Buckle up! is the motto for the belt in future.

Necessity is the mother of invention. "For me, it has always been the case that bottoms such as sports pants, jeans or skirts, if they fit well on the thighs and hips, stick out at the waist. I'm not a fan of belts and many pants, skirts or sports pants don't even have belt loops," says Ursula Dürr.

But before the young founder sat down to experiment almost two years ago, she first googled whether she was alone with this need. "The search query "jeans too big" alone returned millions of search results - numerous YouTube videos, Tik-Tok hacks, explanatory videos and many other, sometimes amateurish ideas on how to get your jeans "in shape"," says Dürr and followed Google's call for a contemporary solution.

First steps

For Ursula Dürr, it quickly became clear that she wanted to develop a product that "doesn't change the whole outfit, but creates the perfect fit for bottoms quickly, easily, beautifully and without damaging the garment".

In a first step, the then student at Hagenberg University of Applied Sciences collected ideas for the product and made sketches, which she later had printed out as 3D models and which will soon enrich e-commerce in the fashion industry in the form of a comb with a cover, customizable and in many colors.

With the support of the Upper Austrian start-up incubator tech2b, Dürr quickly became known both inside and outside the start-up scene. "I got to know tech2b at the Founders Week at JKU Linz and was accepted into the incubation program with my idea for Bundre," says Dürr.

As a Salzburg native, she first became aware of the active startup scene in Upper Austria through tech2b and its large network. Above all, the young founder benefited greatly from the BIZtrainings, the most comprehensive further training program for startup founders in Upper Austria, such as marketing, promotion, team development, financing and much more.

In February 2023, the "Bundre" clasp was patented, and in the fall, Ursula Dürr and her team were awarded the EDISON ideas and innovation prize in the "Creative Industries" category.

Ready for the market

Bundre" is currently close to market maturity, and a pre-series was sold to family and friends before Christmas. "We will still be modifying the material, that's what we decided together with our investors. The plan is to start selling at the end of April," says Dürr. Production is exclusively regional in Austria, which is very important to the founder. "I never wanted to have a product just so that the margin was halfway right and have it manufactured in China, India or Cambodia."

Unfortunately, this is "the way to go" for many in the fashion sector in particular, as a large marketing budget has to be planned for online retail. The end product is manufactured using injection molding. Dürr sees the biggest challenge in launching the product on the market in raising awareness of the product and current purchasing behavior due to inflation.

"Things are not looking rosy in the e-commerce sector at the moment. Launching new products is proving difficult, but we see great potential. Our fashion product can be ideally marketed via social media. Video explanations, supported by platforms such as TikTok and collaboration with influencers, play a crucial role in this. We already have lots of ideas for video content and just need to implement them." The goal is clear for the founder: in a few years, there should be a Bundre in every closet. _

Ursula Dürr:

• My job in a nutshell: Creating things that make the world a little better. Enabling and driving change. The best thing ever
• My superpower is, having fun with discipline.
• If I could wish for one innovation, it would be ultrasonic travel. From here to the Northern Lights in almost two seconds.
• I get inspiration and strength from sport, the mountains and lots of coffee with friends.
• 3 tips for a successful start-up: Keep at it, take the pressure off, enjoy stepping on the gas.