The bra company that landed on the moon
It’s 1967 and American society was shocked. All the newspaper headlines on January 28th said essentially the same thing: the three astronauts from the Apollo space program perished. The accident happened on the night of January 27th, when a fire broke out aboard of the space shuttle during a training on land.
The US was competing with the Soviet Union to be the first to send a man to the moon. The space program began in 1961, and the relentless pressure of American society to produce results quickly was influencing all of the scientists involved. Now with a tragedy that claimed 3 lives, things were not looking so bright for the program’s future.
NASA needed a new redesign, new technology, and new tactics to achieve the desired goal, and the tragedy highlighted deficiencies that needed to be corrected.
The astronauts’ outfits were one of the issues. These costumes needed a redesign because to their limited movement and vulnerability in emergency situations like fire. In virtue of this, NASA launched a public offer to hire a company to produce a new space suit.
Big corporations of the military industry applied to the process, including Playtex, a subsidiary of International Latex Company, also known as ILC.
ILC was founded by Abraham Nathaniel Spanel, a Russian Jew who escaped from the violence against his people during the first decades of the 20th century. The circumstances didn’t limit Abraham’s genius mind, and, after creating more than 2000 patents in latex inventions, he founded ILC on American soil in 1932.
The company produced gloves, hats, swimwear, and even baby nappies, but almost went bankrupt during the Second World War. However, the company was able to stay in business by manufacturing helmets for the United States Air Force.
In 1940, the company launched its new product, a Girdle with a complete flexibility made of latex, material in which the company was specialized in producing. The product was a success, and in 1947, ILC decided to create Playtex, a company dedicated to producing women’s underwear.
1941’s ads from Playtex (ILC/Playtex)
The Playtex research division, made mainly by the old ILC military researchers, was still in operation in the 1960s. This was the decade in which the Apollo space program occurred. During these years, Playtex decided to join the space industry, an unexpected decision.
Playtex competed and won the contract to create the space suit design. The fabrication of the costumes was entrusted to another company called Hamilton Standard. The relationship between the two companies soured, and the contract was almost canceled when Hamilton Standard quit. Hamilton wanted the contract for themselves, so it was probably an auto-sabotage to take out Playtex.
The company did not give up. NASA gave them a month and a half to have a suit ready for testing. Playtex used all their engineers from the Bra’s development division to design the suit. The team worked 24 hours a day for the following weeks and the miracle happened: the team delivered the new space suit with a revolutionary combination of latex in 21 layers of rubber and polyester.
NASA wasn’t convinced, but after a series of testing, the suit outperformed its competitors from larger firms. Playtex’s confidence in their product was so unbeatable that the company arranged an American football game. In this event, their technicians competed wearing the suit against other players wearing regular sports uniform. The result of this genuine test was the same as the last one: the suit fitted perfectly to NASA’s requirements for the space walk.
On July 20, 1969, a crew of three astronauts led by Neil Amstrong successfully landed on the moon. The historical moment occurred without incident with the Playtex suits. Following the one-of-a-kind achievement, Playtex grew into a large corporation that has remained in the lingerie market to this day. ILC Dover, one of its subsidiaries, is still in charge of making astronaut suits for NASA.
The sources of information are from Smithsonian Magazine, Asme org and Playtex LLC
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