A LITTLE ABOUT THE PROJECT:

For a while we had thrown around the idea for a ftm/masculine-of-center swim top. Years of personal experience with heightened dysphoria during the summer and seeing others struggle to find an appropriate top to wear while swimming and not seeing any adequate options spurred us to create a solution.

Our solution was the Bareskin Binder. We combined the silhouette of a traditional half binder and compression sports bra to create a comfortable top that binds but still lets you get a tan and feel closer to being shirtless than anything else out there. We offer this top in a range of skin tones so that the wearer can have a passably topless "masculine" aesthetic, this is theoretically less visually triggering than wearing a bikini top, sports bra, traditional binder, or shirt and allows for more confidence and comfort. Our Bareskin Binder is also intended to be worn for every day activities not just swimming or summertime.

In November of 2015 we launched our Kickstarter for the Bareskin Binder -- an inclusive nude colored binder that included a range of skin-tones, something that hadn’t been done before. Thanks to 766 backers, we successfully funded our project through Kickstarter in December 2015 (making this the second most funded trans-related project in Kickstarter history) and began selling en masse in October of 2016. Our production is done through a domestic manufacturing team here in Austin that is ran by a woman of color. We've always been about supporting local, small, female, and minorities so working with our manufacturer was a no-brainer.