GoodFeel ensures women never ask the to-pee-or-not-to-pee question in a public toilet
Recently launched in Mumbai and Thane, the GoodFeel product lets women pee standing up so they can use unhygienic public toilets without worrying about UTIs.
Kashmira K works as a sales representative for an FMCG company. She spends most days in the field, meeting clients. While she loves her job and the hustle that is a part of selling, one of her concerns is the fact that even a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai doesn’t have hygienic public toilets.
A similar problem was being faced by the mother of one of Ashutosh Joshi’s friends. She was suffering from arthritis and would struggle with intense pain each time she had to sit to relieve herself. It was then that a curious search for a solution to this suffering took root in Ashutosh’s mind. Soon, GoodFeel was born.
GoodFeel is an innovative, comfortable and safe wear-on garment that allows women to relieve themselves while standing up. It is a product that is a result of over two years of intense research, tests and trials. Patented worldwide, the product drains off completely and is tested and certified to pass health and hygiene standards.
Building the product
Being an engineer who has worked in the manufacturing sector for over 25 years, Ashutosh knew that he had to make his product comfortable and easy to use. The undergarment has a special rubber attachment that helps women urinate in a standing position without needing to remove it. She doesn’t need to sit down or bend at all, which relieves her completely from the hassles of dirty toilets.
How do you use it? You need to buy a GoodFeel panty of your size and must ensure that the rubber is properly placed and fitted on the lower portion of the body. The product should not be used during your monthly period.
“While the idea was a breakthrough, finding the right material for the garment and rubber nozzle was a task. We explored vendors from India and abroad also before finalising a European one. Periodic tests, experimentation, and research were done over two years before we could crack this,” Ashutosh explains.
The panty is comfortable to wear with Indian and Western apparel, is re-usable (up to 60 washes) and can also be washed in the washing machine.
Understanding the space
Interestingly, a survey conducted by JSR Innovations, GoodFeel’s parent company, in 2012 found that there were only 10,000 public toilets for a population of 20 million people in Mumbai. Only 37 percent of these toilets were for women.
Public toilets are often filthy and thus not used for fear of contracting infections. Many lack water or other basic amenities, making them redundant.
GoodFeel was started by Ashutosh and his wife, Sharadha Joshi, and the team was then joined by Prafulla Patil, a technical expert.
“We focused on execution from day one, convinced of the idea and scale it could go to. Our manufacturing base is in Pune, with vendors of key components in India and Europe. Shirish Joshi, another technical and operations expert, also helped me set up this venture by finding the right vendors, setting up a team and establishing an outsourcing model in marketing and sales,” Ashutosh says.
The GoodFeel team size is close to 15 people as of now.
Others in the space
Currently, there are products like PeeBuddy in the market that work on a similar model – they give women the liberty to pee standing up. However, GoodFeel uses an underwear-like model unlike PeeBuddy, a disposable, portable urination device for women.
“We are just about building a network with appointment of distributors for Mumbai and Thane. The traction has been encouraging with interest shown by institutions and government bodies. Online sales have kicked off. The response to our Facebook and YouTube pages has been phenomenal. On Facebook, the demo video of the product in a week of its launch reached of over 70,000 people and had a viewership of over 30,000,” Ashutosh says.
GoodFeel was launched in July in Mumbai and Thane, and is available in lingerie shops.
“We will enter other retail chains slowly. The product will be taken pan-India in time to come and we aim to go global eventually,” he says. The GoodFeel product is available online on their website and can be sent to any part of the world.
“We are also working on multiple products to address specific needs and plan to launch them in the future,” Ashutosh ends.
