The line, Andie 24/7, marks the first category expansion for the direct-to-consumer swimwear brand. The collection includes two bralettes and three underwear styles made from rayon, a soft, moisture wicking, plant-derived fabric. The assortment reflects the best-selling bottom styles in the US: thong, brief and bikini, while the bralettes were modelled off of the same patterns of Andie’s bikini tops. The new products are available on Andie’s website in sizes 0 to 26, or XS to 3XL.

Founder and chief executive Melanie Travis hopes Andie 24/7 is the first of many future verticals that will expand the brand’s platform.

“We started with swim with the goal of establishing a very high degree of trust with our customer,” she said. “When a woman finds a brand that really serves her — that fits really well — she’s really loyal to that brand, unlike say, like a baggy T-shirt brand where fit is less important.”

Though expansion was the goal before the Covid era, Travis says that now is the perfect time to enter the intimates space, given the growing adoption of e-commerce, which has led to more women shopping online.

The brand, which was founded in 2017, expects that the collection will first appeal to its existing customers and eventually allow it to tap into new audiences. As of now, 30 percent of Andie customers make a repeat purchase within the next 12 months of their original purchase. Travis said she predicts the new product line will be “needle-moving” in terms of bumping up retention numbers.

Andie is entering a competitive market: the American lingerie industry is notoriously hard to crack given lukewarm consumer sentiment toward underwear, supply chain complexity, competition with e-commerce giants like Amazon and the difficulty of scaling without a brick-and-mortar presence. As well, there’s plenty of other brands in the DTC intimates space.

But Travis said Andie has faith in its approach because of its knowledge of what women want from their more intimate items, and heavily researched approach to product development. The brand has not ruled out a physical presence in the mid-to-long term, and thinks its values and model set it apart from bigger, and similarly data-driven businesses.

“Amazon is a great platform, it’s not a brand that I have any sort of feelings for,” said Travis. “One of our goals with Andie is to really establish ourselves as more than just some anonymous company,”

The launch of intimates comes after Andie announced its $6.5 million in its Series A funding round in October 2020 from investors such as CityRock Venture Partners and Trail Mix Ventures.