that impactyour the volume of sport?

Kelly Newton (05:45):
you were playing.
It didn't have an impact on thevolume of sport I was playing,
but I do clearly remember tryingto play netball in being in
absolute agony and wearing thisagain, this ginormous sanitary
towel which was moving about allover the place and constantly
worried about am I leakingthrough my, my score?
You know, is it?
You know, can people see it?

(06:05):
Is it going to fall out?
You know all of that kind offear, so I do.
I do remember all of that, butit never, ever, my peer had
never, ever stopped me fromplaying sport.
And I also have a real coldmemory of there was a mixed
school just up the road fromwhere I lived and every Thursday
night they did netball training.
I used to go along with myfriend Sally.
I was, you know, 14, 15.

(06:26):
And I clearly remember therewas a note that somebody had
written themselves to the PEteacher to say that Sansa
couldn't do PE that day becausethey had their period.
And I remember so clearlythinking why is your period
stopping you from playing sport?
I couldn't get my head aroundwhy they couldn't continue to
play sport.
And that was coming fromsomeone who had very heavy,

(06:48):
painful periods.
I knew back then that sport wasreally important for me, you
know, both mentally andphysically, and it kind of got
me through a lot of situations.
So, yeah, that was a real eyeopener for me at that young
tender age as well.

Sue Anstiss (07:02):
It's a really interesting thing, isn't it?
Because there's obviously somuch research now out there
about the impacted periods andstopping teenage girls from
playing sport.
But I'm similar to you and Ialways think, oh, I was that
sporty girl, but it would neverhave occurred to me to fake a
note to say I couldn't for myperiod to have stopped me.
But similarly it wasuncomfortable that whole him
worried about leaking.
I was a swimmer, so all ofthose things, but it would never

(07:26):
have crossed my mind so.
But it is interesting, isn't it?
Is that just because we were sowe already had got the bug of
the sport, that we knew thebenefit of it absolutely.
And actually, if girls don'thave that passion, is it more
likely to stop them?

Kelly Newton (07:37):
I don't know the answer to it, but it's just it's
quite interesting, isn't it?
whether it's yeah, I think soand you know I always think it
comes a lot from, you know, mumstaking their girls to sport, or
girls seeing their mums ortheir parents or their brothers
or their older sisters playingsports.
But I didn't have that.
There was nobody in my familywho played sports.
So for me to get the bug andjust, you know, to just to run
with it and love it, you know, Ithink it's quite, quite unusual

(07:59):
.
I suppose I knew it wassomething I really wanted to do
and I absolutely loved doing it.
If I could have just playedsports every single day and not
gone to any lessons, that wouldhave been the perfect school for
me.

Sue Anstiss (08:09):
We would have been good friends you and I, I think,
at school at that time.
Yeah, definitely You've gone on, I know to.
You've had two boys and you'vefostered many children as well
too.
So I'm really interested tofind out more about that and, I
guess, how you've shared thosedifferent discussions now with
your children growing up,whether that generational change

(08:29):
, but how it's been different inyour family.

Kelly Newton (08:32):
Yeah, I mean so we fostered for 19 years.
In fact, our last fosterdaughter left the university
five weeks ago.
So we're currently just me andmy husband and our two boys.
I've got to say it's lovely.
We've we've looked after 28children over 19 years.
So yeah, and the last girls wehad, we had them for about 11
years.
So we had them from five upuntil they were, like gone, 18.

(08:55):
So and that's four.
You had four girls.
That had four teenage girls.
I mean, I'm not gonna lie, itwas really hard.
Teenage years were reallyreally, really tough, like
teenage girls can be pretty vile.
I know boys are hard, butteenage girls can be very, very
difficult.
But it was.
It was great because my mum isamazing.
My mum is absolutely amazing.
I love my mum to bits.
We just didn't talk about those.
You know periods and stuff likethat, so I was always ultra.

(09:17):
We're going to talk about thisand I'm not just going to talk
to the girls about periods andbladder leaks.
You know the boys need to knowabout this as well.
So I mean, when I started mybusiness because I actually was
I ended up being diagnosed withendometriosis in my late 30s and
had it lasered a couple oftimes and then they had the coil
inserted, the marina coil, andI bled every day for nine months

(09:40):
with the marina coil, which iswhy in the end they said, you
know, let's you know, would youthink about a hysterectomy?
And I was like, give it to menow, kind of thing.
I mean, what happened then wasI'd started early menopause.
I say early.
I was in my early 40s, like 10years ago.
I started the menopause when Iwas 42.
But because I suffered so badlywith that, it was really

(10:00):
important for the kids to reallyknow what was going on with me
and to try and understand alittle bit about all of the
things that I was going through,and I felt that that was as
important as they knew aboutperiods as well.
So we always talked aboutwhat's going to happen to your
body from a really early age.
So we had a bag ready for thegirls so if they did start their

(10:21):
period, they knew that theycould go.
And there was a selection ofgoods.
It wasn't actually my knickersin there at the time, because I
hadn't designed the knickers,but one of my poor little foster
daughters started when she wasnine years old.
In fact, two of them started atnine years old and I wasn't
here, I was away and so, butbless her, she felt comfortable
enough to speak to my husband,who then rang me to explain that

(10:41):
this has happened and he hasalready given her some sanitary
towels.
And she spoke to me on thephone and she said it's fine,
dad sorted me out, it'sabsolutely fine.
And I was like, yeah, she wasso brave and yeah, and we talked
about it.
So everybody, you know,everybody knew about it.
I know for a fact that you knowmy boys would support their
girlfriends and, in fact, myboys are always saying can you

(11:08):
give them some of your knickers?
You know, they know about yourknickers, can you?
So the girlfriends have theknickers and and I know that
they talk to their, theirfriends at work as well about
you know periods and stuff likethat.
So, and the menopause becausethey're well versed with the
menopause now because of youknow how bad my journey was, I
think.
So, yeah, I just think it'sreally important to have these
conversations very early on andto let them know that you know
about about what is a normalperiod.
You know how much blood weshould be losing each month and

(11:30):
if you are having cramps.
You know cramps, to a degree,are a normal part of the period,
but if you're suffering forquite a long time and it's
pretty severe, then that's notactually normal.
And, yeah, to know that we canget support and we need to go
and get support if it's notright and we need to be able to
advocate for ourself and I thinkthat I did.

(11:51):
How we raised our children wasto always give them a voice to
speak out if something wasn'tright and, you know, to be able
to advocate for themselves,sometimes to my detriment.
It's like, all right enough now, but yeah, I just think it's so
important that girls and men,as allies, need to understand

(12:12):
about what's going on withwomen's bodies.

Sue Anstiss (12:14):
And in terms of your leak-proof pants.
How did you first come acrossthe concept?
Why did that become such apassion for you to find a
solution for women?

Kelly Newton (12:23):
Well, so firstly, firstly, obviously, having four
teenage girls in the house whowere all having periods, I was
actually starting to get reallyconscious about how much waste
we were producing.
I think you know we're going tothe bathroom and empty out a
sack full of disposable towelsand tampons and I was like, oh
my god, like this is just ourhousehold, what's it like across
the world?

(12:43):
And I looked at the stats and Ithink it was like 200,000 tons
of waste is produced every yearjust in the UK alone from
disposable pads and tampons.
And then you look at whatthey're made of and they're
bleached and we're actuallyshoving bleached filled cotton
wool into the second mostabsorbent part of our body.
So there was that.
And then the fact that theseproducts take between 500, 500

(13:05):
to 800 years to decompose, so,like your grandchildren's
grandchildren's grandchildren'sgrandchildren are going to be on
the earth with one of your usedpads and tampons, I was like,
oh God, that's a bit disgustingand they end up on our beaches
and a landfill.
But then I obviously wassuffering with bladder leaks at
the time, so I was playinghockey and every time I
stretched for the ball a littlebit of wee would come out, and

(13:27):
towels really really aggravatedme, really uncomfortable and
I've had a lot of issues downthere.
I was always having infections,I get UTIs and you know.
I just want to make sure thatactually what I'm using down
there isn't affecting my vaginalhealth.
So I mean, this was probablyabout eight years ago and I
looked online and found thatAmazon was selling these

(13:48):
leak-proof knickers.
I thought, oh God, I'm going togive these a go and I ordered a
pair and they were absolutelyvile.
It was so disgusting.
They were huge I mean, some ofour knickers are big but they
look nice still but they rustledlike a crisp packet when I wore
them.
So I felt like everyone couldhear me coming like walking down
the road.
I was like, oh, this doesn't,and they just felt super

(14:09):
uncomfortable and they weren'tactually that leak-proof and I
felt like I was wearing a nappy.
So I thought there's got to bea better way to do this and in
my naivety, that's when Ithought, right, I'm going to
design a pair of knickers thatare going to be super discreet,
that I can wear underneath mygym leggings and not feel
conscious, and they're going tobe quiet, um, and there's going
to be no plastics in there.
So that that's literally wherethe idea came from.

(14:30):
And, obviously, playing hockey,I played with an amazing team of
women all around the same age,all different ages, but a lot of
them are middle-aged like meand we were going to the toilet
before the game.
At half time we were runningoff to go to the toilet again
and then straight after the gamethere was no time for a team
huddle because we were all backin that toilet, all conscious
that you know, we're going towet ourselves, kind of thing,

(14:51):
and it and it turned into a bitof like there's a lot of women
also suffering with the same asme, so I'm not alone, and that's
I think you know we started totalk about.
There were a great team ofwomen and everyone was exactly
the same and I thought, well,actually we need to talk about
this a little bit more, becauseI don't know anybody else
talking about these issues and Iknow that I'm not alone.
So that's kind of where theidea came from.

Sue Anstiss (15:11):
And that's really interesting, isn't it, in terms
of you're playing hockey andyou're experiencing yourself,
but can you tell us a little bitmore, I guess, about those
often undiscussed, as you say,issues around incontinence and
that impact leaking that happensfor so many active women,
especially in those team sportsat an elite level, but just
generally for all of us out you?

Kelly Newton (15:31):
know, playing sport, yeah, so I think the
stats say that one in two womenwill suffer with some degree of
urinary incontinence throughouttheir lifetime.
So it's one, sorry, it's one inthree, one in three women, but
that rises to one in two whenyou're going through the
menopause.
So you know a lot of the teams,the team sports that I play.
The women are my age, so we are, we're all going through that.

(15:51):
But actually there are statsthat say that the younger girls
I can't remember the exact stat,I think it might be around like
the late 40% that young girlsalso in high impact sports, are
suffering with bladder leaks.
So you know, it's actually alot more common than we actually
believe it is, but peopleweren't having those
conversations.
I mean, obviously, you knowyou've spoken to Baz from the

(16:13):
Well and the great work that shedoes and she knows what she's
talking about.
They're bringing theconversations to the forefront
now and that's something thatwe're really passionate about at
Nixie as well.
We we want to have theconversations that nobody else
wants to talk about and I'm veryhappy to talk about.
You know, my bladder leaks, myendometriosis, my menopause, um,

(16:34):
connie always says I'll meetsomebody for the first time and
they will know about my dryvagina within five minutes of
talking to them.
You know it's, um, I used to bemortified, absolutely mortified
, but and I think it was worsewhen my boys were at school as
well just the thought that anyof their friends will find me on
Instagram, um, and also, wewere models at the beginning.

(16:55):
We were modeling our knickersat the beginning.
So there's a lot of knickersout there, a lot of photos sorry
, it's me and my knickers seeingyour mum in her pants on the
website.
Yeah, I've seen your mum'sfriend.
Yeah, your friends.
I, yeah, I've seen your mum'syeah, your friend's mum in.
Oh, it's just embarrassing,it's mortifying.
I used to be so embarrassed.
Hopefully we've got all thephotos off now.
I feel like you know, we've gotsome fantastic models.
We've still got my mummodelling my mum's still yeah,
her photo.

(17:15):
She's in her knickerseverywhere.
But I just feel like now I feela duty to talk about this and we
go to events.
We do like the running showeach year and I always remember
there was one woman.
She kind of stopped and shelooked at the stand and it was
quite busy and she walked awayand she walked around about
three or four times.
Eventually the stand was emptyand she came up, she went.
I thought I was the only one,she said I actually thought I

(17:36):
was the only one that thishappened to, and we get the most
amazing messages from, fromcustomers just saying you've
just made such a difference tomy quality of life, the fact
that I I can now go running andnot have to worry about am I
going to leak through myknickers.
Is everyone going to see?
You know, just giving them theconfidence to go out and do that
sport.
And that's literally what it'sall been about for me.

(17:58):
I just want I know howimportant it is to keep my body
moving and, you know, I justwant everybody else to
understand that as well that'sbrilliant.

Sue Anstiss (18:06):
Brilliant, I think that is if you just think about
the numbers of women that mightnow be coming back to take part
in all those things because theyfeel more confident of
something.
But yeah, it's a bitheartbreaking, isn't that woman
saying she thought she was theonly one?
But I think we.
It is something that we justhaven't discussed or, if we have
, it's been a bit of a joke or ayou know, no one's really
openly talked about it in a in acomfortable grown-up.

(18:28):
This is happening to us alltype fashion yeah, definitely.

Kelly Newton (18:31):
It just takes one person, I think, to open that
conversation.
And I mean, we, you know, wetalk about women a lot and
actually I, you know, if I startthe conversation, I always have
people come in and talking tome, and it's great.
It's actually really difficultfor men to talk about this.
I think women it's a very taboosubject, it's a very difficult
subject to talk about, but wecan open up a lot easier than
men and it's, you know, in thatway, I think it's very beautiful

(18:54):
what women have.

Sue Anstiss (18:54):
We have connections and communities and, yeah, it's
so powerful to do that and tohave that but, as you say, it's
so important, isn't it for your,your boys, so your sons, but
for men to be aware of this too.
I was thinking when I was doingthe introduction to this
podcast of almost we're going totalk about leak free, you know,
and actually are men going toimmediately?

(19:14):
Because we do have men thatlisten to this podcast, who are
going to almost switch offbecause they feel a bit
uncomfortable listening, butactually they're the very people
I'd love to be listening tothis too, because actually and
maybe they will maybe it's anopportunity to listen to
something they wouldn't want tohave a conversation about right
now but they might want to knowabout for their own wives,
girlfriends, daughters, etcetera.
And especially in the coachingspace too, of the sports

(19:36):
coaching too.

Kelly Newton (19:37):
Exactly.
Yeah, I mean, you know it'shard enough, for if you're a
male coach and you're coachingyounger girls, talking to them
about periods because someone'sgoing to feel uncomfortable
within that conversation butthen to be able to talk about
bladder leaks as well, it's very, very difficult.
I feel like you know it's.
Periods are taboo, but I feellike bladder leaks are actually

(19:58):
even more taboo than that,because who wants to be known as
that person who's like wettingthemselves and maybe smells of
wee, like this, is you feel likeyou.
You just feel so unattractive.
It's, you know, it's.
I feel so lucky that I've gotvery, very supportive husband
and my kids are amazing and theydo joke about it, you know, but
actually I don't mind aboutthat because we're talking about

(20:18):
it.
At least it's out there and Idon't feel embarrassed about it
anymore.
And obviously, going into aroom full of men, I used to
really struggle and I know Ithink we might talk about
funding at some stage, raisinginvestment.
I found that mortifying,absolutely.
I felt and still now I, still Idon't want to go into a room
full of men and talk about myissues because I do feel like
they're like okay, you know whywould I want to invest in this

(20:41):
and you know that's just notattractive.
But you know, I feel so muchmore comfortable in groups with
women.
I'm in so many WhatsApp groupswith amazing business women and
obviously the Sports Collective.
I've got over that, over thatkind of embarrassment, but still
have a teeny little bit ofshame around it, sometimes with
men, which is really sillybecause I talk about it all the

(21:02):
time yeah, it's reallyinteresting, isn't it?

Sue Anstiss (21:05):
and it is that shame, isn't it?
Is that that what the word thatyou would use?
I was going to talk about thekind of practical side because,
as you say you, I maybe laugh atthe whole noisy pants because I
remember discovering aroundthat time, but I never thought
about that.
I've said all the wonderfulassets of your products, but not
that they're noise free.
That's such a key thing, isn'tit?
But I believe you designed yourfirst pair, so kind of how did

(21:26):
that start?
And I'm really interested inthat.
Well, I'm interested in thatprocess.
And then the the timeline fromyour initially creating your own
underwear to actually retailingit.
How long does that all?

Kelly Newton (21:37):
take.
Oh well, it took a long timeanyway, because I just had just
started the menopause.
So I was not in a very goodplace.
Like I said, I was very, verydepressed and low and having
panic attacks and whatever,because they didn't think it was
the menopause, because theythought I was too young and
because they'd left my ovariesin when I had my hysterectomy.
They were like, no, you're notgoing through the menopause.
So I didn't get help with HRTfor a long time.

(21:57):
So what I did?
I looked up what's the mostabsorbent fabric that I can use
and it was.
It was like this bamboo cottonat the time.
It was this bamboo cotton and Ibought a load off of eBay and I
actually sewed it into a pairof knickers but just to see if
it would work.
And everyone was like you knowthey used to.
I don't know if I can swearsorry, but it was like they used
to call them my pissy pants athockey.

(22:18):
Are you wearing your pissypants?
And I'm like I've got them onand they're great, they're
really helping.
So it kind of went from thereto then designing a pair.
I thought, right, okay, I wantthem to be VPL free.
I don't want anyone to be ableto see them, and the way that
other companies were selling thewaistband, which made them
really big and bulky.
And I don't want them to bethat big and bulky but I still

(22:40):
want them to be super absorbent.
So, yeah, I did all of that.
And then I've never worked inbusiness.
I've been looking afterchildren for years.
I kind of put myself on a coupleof courses and then found out
that I needed to have atechnical pack made.
So Googled this, found anamazing woman who makes all of
my technical packs now and tellus what a technical pack is.
So a technical pack is actuallya drawing of the knickers.

(23:02):
So we talked, we had a zoom andI said I want them to have a
scalloped edge, I want them tobe seamless and I want the
gusset to be sitting, to sit.
That's hiding underneath thebottom, but it needs to be have
layers.
So I know it's absorbent.
So we.
So it gives you like themeasurement of the knickers, of
every part of the knickers, whatit's made of, how it needs to
be made.
That would.

(23:22):
That was like the technicalpack.
So I got that and then Ithought right, I need a sample
made.
So I remember finding this womanagain, googling everything and
finding this woman.
I said I've got this idea, I'vegot this technical pack.
And she literally emailed meback and said I don't think it's
a very good idea because thereare, there are loads of knickers
out like that.
Now they're all ready.
And I thought I went, oh okay,thanks very much.

(23:43):
Because I thought, oh, she, youknow, she knows what she's
talking about.
And then somebody said to mebut Kelly, if you're going to
Boots, there are like a hundreddifferent shampoos that you can
buy.
Why can't there be a differentpair of knickers?
And I was like, yeah, she'sright, so I'm going to look for
somebody else.
And I ended up I wantedeverything made in the UK.
So I was like you know, this isgoing to be the best thing ever

(24:03):
.
It was so difficult.
I couldn't find a manufacturer,I couldn't find the fabrics.
So I thought, right, I know thatthey're selling these in China,
so I'm going to buy a couple ofpairs from some factories in
China.
I had a couple of pairs sentthrough and one of them was
really, really well made and thelady is a woman who owns the
factory.
She speaks really good English.
So I messaged her and said look, can we have a chat?

(24:24):
This is my idea.
I have a technical pack.
Could you make a sample?
And she came back and said yeah, no problem.
So I think I was quoted in theUK by this woman who said it
wasn't a very good idea.
She quoted me 1500 pounds tomake one sample and in China it
was like it's 150 pounds and Ithought, for 150 quid I got two
samples made from two differentfactories and again this one

(24:45):
came through and it was exactlywhat I wanted as a couple of
tweaks and that was it.
And in my naivety I ordered4,000 pairs of knickers.
I had no idea what I was doingand then, like the panic set in,
I'd spent all of my savings forme.
My husband was saving to buy acamper van we can talk camper
vans another time.
Yeah, still haven't got thecamper van yet, but it will come

(25:08):
, um.
So I spent all of my savings on4,000 pairs of knickers and
they came over and I was like,oh my god, what do I do now?
And then had to do a um, aphoto shoot.
Never done that before set upmy own.
What do I do now?
And then I had to do a photoshoot never done that before set
up my own website.
And then I just thought it waslike Kevin Costner, build it and
they will come.
And it's actually it's not assimple as that.
People did start buying from me.
I don't know where they foundme from, but then I was very,

(25:29):
very lucky early days to meetConnie, my co-founder, who's
again 20 or years younger thanme, very good at social media,
she's witty, she's smart, she'saway with words and we work
together.
And, yeah, now it was purelyshe was doing my social media at
the start, and now she's myco-founder and she just actually
left to have a baby.
She just had a baby two weeksago, yeah, so she's fulfilling

(25:52):
the maternity part of ourstrapline which is keeping you
moving through all of these lifestages.
So she purely had a baby, justum, for content.
I think that's a lie, but yeah,so she's amazing.
And yeah, we have a team.
Now we've got Claire workingwith us and she does all of our
operations, and we actually havea new social content manager

(26:12):
called Rebecca, who startedabout seven weeks ago.
Who's just incredible.
Yeah, so we've got a reallyfantastic team.

Sue Anstiss (26:18):
Female team and where did your confidence come
from?
Because I love this story ofthe whole.
Yeah, I'm gonna order 4,000 andI'll sell them.
But in terms of that confidenceand that you know, and what
were your ambitions at thebeginning when you did that, did
you always see that it, it?

Kelly Newton (26:34):
would be something .
So I always say it's notconfidence, it's naivety.
I just think I'm a bit.
Actually I'm a bit thick aswell, because I just always
think, oh, it'll be all right.
I honestly I said this tosomebody yesterday I honestly
thought I just need a decentpair of knickers and from that
I've built like this ridiculouscompany that employs people and

(26:55):
now makes money and is stockedin boots and on QVC and we're
having amazing conversationswith people.
I do.
I sit back and I think who am I?
This has been a real evolutionfor me, because I did start off
not knowing what I was doing.
I still feel like a little bitof me doesn't know what I'm
doing, but I feel like I've gotso much more confidence now.

(27:17):
I don't know who I am anymore.
I don't recognize myself fromfive years ago.
I feel so much more confidentin speaking to people.
I was a yes person before.
I'm very much a no.
That doesn't work for me.
If that doesn't work for me, Iwill say no.
Actually, you know it's notgoing to work for me.
Take lots of opportunities.
I did used to take everythingon.

(27:38):
I'll do this, we'll do that,we'll do that.
And now I'm trying to be alittle bit more choosier.
I still want to work witheverybody, because I want to.
You know, I feel like I'm at astage where I want to support
other people now as well.
But mentors I've had someamazing female and male mentors,
to be honest with you, and Ifeel like that makes me feel so
incredible, knowing that I'vegot all of these amazing women

(28:00):
around me who support me andhopefully in some way I can
support them as well, and Ithink that really really helps
my confidence.
I look at what they're doingand I think I'm so in awe of
what you're doing and I want toemulate you.
I want to be like you and, yeah, that I feel that's where it's
come from that's brilliant,isn't, isn't it?

Sue Anstiss (28:16):
And our paths first crossed when Kate Helen and I,
as you mentioned earlier, whenwe were creating the Women's
Foot Collective, which was 2020,during COVID, and I think you
were such an early supporter ofthe network, so was that around
the time?
So 2019?
When did the 4,000 pants arrivein your house?

Kelly Newton (28:32):
They arrived in 2019.
Yeah, boxes and boxes arrivedin 2019.
Yeah, boxes and boxes arrivedin 2019.
Yeah, and I saw you guys reallyearly on and I was like, oh, I
want to be a part of this.
This is like you know.
Firstly, these women areamazing, but they're doing
something that's so incrediblewithin sports and supporting all
of these women, and I've justwatched it grow and grow and
grow.
And, like I said earlier, meand Claire were at a basketball

(28:54):
match and we saw you and we werelike, oh my God, it's Sue and
Kate.
Me and Claire were at abasketball match and we saw you
and we were like, oh my God,it's Sue and Kate.
And we followed you aroundbefore we built up the
confidence to say hello to you.
And then I've seen you at quitea few places.
We've been to Lewis, haven't we?
To the football club?
I think we were at Elevate aswell.
I've seen you there.
Yeah, I'm not stalking you.

Sue Anstiss (29:10):
Honestly, I know it looks that way.
Always happy to see you.
Well, I was going to say aboutCOVID, so 2020,?
Was your band BP3 before youwere?

Kelly Newton (29:20):
Nixie, yeah, we don't like to talk about BP3.

Sue Anstiss (29:22):
All right, I'll move on from that.

Kelly Newton (29:23):
No it's a rubbish name.
It was a really rubbish name sowe liked it.
Yeah, we were BP3 at the time.
And where did Nixie come from?
So what happened was actually Iwon a 10 grand grant, which was
completely unexpected, and acouple of people had said to me
BP3 is a really crap name andyou need to change it.
And I was like, yeah, I know, Iknow, I just couldn't think of

(29:43):
anything else.
So we used the 10 grand tobasically rebrand.
So the Nixie were.
They were ancient femalegoddesses that helped women with
their gynecological issues andthey were often depicted
squatting.
So we like this is this is whatwe do.
Yeah, this is us.
So, yeah, nick c body came fromfrom that word, actually, and
that was our lovely designer,tiff, who we worked with to kind

(30:06):
of get that name and get ourrebrand in.
So every single pair of knickeris named after either a family
member who's modeled for me or afriend who's modeled for me.
So our suzy knicker, which isour most popular knicker, is my
mum.
My mum is suzy, she's so proudI love that.

Sue Anstiss (30:23):
That's so lovely and that opportunity can do
whatever you like, can't you?
It's your business, but I loveyour thing to.
Everything's going to givepeople.
I was gonna say so you.
You said you're in your early40s, perimenopause or starting a
new business, but what wouldyou?
What advice would you give nowto other women who might be
listening to this and think,well, they've got an idea or a
thought.
You know what advice to distilldown, but what would you?

Kelly Newton (30:47):
say.
I mean you have to.
You have to have a belief inyourself from the start.
You don't listen to people whoare poo-pooing you, but surround
yourself.
Surround yourself by amazingwomen who are poo-pooing you,
but surround yourself, surroundyourself by amazing women.
That's what I've done and Ifeel like this is just grown
into something so huge becauseof the people that I've got
around me.
It's so important to network,definitely to go out and network

(31:08):
.
Be confident in your ideas.
You're going to make mistakes.
I made so many mistakes.
I'm still making expensivemistakes today.
I always say to people oh, youlearn from your mistakes.
I don't learn from my mistakes,I'm still making them.
But yeah, just surroundyourself and ask people
questions.
People are always keen to help.
I used to feel reallyembarrassed asking people for

(31:28):
help in the beginning.
I used to think people aregoing to judge me and think that
I'm stupid or whatever.
I now think people love to helpother people and I have reached
out to so many quite high uppeople who are like yeah, I'll
give you half an hour of my timeor offer to take someone for a
coffee.
If they've got time, they'llcome for a coffee and you can
kind of get all of these answersout of you, but be kind.

(31:50):
I think there's a lot to besaid for being kind to people,
because people remember that andthey'll always come back to you
and maybe a relationship thatyou build from the beginning
doesn't kind of evolve intoanything.
But I think just recentlysomebody contacted us that I'd
spoken to probably about fouryears ago and they'd remembered
me and now we're doing some worktogether.

(32:10):
So you know you've got to be init for the long run.
But I think the most importantthing is to surround yourself
with great women.

Sue Anstiss (32:17):
That's lovely to hear.
I hear, hear, I hear.
I agree with that.
Um, I was just gonna ask, Iguess, in terms of challenges
and you have said the kind ofmistakes made and things, but,
but do you have those kind ofsleepless nights and the
pressure of, or, um, you know, Iguess, how do you deal with
that?
Because that is the stressfulpart, isn't it?
As you're building?
You're building thismagnificent thing, but obviously
it comes with with that tooyeah, I mean I have.

Kelly Newton (32:41):
I had recently more waking up at three o'clock
in the morning with that oh mygod, and everything's really
highlighted how you know itfeels so much worse at three
o'clock in the morning.
It's generally cash flow.
To be honest with you, it wasalways cash flow.
I know.
I know that we've got anamazing business, but there's
always a problem with cash flow.
And that's probably my biggestfear.
Not now because we've hadfunding, but that was always my

(33:04):
biggest fear.
Have I got enough money thatneeds to come in so I can pay
for that?
So then that can go out and wecan grow that.
Going through the menopause, Ithink was probably worse.
You know, having those kind ofissues and anxiety through that
HRT has really, really helped me.
But I don't think I would have,I wouldn't have built the
company if I wasn't goingthrough the menopause.
So I'm quite great, I'mactually quite grateful for

(33:24):
having the menopause and I dofeel like I've come through.
I'm still menopausal, but I'vecome through that horrible
anxiety stage and whatever.
I feel like such a strong,powerful woman now and I feel
like that's just my stage oflife.
But that's not just being onHRT.
I think it is surroundingmyself by such amazing
supportive women and men.

(33:46):
I can't keep saying just women,because I've got some.
You know, my husband is amazing.
He's so supportive ofeverything that I do and there
are other men that have reallyhelped me on my journey, but
basically I just like women.

Sue Anstiss (34:02):
I love working with women.
It's so much nicer.
It's interesting I wasn't thiswasn't the route of the podcast,
but it's really interestingthat post-menopause and I'm
older than you, so I'm throughthat's about the impact of of
HRT and all of those on me nowfeeling I can take in anything,
I feel confident, I feel strong,I feel the best I've ever felt
in terms of business.
Obviously, I'm now doingsomething very different to what
I was doing 25 years agorunning the agency, but I just

(34:24):
feel like in this fabulous notalmost unchallengeable but yeah,
I can go and do that.
If I want to do that, it's likea really different place to be,
and I think we often think aboutthat older women as getting a
bit frail and not quite there,but actually it's almost.
This is the point, I think,where I feel the strongest, most
able to deliver whatever it isI want to do, than I've ever
felt in my life absolutely.

Kelly Newton (34:46):
Yeah, I absolutely agree with you.
I really do.
I just feel like nothing is toolarge for me to be able to cope
with now.
I used to get like if I'dsomething come up and it used to
stress me out and I'd beworried and crying and stressing
out about it and I couldn'tdeal with it.
But now, if something comes inand I think, okay, that's quite
a big task.
I don't know if I feel mentallyprepared to do that quite yet,

(35:07):
so I'm going to leave that andI'll deal with it later.
Whereas in the past I would befretting and crying and, yeah,
you're so right, we're in thisnew era now where I just feel
like throw it at me, you justthrow it at me and I'm just
going to deal with it.
I'm not even scared anymore.
Yeah, there's so many, you know.
Just going to events now.
I used to hate going.
I actually would never, ever goIf I was meeting friends.

(35:29):
I'd never walk into a pub on myown.
I'd walk around the block andbe 10 minutes late, so I wasn't
the first one in the pub becauseI used to get real anxiety
about that.
I'd never sit and eat dinner onmy own if I was out traveling.
I actually was on business inScotland recently and for the
first time in my life I'm 53, Ihad dinner on my own.
I went to a restaurant, didn'thave a book or a magazine,

(35:49):
didn't get my phone out, and Isat quite confidently and I
could see people looking at meand I was like look at me, look
at me, look how brave I am.
You know, I felt felt reallyamazing and I didn't just go
straight back to the hotel andlock the door and sit in the
room on my own.
I did a little bit ofsightseeing and that, I just
feel, has come with age.
That's definitely I.
Age has brought a newconfidence to me.

(36:10):
Yeah, I totally agree with you,sue.
It's a great way to feel, isn'tit?
I just absolutely.

Sue Anstiss (36:15):
We want to all those younger women to know it's
very gets very positive in thefuture too, doesn't it?
Yes?

Kelly Newton (36:20):
it really does like you're right.
People talk about getting olderand you know how frail you
become and how sad your little,your little life is.
But actually, you know, my kidsare grown up now.
Me and my husband are soexcited for our next, our next
year.
You know, we're trying to getthem to move out.
It's proving quite difficult,um, but you know, once they're
out, we're going to be off,we're going to be traveling,
we're going to be doing, we'regoing to get that camper van and

(36:41):
we're going to be doing likeliving our life again.
It's so exciting.
I love it.

Sue Anstiss (36:45):
I love it you mentioned earlier in terms of
funding and that accessingfunding, and I do know the cash
flow challenges of running abusiness and I know that you
have been seeking investment andyou've got investment now, but
we do often hear that femaleentrepreneurs have a harder time
in finding that funding, justgenerally, but also within the
sports space too.
So what has your experiencebeen there?

Kelly Newton (37:06):
Yeah, so I mean, for a long time I was very
resistant to funding but thenrealised that actually the stage
where we were at we actuallyneeded it to grow to be even
bigger we were at.
We actually needed it to growto be even bigger.
So we took on um an advisorfemale advisor, who was amazing
and she helped to prepare us.
It's taken us about a year toprepare, to get ready, to go out
to pitch and honestly, I speakto so many different people and

(37:28):
so many people like it's abrilliant product.
Let me know when you're umyou're looking to raise like.
These are all men, by the way,that I've met throughout you.
You know different events and Iwas.
I actually thought this isgoing to be really easy.
These people know me, they knowmy product, they think it's
amazing and actually when I sentit out to people, I just got
blanked.
It was like tumbleweed.

(37:49):
I was so shocked.
I was like but you said it wasa really good product and now
you're just like ignoring me.
I think the problem isobviously it's a very taboo
subject that we're dealing with.
It's a very niche product.
We've actually targeted ittowards the sporting you know,
the female within sports and,again.
Female sport is so on the riseand I just honestly thought it

(38:09):
was going to be a.
Really I was very naive, againvery naive.
I just thought it was going tobe really easy for us to do.
To be fair, we did getinvestment from one investor and
it we closed the round in sixweeks.
So from the time we opened theround to be closing it was six
weeks and having the money inthe account, this guy is amazing
.
He is so supportive.
He's somebody that I've knownfor a long time.
He's actually a friend of myhusband's again, very, very

(38:31):
lucky.
He was in our circle and Ithink that it's so important to
look within your inner circle ofpeople.
But he has watched us.
He's watched me grow, for youknow, the past five years, six
years, and he said you know, Iknow you've got an amazing
product, but I also know howhard you work.
I've watched you and I'minvesting in you and your team.
I'm not investing just in yourcompany.

(38:53):
So he's taken a step back.
He's introduced me to a coupleof people that have you know,
actually we're hoping to workwith as well, but he's almost
just like our silent partner.
So my story is very, I thinkprobably very, very unique,
because we know that women tendto get.
I think at the moment it's lessthan 2%, it's probably just
over 1%, so it's gone down.
I know in the last year, howmuch were you looking to, how

(39:24):
much you're hoping to, we raised300k.
So it's not, it's not huge,it's actually big.
It's pretty big, you know, forour first, for our first raise,
and that money is going to besent spent on marketing, on
salaries, on stock and yeah,just kind of things like that.
So we've already taken on onemember of staff.
I'm trying to be really frugalbecause, as a mum always had six
kids, I've always had a budgetto deal with and I've I'm very
good with a budget, very goodwith a budget.
But then we had a.

(39:44):
We had a meeting the other weekwhere apparently I was being a
bit tight with the budget.
So because I'm I'm constantlywatching it thinking, oh, I
don't want that to go below thatand that you know.
So apparently I was being abeing a bit tight and we weren't
sticking to our plan, so I'vehad to kind of let go a little
bit.
Again, it's a real learningcurve for me.
I've never been the CEO of acompany before, so I'm dealing

(40:07):
with all of these things thatare really alien to me.
So we're all growing andlearning together at the same
time, but I've got a reallyamazing support network around
me.
We've got a couple of amazingadvisors.
So Julia Elliot Brown she's oneof our advisors got Claire
Robinson.
I met actually met ClaireRobinson.
She's ex Reebok and Adidas, mether on the women in football and

(40:29):
zero entrepreneur partnershipprogram, which was absolutely
incredible, and we've had somany opportunities from that and
I still meet up with all of thewomen that were on there.
And then our other advisor is aguy called john dennis.
He's a wonderful man.
He's great.
He owns a company called fitbrand, so he's in the sport
industry.
He knows a lot of people andhe's actually our distributor.

(40:50):
You know we're now stocked in.
We're going to be launching inup and running at the end of the
month.
We're in yeah run company inall of their stores in the
running hub, and he started theconversations with us with
parkrun as well, so we'reactually on parkrun's website in
a shop and we sell out all thetime on there, which is
incredible for us.
So, yeah, so I've got a greatteam.

(41:11):
And then I've got my mentorfrom the zero and women in
football program was laurayoungson, who, yay, who we all
know and love um and laura isthe yeah, the founder of ida and
also a guest in this series aswell, too, which is a lovely
coincidence, yeah, and she'sjust had her third baby.
She's an absolute machine.
I just am in complete awe oflaura.

(41:32):
She's been an incredible um youknow influence for me and and
then I mean then there's lucyPeabree Bras as well, I think
you might be talking to.
Lucy, she's gonna be a guest aswell, she's been incredible for
us as well, so supportive andyou know, again, we I'm hoping
that we do help each other out,but we connected.
Actually, I think it wasbecause of the women's sports

(41:54):
collective.
I think we kind of spotted eachother.
But I've actually worked withquite a few of the women who
I've met through the WSC, fromour zoom calls and kind of
reaching out when you seesomeone's part of the same
collective of you, like, oh okay, we should connect on LinkedIn
and so many connections thatI've made.
Yeah, so lovely to hear.

Sue Anstiss (42:12):
I was gonna ask you .
I was gonna ask you justleading in from that, so that
whole we talk about women'ssport being this really
collaborative space in terms ofpeople sharing news, et cetera,
and sports teams and leaguesacross that supporting each
other rather than alwayscompeting.
I'm going to ask you this, andit sounds like from what you've
just said, it is the case, butis that the same in the female
product space, with differentbrands and companies seeming to

(42:35):
collaborate?

Kelly Newton (42:36):
Absolutely, yes, definitely.
We're on a breakout WhatsAppgroup and we are all
entrepreneurs, all femaleentrepreneurs, who all make
products to keep girls and womenplaying sports and being active
.
So, yeah, there's quite a lotof us on there, but we do all
support each other, like ifwe're at an event.
We try to collaborate with eachother, we share information.

(42:56):
I think sometimes it might be alittle bit difficult if you've
got exactly the same product assomebody else.
There's going to be a littlebit of gatekeeping and I can
understand that.
You know you're working hard tobuild your brand.
We started as our brand aroundthe sports arena.
It was always around the sportsarena.
We kind of lost our way alittle bit because we were
starting to like.
Our target audience is actuallyreally vast.

(43:17):
It's nine-year-old girls canwear our period products up to
like.
I had a lady who's about 98 whoused to ring up to buy her
knickers for her bladder leaks.
So I feel like we lost our waya little bit, but then it came
back to do.
You know what I want to keepeverybody moving and looking at
the stats of how many girls giveup playing sports, because you
know, back periods are such abarrier to participation.

(43:39):
So you know that we kind ofwent back to that and and now
it's more of it's acollaborative thing with all of
these women.
And I think I do speak foreverybody when I say you know,
we do really, really supporteach other.
And it's so nice when you go toan event and you see someone
you know that you can likeconnect with and and try to work
with together, and you seesomeone you know that you can
like connect with and try towork with together, and you know
I mean watch this space, as Isaid before, watch this space.

(44:02):
There's some really excitingthings happening with all of
these amazing femaleentrepreneurs in the sporting
world.
There's yeah, I can't speakabout it, it's really
frustrating, but you'll knowsoon.
And yeah, we know soon that youknow anyway, but you can't tell
anybody.
But there's some reallyexciting stuff coming up and

(44:22):
this has been collaborative andand I've got to say Laura has
has driven it from from the verystart.
Laura, and actually Martha fromFab Little Bag as well, was the
one that kind of put it, thisidea, into everyone's head.
So yeah, it's exciting, it's soexciting.

Sue Anstiss (44:32):
And do you personally get frustrated when
you see the big brands nowtaking up that space, but maybe
not doing it with the passionand the authenticity and the
expertise that you have?

Kelly Newton (44:42):
yeah, I did used to get really worried.
I used to think, oh my god,they're going to copy my design,
they're going to come in and dothis and do that.
But if you look at the likes ofNike and Adidas, you know
they're bringing out similarproducts, but it's a very tiny
part of what they're offering.
So they're looking at it likewe're not going to make a lot of
money out of this.
What I look at is, I think,well, actually you're raising

(45:02):
the, the profile of theseproducts.
So it's because the people knowthat they're out there.
So you know, I know primark doperiod knickers, now marks and
spencers do period knickers andsometimes there's this whole oh
my god.
But if it's actually reallygood for women to have choice,
you know my, my knickers mightnot, they might not be for
everybody, and that's great thatthere's something else out
there that will help you tostill participate in sport, to

(45:25):
be able to manage your periodbetter, to give you that, you
know, a new, innovational way ofhaving a period.
So that's really good.
I used to get really worried.
Now I'm just glad that you knowthey're.
They're elevating the fact thatthis product's out there and
hopefully at some stage peoplewill find us and buy us and love
us and use us forever yeah,absolutely.

Sue Anstiss (45:44):
And what are the biggest challenges that you face
right now, then?
So, is it around awareness?
Is it around enough product outthere?
Is it about listings anddistribution, like where are the
difficult points for you interms of your growth?

Kelly Newton (45:57):
yeah, I think it's brand awareness definitely.
You know we've been going, forpeople always like, oh, so
you're a new brand.
It's actually no, we've beengoing for five years, but I feel
like we're a brand challenger.
Definitely that's quitedifficult and also actually with
the again, the rise of women'ssport is amazing, but now you've
got all of these brands thatare wanting to get into the big
teams and you know it's verydifficult for we haven't got the

(46:19):
budget to be able to supportand we really wish we had the
budget.
We want to get in and we wantpeople to be paid and you know
girls should be paidprofessionally, like men are.
So it's great to see thatthat's on the rise.
But actually that worries me.
It's like, are we going to kindof miss the boat on that?
I honestly think we're gettingthere.

(46:39):
We're getting the big listings.
You know we're speaking to somereally exciting people.
I was recently in Poland andthey were a little bit backward
on products like this, but welaunched last year with a
distributor and it's growing andgrowing and it was really
lovely to meet all of thesepeople that own the shops that
we're stocked in over in Polandand it's you know, we're doing

(47:00):
that there, then we need toemulate that.
I always thought that you had toreally focus and nail the UK
market before you went anywhereelse.
But recently did I listen tothis podcast?
It was like actually no, thisjust might not be the best
market for your product.
You know, maybe you need totake it to the Middle East,
maybe you need to do that marketfor your product.
You know you, maybe you need totake it to the middle east,
maybe you need to do that.

(47:20):
So that's, that's somethingelse that we really kind of want
to focus on and start to lookat, you know, international
markets, because I think there'ssuch a big market for us and in
terms of education for girlsand mothers and fathers, in
terms of putting girls intothese pants, because it's almost
like a bit of a no.

Sue Anstiss (47:35):
I had three girls myself.
It was almost like.
It was almost like thatno-brainer of like why would I
not have had?
I guess they weren't around atthe time.
But even now, as they're older,where does that change that
shift?
And I guess it is for some.
I know there's conversation onthe sports bras.
Sometimes it can be the cost itcan be, but actually with this,
in terms of how much you onsanitary protection across their

(48:02):
life period products, god,apparently you know the equation
must be that it's better to buythese.
So where does that need to?

Kelly Newton (48:05):
shift that education piece.
Yeah, so I think people do saythere is an initial outlay to
buy in these knickers.
So if you were to buy fivepairs of, say, my suzy knickers,
you'd pay about 80 quid, butthey would last you about three
years.
Over three years you would bespending and this is just on
organic tampons or pads you'd bespending about 180 quid.
But not just that.
You're not contributing to allof the waste that's ending up on

(48:28):
our beaches and our landfills.
Your vaginal health willprobably thank you for it as
well.
There's a lot of people thatI've spoken to, not necessarily
using my products, but they'resaying that they've switched,
they've made the switch fromdisposable to reusables and
finding that their cramps aren'tas bad.
So there's, you know, there'ssomething to be said about maybe
how these products, thesedisposable products, are
affecting, you know, yourvaginal and your hormonal health

(48:50):
.
So yeah, I think, definitely asan education piece, we try to
do a lot of that on our socialmedia, our blogs as well, our
website.
I feel like we're quite, I feellike we're pretty informative
on on all of our social channels.
So how do we get out to thesegirls to to get the message
across?
A lot of it is also that youuse the products that your mom

(49:10):
was using, and and again,there's not been a lot of
innovation.
I mean, I used a menstrual cup.
When I was towards having theend of having my, I found out
about the menstrual cup.
My mates thought I was anabsolute weirdo because I was
using a menstrual cup.
It was the best thing I'd everhad.
Actually, we work with aunicorn menstrual cup, a lady
called Julie.
She's fantastic, she's soeducational and she always says

(49:31):
it's about education.
You know, she's trying to sellthis menstrual cup and people
are like, oh, that's disgusting,like oh, why would you put that
inside your vagina?
And she said it's like it'sabout education and we just need
to keep getting it out thereand pushing it and pushing it
and hopefully we get a lot ofour sales through word of mouth.
So people are telling theirfriends, who are telling their

(49:52):
friends, and it's just going tokeep growing like that.

Sue Anstiss (49:55):
And I guess you've alluded to some of the
collaboration stuff that'shappening in this space.
But in terms of Nixie Body,just in closing, really your
future plans for the growth youtalked, international space
perhaps, but what are your kindof overall plans and ambition
for Nixie Body?

Kelly Newton (50:12):
So I mean we have some really great partnerships
already.
So we've partnered up withScottish Hockey, who been
amazing.
They have really supportedtheir female athletes.
So there's there's a few of usworking with them actually Fab
Little Bag.
There's Unicorn PB Bras as well.
So we are collaboratively, haveworked with them, which has
been amazing.
We've worked with WalesLacrosse as well, which has been

(50:34):
super and Bounce.
So we we want to work with allof these kind of like um sports,
basically sports um teams andcompanies, and not just the big
ones.
We've actually again, I can'tsay it we're just about to
announce a partnership with likeone of the biggest sports in
the uk that's the females play.

(50:55):
I can't say you might work itout.
I can't say but once that'sannounced and I can tell you
I'll put it in the show notesthe females play.
I can't say you might work itout, but I can't say but once
that's announced, then I cantell you.

Sue Anstiss (50:59):
I'll put it in the show notes afterwards, if we can
announce it.

Kelly Newton (51:02):
Yeah, we're talking to a lot of big teams at
the moment, but not just bigteams.
We want to support fromgrassroots up.
So we have a really greataffiliate scheme that if people
within your club use the code,then you get a commission, so
clubs can actually get cash backfrom that.
I've got to say, actually wework with um athletics, bromley,
but bromley athletics club I'mgoing to start wrong, claire's

(51:25):
going to go mad, mad.
It's bbahc who and they've beenamazing and we want to support
all of their athletes.
So, yeah, there's lots thatthat's the kind of.
Next stage for us is to to tryand support, not just with the
knickers but with education andhopefully with with a little bit
of cash as well, because youknow, we're just so passionate
about girls having to play these, these sports, and if you

(51:48):
haven't got the teams there,then we're not going to be able
to go out and play these, thesegames.
So we want to be able tosupport us in as different and
many different ways as we canbrilliant and in terms of you
personally in the business, andyou're growing.

Sue Anstiss (52:00):
What's your, your long-term goal?
Just to keep it growing andthriving and get that camper van
yeah, I want to get that campervan eventually.

Kelly Newton (52:08):
Um, yeah, I just, I love what I do.
I live and breathe what I'mdoing, you know, like this is,
this is more than a full-timejob to me.
This is, this is my life.
I love it.
I want to keep educating people.
I want to yeah, I want to growit, keep growing it and
eventually retire and travelaround the world in my little
camper van.
This, the dream for me is we'reworking so hard and and at the

(52:31):
end of all of this, I want to beoff traveling with my husband.
Maybe my kids can come for alittle bit and just just look
back and just think what anamazing thing that we've done.
Just literally, I needed adecent pair of knickers and now
I have a fully fledged, likequite positive and you know
great company, and I just feelreally proud of everything we've
achieved.
And, yeah, people like you havereally helped us to to kind of

(52:55):
launch this, and the communitythat you've built is absolutely
incredible and I'm so proud tobe a part of it.
So thank you.

Sue Anstiss (53:06):
If you'd like to hear from more trailblazers like
Kelly.
There are over 200 episodes ofthe Game Changers podcast that
are free to listen to on allpodcast platforms or from our
website at fearlesswomencouk.
Along with elite athletes,guests include coaches,
entrepreneurs, broadcasters,scientists, journalists and CEOs

(53:27):
all women who are changing thegame in women's sport.
As well as listening to all thepodcasts on the website, you
can also find out more about theWomen's Sport Collective, a
free, inclusive community forall women that work in sport.
We now have over 8,500 membersacross the world, so please do

(53:47):
come and join us.
The whole of my book Game On theUnstoppable Rise of Women's
Sport is also free to listen toon the podcast.
Every episode of Series 13 isme reading a chapter of the book
.
Thank you once again to SportEngland for backing the Game
Changers and the Women's SportCollective with the National
Lottery Award, and to Sam Walkerat what Goes On Media, who does

(54:12):
such a brilliant job as ourexecutive producer.
Thank you also to my lovelycolleague at Fearless Women,
kate Hannan.
You can find the Game Changerson all podcast platforms, so
please do follow us now and youwon't miss out on future
episodes.
Do come and say hello on socialmedia, where you'll find me on

(54:34):
LinkedIn and Instagram at SueAnstis the Game Changers
fearless women in sport.