Female Disruptors: Nicole Trunfio of Bumpsuit On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

To pioneer in something. This is some advice I got from the book Good To Great. I think striving to create something that is totally new and will have you stand apart from the rest, especially in a world of copycats.

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, we had the pleasure of interviewing Nicole Trunfio, Founder and CEO of Bumpsuit.

Nicole embarked on her mission to revolutionize and modernize the maternity landscape while pregnant with her third child. Her vision was to create products that offered comfort, sophistication, and simplified pregnancy attire. Bumpsuit was born as a versatile base layer that could be styled in countless ways, initially offering a range of essential catsuits, rompers, and shapewear. Since then, the brand has expanded into dresses, separates, evening wear, swim, outerwear, and more.

Bumpsuit isn’t just reshaping the idea of maternity dressing and empowering women to embrace their bumps in ways previously unexplored — it’s also approaching the category with purpose and intention, showing up for mothers in unprecedented ways. Nicole’s aim with Bumpsuit is to act as a catalyst for change, amplifying the voices of mothers and creating a safe space for them to share their narratives, resources, and wisdom.

In amplifying the voices of mothers, the brand is actively engaging in normalizing conversations that remain highly stigmatized. Bumpsuit leads various initiatives, including a bi-annual retreat dedicated to holding space for pregnancy and infant loss, community walks, and most recently, the launch of ‘The Village’ podcast.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I created Bumpsuit during my third pregnancy. I wore it every day, I even slept in it! Experiencing it firsthand in this way allowed me to make adjustments along the way and perfect it to meet every need. During my previous pregnancies I encountered a lot of discomfort from symptoms such as acid reflux. The elastic bands and seams in traditional maternity clothing just added to my discomfort and the maternity designs that did provide comfort were often lacking in other areas — either they didn’t fit quite right, or they looked ‘frumpy’ and unflattering to the pregnant female form. I found the available options to be stagnant, lacking fresh ideas and designs that truly celebrated the beauty and uniqueness of pregnancy. Additionally, I didn’t feel it was practical to invest in clothing that I could only wear for a short period of time. I wanted something I could buy and wear throughout all trimesters, into postpartum and years beyond, that was comfortable, suited my style, and that was easy to put together as a busy mom.

I became deeply motivated to breathe new life into the maternity wear space and create something that would serve as a source of inspiration, making the journey of pregnancy an aspirational experience. And so, Bumpsuit was born! It proved to be the perfect base layer that adapted with me through all stages of my pregnancy providing a buttery soft, second skin feel without compressing sensitive areas. It made me feel chic and supported and I could easily change the look of it every day through accessorizing. It became my go-to outfit. I didn’t have to even think about what to wear, it was just a Bumpsuit, 7 days a week, on repeat.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

We’ve set out to redefine maternity wear and to pioneer innovative products within this space, bringing a fresh and modern approach to maternity fashion. The maternity space has been stagnant for so long, it is dated, and through Bumpsuit I am bringing new life to that. Our collection is designed with meticulous attention to detail, using premium fabrics that provide both comfort and durability. Made from buttery soft, double lined, supportive and malleable fabric that we didn’t compromise on. We searched far and wide and tried and tested the fabric extensively to bring forth what it is today. It stretches and rebounds to serve all of the seasons of womanhood and can be worn pre, during and post pregnancy, making it the perfect sustainable base layer and investment for the future. Women can rely on Bumpsuit for effortless, versatile dressing and everyday wear to look and feel their best no matter what the occasion.

We are a one-stop shop that offers high-quality and beautiful products, catering to the needs of women going through the most significant transition of their lives. We aim to be a space where women can feel nurtured and supported, providing them with easy access to the products they truly desire and deserve. The Bumpsuit — an essential layer that does it all — and The Armadillo Baby Carrier are just the beginning of what we have to offer.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Because we called our baby carrier ‘The Armadillo’ and one of the colors we released it in is named ‘oyster’, we weren’t able to ship it overseas because they literally thought we were shipping oysters and baby armadillos. Customs rejected all of them and we had to figure out in the system why these orders were getting sent back to us for months! Our customers were wondering where their orders were and we finally realized it was because customs thought that we were shipping actual oysters and armadillos. So we had to change the customs name to ‘baby carrier’ in ‘taupe’ so that our customers could actually receive them! Ha! Apparently you can’t ship oysters and armadillos internationally. That was a big lesson to learn: if you’re going to start a business, be really aware of what you’re going to name your products that you’re shipping overseas.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

My dad for sure, he is no longer with us, but his words and actions vibrate through everything I do. I have had opportunities to sit at the table and have conversations with many different and inspiring people over the years, some of which I regard as having a significant influence on me, Richard Branson of Virgin, Jim Jannard of Oakley and RED cameras, Blake Mycoskie from the brand TOMS, and more recently my good friend Ty Haney — founder of Outdoor Voices, TYB and Joggy. Their words have stayed with me, and I use them as a guide to inform my decisions. Other than that there is this really great book, and anyone who works with me knows it well. It’s called Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t — it’s a core reference for me and I give it to all my employees. I also love and regularly revisit the books Freakonomics and The World is Flat.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

The word disruptor kind of makes me cringe; I find that language very provocative. I’m not very much into provocative language or actions. I think “disruptor” has a lot of ego attached to it and I’m not sure I see myself as a disruptor.

I like to see myself as adding to an industry and filling the gaps that I see and being part of a collective. I’m very much into reading the room and adding to the energy of the space, not disrupting it or taking anything away from what’s already there. I’m here to add to what’s already here.

What really bothers me is that there is not more awareness around the maternity and postpartum space, especially it being such a massive transition in a human’s life. There should be more nurturing and emphasis around women during this transition. It should be put on a pedestal. It should be amplified and more people should be talking about it, writing about it, designing for it, innovating for it. I see myself as the vessel to bring awareness, someone that tries to be better, do better, create better and empower and uplift the people that I live amongst. I am in service for this industry, I am in service for women and it is my responsibility to make products that make this journey easier. It is my responsibility to empower and amplify the voices of women and mothers and provide resources that guide people back to themselves, which is why we launched The Village Podcast.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey?

1. To pioneer in something. This is some advice I got from the book Good To Great. I think striving to create something that is totally new and will have you stand apart from the rest, especially in a world of copycats.

2. Just because you have capital, a VC partner, funding, or have done multiple rounds of funding, it doesn’t mean that your company is more successful. And in fact, it could be detrimental. Being able to say we’ve been profitable since day one without any outside funding is my idea of success. And that is because you know the product is really, really good. You can keep your finger on the pulse.

3. Team culture and office culture is very important. I can see just from hearing stories about how office culture can be very detrimental to the success of a team. Follow your gut on who you’re adding to your team. I don’t necessarily think that the most experienced person should take priority over someone that has really great energy and work ethic and wants to be a part of a team. I think that in this day in age it’s great to be hybrid because the people that are important to the business but don’t necessarily have the energy to be in office, we can have them work from home. But the energy from the in-person team members needs to be very aligned otherwise it can break the energy of an office, especially with a company like ours that is very fast growing. We need to be very flexible, we need to be able to pivot and we need everybody to be on the same page.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

We have very exciting things in the works, continuing to pioneer and innovate in this space. We are expanding our product category and taking things to the next level to make mom life easier, more chic, cozier, and just better. We just launched a partnership with Victoria’s Secret and are opening up our wholesale business to Amazon and beyond to become even more accessible.

We are working together with our community to really make sure that we are listening to them and know what they want. There is no one better to inform us than our community. We have just launched a podcast called The Village to support mothers in creating space for dialogue about the full journey of motherhood, working towards destigmatizing topics such as fertility, miscarriage, loss, postpartum experiences, mental health, birth trauma, divorce, and more. It features conversations with midwives, celebrities, psychologists, doulas, and entrepreneurs.

We are providing more resources such as our Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness retreat, which is something we want to take responsibility of as a brand — with life, comes loss, and we want to offer resources for our customers and community that need support through this also.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

I think the novelty of women in business can be quite damaging, and I think even using words like disruptor can be provocative and unnecessary. I think if we all (both men and women) can find a way to work together and focus on what our strengths and weaknesses are and where we can fill the gaps, and support one another in business it would be better for everybody. Again going back to the collective and collaborative spirit which is one of my biggest values. At the end of the day we are trying to bring products to the people of this world that can improve their quality of life in every way, shape and form so that should be the main focus not anything that divides or takes away from that.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I’ve always had this idea to start a foundation called “Peace with a Stranger”. The idea is to make peace with an actual stranger, but the concept and theory behind it is that in this world, we label people based on the story we make up about them: my mum, my dad, my sister, my best friend, the guy I buy coffee from at the bodega, etc. All these people we have a label and a narrative about them and what if we approach the people in our life that we know well as if they were strangers, take away the label and story we make up? Not expecting the answers and the responses that we are used to getting but starting a brand new conversation as it could open the possibility for a new relationship dynamic. Whether your relationship is great or not so good, you could do it at any time and I think it’s awesome to approach relationships in this way because you might be surprised at what you hear. I have told this theory to a lot of people close to me and they’ve used it and have sent me really incredible results.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My husband has given me so many good ones: “Be the water”, which is beautiful, powerful and monumental. Water is so calming, such a force, and is always in flow. My husband has been my greatest teacher and continuously raises the bar for me, he is a world of wisdom. I very much appreciate being able to hear his words and be in his presence.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can visit us on our website www.Bumpsuit.co and follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bumpsuit/

Our new podcast The Village is on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2vu3hzJN0LAQVXKJz4KotB?si=pJLJ61RKSbSJ0MHT3pDnmQ

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!