Protective Underwear

Julia Veldhuijzen van Zanten is the co-founder and chief product officer of LifeSense Group, a B2B company that designs and produces wearable technology for ‘digital health continence solutions’.

Since her graduation project for Design Academy Eindhoven, van Zanten researches, patents and produces continence technology. Van Zanten found that while mild to heavy incontinence is a common occurrence in adults of all ages, the products available to people struggling with the issue are woefully outdated – uncomfortable, wasteful, expensive and humiliating. Van Zanten designed washable incontinence briefs, which provide a secure and dry feeling and are, at the same time, environmentally friendly and sustainable. Since winning the New Material Award for Protective Underwear in 2014, van Zanten has refined the underwear and also worked with software and wearable technology developers to make products that can help combat incontinence. Her designs have been scaled up and adopted by healthcare and insurance providers.