The founder and president of Knix Wear Inc., a Toronto-based company that is expanding its leak-proof women's underwear brand in properties across North America, laughed when she recalled her early efforts pitching her product to potential investors.

"In the early days of Knix, all my meetings would go pretty much the same. I would be at a [venture capitalist] fund office, and there would not be a lot of female partners, so I would always see male partners," said Joanna Griffiths. "You could see the horror" on their faces when they found out "what I was there to talk to them about."

That was before Knix became one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada and globally recognized as an innovator in the apparel space.

Griffiths launched Knix a decade ago intending to transform an underwear market that she said had too much frill and not enough function. She discussed her efforts and plans for more stores during a keynote presentation at the ICSC Canada conference in Toronto this month.

Her candid start-up tales had the audience laughing but investors know her company is no joke after Knix sold an 80% stake to Swedish hygiene products giant Essity for US$320 million last year. Now, Griffiths is leading Knix's expansion back into brick-and-mortar stores after being a digital-only retailer for the past few years.

Knix has about 15 locations, including three in the U.S. in high-end retail centers in Santa Monica, San Diego and San Francisco. She said the goal is to have 30 locations across Canada over the next couple of years. The company drives 60% of its sales from the U.S. and with its online presence, Knix sees more potential south of the border.

"We are sort of dipping our toes centralized in California but it is such a huge market," Griffiths said. "We are hyper-focused on Canada and the United States but we see a lot of runway on where we can expand internationally," she said. "Partnering or selling the majority to an international company like Essity" provides access to their global reach.

When Griffiths started the company in 2013, the leak-proof underwear prototype was supposed to be a game changer, but the first test pair was nothing of the sort.

"It was this horrific pair that could only be called bloomers from the 1900s. I got this thing that looked like it belonged in a museum," she said. So, Griffiths set out to find better manufacturing partners.

Another early problem came from retailers that didn't want to carry the size range Knix was offering. "This was in the era when people over a certain size didn't exist," she said.

Then in 2016, the founder said she decided to pull out of more than 800 retail locations, cutting revenue by 80%, and start over as a direct-to-consumer brand.

"It was a decision based on customer feedback and I'm proud to say following the decision, we experienced 24,000% three-year growth," she said. "That's when the product took off. We needed to communicate with the customer directly."

In 2019, Knix opened its first two stores in Vancouver and Toronto as pop-up locations for six to 12 months with an option to extend.

"We started with street-front locations," said Griffiths, and then went into malls and retail hubs to test the waters.

While digital has been great, she said consumers want the in-person experience after having already heard about the brand.

"They need that final [push] to really make the leap of faith and make a purchase," said Griffiths.

While Knix is busy expanding its offerings into new lines such as swimwear, other companies are now embracing the market Griffith envisioned a decade ago.

"When I started, never in a million years did I think Victoria's Secret would make leak-proof underwear," she said. "Now it's just become so mainstream."