There is nothing sexy about periods. But Strapt has found a way to make them a little better — one chic vending machine at a time.
Carly Simenauer, an Emory Goizueta and Georgia Tech graduate, founded Atlanta-based Strapt Vending to provide free period and feminine products in quality, contactless restroom dispensers. The goal, as the startup’s website states, is to provide “smart, free personal vending…because it’s the 21st century and it’s about damn time.”
Strapt’s most recent partnership with the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with fellow Atlanta-based partner The Honey Pot, will bring complimentary period products to 15 women’s restrooms across the 300, 200, 100 and club levels of the stadium starting this month (just in time for Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour this weekend). This location adds to Strapt’s growing list of partnering Atlanta facilities, which include Ponce City Market, The Hotel Clermont, and Ladybird.
Since Strapt’s launch in 2021, the startup has provided over 15,000 period products to women in the Metro Atlanta area. The company plans to expand their reach to other U.S. cities later this year.
“[At Strapt], we believe that providing complimentary menstrual care is not just an amenity; it’s a statement of inclusivity and empowerment,” said Simenauer.
Simenauer drew inspiration for Strapt from the rusted, abandoned, or unstocked dispensers that haunt women’s restrooms, which lead to limited accessibility around in-restroom period products. Her dispensers have a simple yet sophisticated look that “feel like they are from this century.”
“Our intention has always been not just to provide a better experience than what’s currently available today, but to raise the bar and provide an experience that excites women whenever they see us,” Simenauer told Hypepotamus.
Over the past two years, Strapt has evolved its business model and learned from its client base in order to both maintain and scale its network.
“By providing best-in-class products, delivering a seamless user experience, and always listening to the massive community of women who share in our mission of universal access to period care, we’ve become a platform that women can trust,” said Simenauer.
Strapt machines are trendy, space efficient, battery powered and LTE connected, so there is no wifi requirement for location partners. Their remote inventory support, combined with provided dispensers and product, creates a low maintenance system for partnering facilities.
By providing this support, “we’ve been able to add enough value to our facilities to overcome the burdens that have historically prevented them from hosting or maintaining the old machines we’ve seen rot on walls for decades,” Simenauer explained.
The vetting process to become a vendor or a product featured within dispensers begins with an e-form on Strapt’s website. This submission will be followed up by a Strapt team member.
Products that are featured within dispensers are often up-and-coming feminine product brands, like Here We Flo, a company that creates organic tampons, pads and liners, and the brand MOONS.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jamie Miller is based in Atlanta and graduated from the University of Georgia with bachelor’s degrees in Journalism and Business Management. When she is not writing or working as a Business Consultant at Ernst & Young, she can be found reading a good book (anything from Harry Potter to Brene Brown), sipping an espresso martini at the neighborhood bar or hunting the flower aisle at Trader Joe’s. She aspires to produce diverse and valuable journalism for the world in the hopes that it inspires others to become lifelong learners who seek first to understand, then to be understood. Read her portfolio here.
