Soft Goods / Wearables Designer - Patented Sleep Product (Cash and/or Equity)

We're a funded, IP-backed sleep products startup. Our first product is a patented comfort-critical wearable — textile construction with an embedded hard component — worn overnight, all night, by someone who is asleep and moving.

That last part is the whole design problem. It has to disappear on the body for eight hours or it fails.

We've been through four prototype rounds with a contract manufacturer. None of them cleared the bar. The failure wasn't execution — it was that a manufacturer designs with what's already in their material library. We need someone who approaches this as a design problem: right materials, right construction, right pressure distribution, right thermal behavior.

What you'd own:

Materials research and sourcing (fabrics, foams, laminates, elastics)
Construction and pattern development
3–4 physical prototype rounds with real overnight wear testing
Manufacturing-ready tech pack
Input on factory selection

What we bring:

Patent filed (provisional; non-provisional in process)
Four failed prototypes with detailed documentation of exactly what went wrong and why — that's a real head start, not a liability
A founder who wears every version and gives specific, unsentimental feedback
Beta tester pipeline through a clinical practice partner
20 years of consumer business operating experience behind the venture

WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR:

Real soft goods depth — cut and sew, pattern making, material behavior under load and over time
Experience with body-worn products where comfort is the product, not a feature (medical wearables, technical apparel, performance gear, orthopedic soft goods)
Comfortable integrating rigid or semi-rigid components into textile systems
Can produce a tech pack a factory can actually build from
Opinionated about materials and willing to argue with us

Quality reference point: premium sleep and wellness brands — Manta Sleep, Ostrichpillow, Bearaby. Not drugstore braces. If your instinct is to reach for the cheapest neoprene that works, we're not a fit.

COMPENSATION:

Milestone-based cash, plus equity for the right person.

We're open to a hybrid structure — reduced cash rate in exchange for a meaningful equity stake in the company, vested. We'd rather have a partner who's invested in whether this thing actually wins than a vendor billing hours. If you've been wanting a piece of something you helped build, this is that. We have other products to follow in the pipeline, all patentable.

Straight cash engagement is also fine if equity isn't your thing. Tell us what you'd want either way.