Lillia Callum-Penso

lpenso@greenvillenews.com

Melissa Thomason's business philosophy is similar to her undergarment philosophy: There is no such thing as "one size fits all." And to find success with either, you have to find the right fit.

"It's number one," says Thomason, owner and president of Breakout Bras, a specialty bra retailer with an international customer base. "You learn as you go."

Breakout Bras, Thomason's 14-year-old company, is proof that she has. The 40-year-old mother of two started the business on a whim. She wanted more time at home with her kids and knew the travails of bra shopping as an "outside-the-average-size woman."

By all measures, Breakout Bras could have inched along, providing Thomason with some income but not a living. After all, Thomason had just $3,000 and no previous business experience when she launched the company. But what she lacked in the practical, Thomason made up for in hard work and a no-fail attitude.

And Breakout Bras' growth is proof.

Within a year, the business had moved out of Thomason's garage and into a brick-and-mortar store. And just last year, the company moved again from a 5,500-square-foot space on Haywood Road to a 10,000-square-foot facility that houses both a warehouse space and a retail store.

Today, Breakout Bras has made a name for itself as a specialty retailer for those needing custom-fitted or specialty bras. The company has grown a devoted following for both its variety of styles and sizes, as well as its carefully-honed fit service.

As many as 85 percent of women are wearing the wrong size bra, according to research by clothing manufacturer Jockey.

"If you're able to go into a store and pick something off the rack and have it fit and feel good to you, then you're not going to understand," Thomason says. "The ones who are going to understand are the ones who can't do that. They can't go pick something off the rack. We get women in here who cry. They've tried and tried."

Even as competition from online retailers has grown, Breakout Bras has maintained its stature, evolving and shifting to create a niche source for those needing specialized bras.

"It was one of those experiences where I walked away from it thinking, someone understands," says longtime customer Anna Daniel, who found it nearly impossible to find her size in regular stores.

Entrepreneur in the making

Thomason has the sort of no-nonsense, straightforward attitude that can get things done even in a seemingly impossible situation. That quality has helped her grow her business from a small garage-based outfit to a multimillion dollar company with customers around the world.

And she's proven that the conventional business approach is not always the right one. An Upstate native, Thomason grew up in Miami and dropped out of school at the age of 16. But she ended up getting her GED a month before her class graduated.

Having detested high school, she went straight into the work world. She worked for her father and then at Ruby Tuesday, where she met her husband, James.

James and Melissa married in 1994 and eventually decided to move back to the Upstate, where Melissa found a job in credit collections.

At every step, Thomason took jobs to pay the bills, not out of love for the work. That lack of desire became more apparent after she had her first child.

"We felt the best thing to do then was for me to stay home and to start an Internet-based business," she says.

She just needed an idea.

Early days

The irony that Thomason originally started Breakout Bras in order to stay home is not lost on her. Most days, even when she is home, she is working.

"It's the nature of owning your own business," she says a bit wistfully.

But then, back in 2000, Thomason saw starting her own business as the key to being a stay-at-home mom. It took a little self-reflection to figure out just what kind of business.

As a larger woman, Thomason says she'd always had trouble finding the right size bra, but pregnancy and breastfeeding made it near impossible. Some days, she says, she just stay glued to the house to avoid the situation altogether.

She figured she wasn't alone.

Breakout Bras started with $3,000 Thomason got from cashing out her 401(k) and a strong desire to work from home. With so little capital, the business started as a mail-order site where customers could order through Breakout Bras and then Thomason would place an order with the manufacturer.

The process took forever.

Luckily, fate, in the name of Las Vegas, stepped in to help speed the process. While there on a business trip, James played a slot for Melissa and won $6,000. The money helped transition the company into an online retailer. Thomason kept products in stock that could be shipped next day.

One year in, the business was rocking slow and steady. Thomason was doing everything herself — from ordering to customer service and shipping — from her living room and garage. It was all good, but not great. That's when James suggested trying pay-per-click advertising. The style of advertising allows businesses to pay for association with certain words, so that when the words are searched, the business appears at the top of the search list.

They spent $500 and waited.

Finding her stride

Thomason is not one to wear her emotions on her sleeve. She maintains composure, answering questions with short, succinct sentences that provide the necessary information, no more and no less. That's why it's easy to almost miss when she is saying something really big, like when her company's sales essentially grew by more than 100 percent in a weekend.

Essentially, Thomason's business exploded. Sales went from the dozens-per-day range to around 200 per day. And within a week, James quit his job to help out.

As business grew, Thomason began homing in on what set her business apart. She spent time researching how to fit a bra correctly, finding guidance through European sites that discussed the issue of band size. Most places put women in a band size that is too large in order to get the right cup size.

"It changed everything," Thomason says of the sizing method. "It made a lot of sense, and it worked."

Contrary to the norm, fitters at Breakout Bras do not use measuring tape for sizing. Instead, they are trained to size by assessing everything from cup size to torso length.

The whole process usually takes an average of 30 to 45 minutes, says Arielle Leduc, who has been with Breakout Bras for more than eight years.

"I don't know of one single piece of clothing that is as important as a bra," Leduc says. "It's your base. And women are already so hard on themselves, and this really makes such a big difference."

The growth helped Thomason grow her business even more. She opened her first store in 2002 in the heart of Simpsonville. The store helped boost Breakout Bras' local presence and won customers who have followed them through three locations.

Daniel, who lives in Camby, Indiana, is among Thomason's loyal customers.

Daniel says she used to suffer from chronic back pain and low self-esteem because of ill-fitting bras. She ordered online, but even specialty stores like Victoria's Secret didn't have her exact size.

She found Breakout Bras through an online search and was so excited that she and her husband took a detour on their vacation several years back just so Daniel could be fit in the store. She's never looked back.

"It changed my life," Daniel says.

The age of online

The warehouse at Breakout Bras is a sight to behold. On a Tuesday after a new shipment has arrived, the 10,000-square-foot space is filled to the brim with colorful, lacy and even plain specimens. Rows upon rows of bras and swimwear fill the racks. Bras of every shape, color and size. And size is the key difference between Breakout Bras and your average retailer.

Whereas a department store might carry 12 sizes in one brand, Breakout Bras' manufacturers typically carry 72 different sizes per color.

But it has gotten harder. Now, there are many more online retailers selling bras, including Amazon.

Thomason says she's re-evaluating her strategies to deal with increased online competition, but in the meantime, she's making it work for her. Breakout Bras markets through Amazon as a registered third-party seller.

Even as Breakout Bras' own website sales are down, the company's sales on Amazon have grown. So much so, Thomason says, that 2013 was the company's best year yet, and 2014 is shaping up the same way.

"Now, there are much larger online bra sellers than we are, but we're different," Thomason says. "We're very specialized. So when we gain customers we keep customers."

Thomason also has other ideas — manufacturing products herself, for example.

"I do have ideas for new products I might get into myself," she says with a smile. "I might actually start doing some manufacturing, so I might start my own line."

With some you might think this is just talk, but given Thomason's track record for starting new ventures, you never know.

On a Tuesday midday, the store on Woodruff Road is bustling with activity. In the retail area, fitters attend to a few customers, and in the back, reps take phone orders from customers. Thomason sits back watching the scene she has created.

She can't stop now.