The Hug Story
My name is Fiona, and I am a product design engineer, I'm also Female.
For now, my chosen field is still somewhat male - dominated.
I have suffered on and off for a long time with sometimes very painful period pains, for me, and many others the pain is not just in the low stomach like you would imagine, but spreads around almost the full circumference of my lower abdomen.
Along with many others like me, to cope with this while working I had been taking painkillers to just make it through the day, then coming home and collapsing on a hot water bottle on the sofa. It occurred to me how impractical these outdated items are if you want heat around your full abdomen, and, especially, if you want it hands-free and not obvious. Personally, I don't want to explain to my male colleagues why I am lugging a hot water bottle around factories and meetings.
I jumped on the web to see if I could buy something that would give me the relief I needed without taking painkillers and whilst I could get on with things and was so disappointed with what I found. Given that 67% of women suffer in silence from similar afflictions why hasn't anyone created something to help?
This bothered me for some time, until I remembered I am a designer.
Many hand made prototypes, chats with other women, tests by myself and others, Hug was born.
Together, we created a discreet, re-usable heatpack, which hugs the waist right where everyone reported the most pain, and can be adjusted to suit the beautiful variety of bodies that women proudly sport. To ensure comfort we chose a soft, velvety backing material, which can breath when worn next to the skin and adds a much-needed touch of luxury. For safety, I heard many stories of hot water bottle burns, so we added a colour changing temperature safety indicator and used a special gel pearl bead filling which would simply roll away from the skin in the case of a puncture. This also have the bonus of feeling so satisfying to squish!
Best of all, we designed Hug so it can be used in several ways, and hot or cold.
Hug can be heated in any microwave or chilled in the freezer. Periods are often associated with headaches and migraines, so a cooling pack wrapped around the head or neck can be a massive relief.
What has been so wonderful about Hug is the unexpected feedback we have had. So many men and women with varied chronic pain conditions ranging from sport injury, to Migraine, Sciatica, Fibromyalgia, Endometriosis, surgery recovery and back pain have found Hug immensely helpful in managing their pain.
It has been a long and sometimes challenging journey, but hearing that in the process of it I have been able to help others suffering as I was is the most exciting part of our adventure together.
Thanks for supporting us at Hug!
Fiona Bennington