Knix

Knix is a Canadian intimate apparel company founded in Toronto in 2013 by Joanna Griffiths. It makes leakproof underwear for periods, bladder leaks and sweat, along with wire-free bras, swimwear and loungewear, and since July 2022 it has been 80 percent owned by Essity, the Swedish hygiene group behind TENA and Libresse.

Among the direct-to-consumer lingerie start-ups of the 2010s, it stands out for being profitable when it sold, and for the size of the sale.

Joanna Griffiths and an awkward subject

Griffiths came to the idea while studying for her MBA at INSEAD, where she graduated with distinction. Her starting point was a problem the lingerie industry mostly ignored: leaks. Women dealing with periods, bladder weakness after childbirth or heavy sweating were sold disposable pads and liners from the pharmacy aisle, while underwear brands sold lace.

Joanna Griffiths set out to put absorbency into the underwear itself. The company launched in 2013 as Knixwear and was bootstrapped at first, selling through wholesale. In 2016 it moved to a purely digital, direct-to-consumer model and later shortened its name to Knix.

How leakproof underwear works

The principle is a layered gusset. A wicking top layer pulls moisture away from the skin, an absorbent core holds it, and a leak-resistant backing stops it reaching clothes. The craft lies in making those layers thin enough that the high-waist brief or bikini brief looks and feels like ordinary underwear. Knix sells different absorbency levels for light to heavy days, and the gusset size changes with them.

The Evolution Bra Kickstarter, 2015

Knix's breakout came from a bra, not underwear. In September 2015 the company launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Evolution Bra, an eight-way convertible, reversible wireless bra with interchangeable straps and a patented bonded construction that molds to the body without underwire.

The campaign ran until 24 October 2015. A total of 13,642 backers pledged 1,105,177 dollars, making it, at the time, the most funded fashion project and the most funded female-oriented campaign on Kickstarter. With follow-up crowdfunding on Indiegogo, the total passed 1.5 million dollars before the bra went on general sale in May 2016, after production delays the company explained publicly to backers.

Wireless before it was standard

The Evolution Bra arrived as the market was turning toward comfort. Its bonded, wire-free build anticipated the wave of wireless bras that grew across American lingerie later in the decade, and Knix kept wireless bras as a core category alongside leakproof underwear.

Growth, stores and a teen brand

The figures released at the time of the sale show how fast Knix grew. In 2021 net sales reached 133.6 million Canadian dollars, up 97 percent on the year, with EBITDA of 13.8 million Canadian dollars. The company employed about 200 people and ran six Knix retail stores. It also ran Kt by Knix, a separate line of leakproof underwear for teenagers.

Griffiths closed a 50 million dollar Series B round in 2021, three days before giving birth to twin daughters. She later wrote Life After Birth (2021) and a children's book about periods, Some Period (2023).

The Essity deal

On 8 July 2022 Essity agreed to buy 80 percent of Knix Wear Inc. for 320 million US dollars on a cash and debt-free basis, valuing the business at 400 million dollars. Griffiths kept 20 percent and stayed on as president. It was widely reported as the largest publicly disclosed sale by a solo female founder in Canada.

For Essity the logic was simple: the company already sold pads, liners and incontinence products, and leakproof apparel is a reusable alternative to all of them. Buying Knix put the group on both sides of that shift.

What Knix changed

Knix did not invent absorbent underwear, and it competed from the start with brands such as Thinx in the United States. Its distinction was positioning. It sold leakproof briefs as part of a lingerie wardrobe, next to bras and swimwear, rather than as a medical product. Griffiths was named Canada's EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2023 and Glossy's Founder of the Year in 2024, by then running a brand owned by the company that makes TENA.

Last updated October 7, 2026