Portable Urinal, but Make It Cool: Redesigns Change the Game for Health Products

livemint.com:

Call it nursing-home chic. Incognito compression socks, lacy incontinence underwear and earplugs that look like earrings are among the new health products attracting younger customers who might otherwise avoid the category. These products have always been practical.

The difference now is they actually look good. They also make once-taboo health topics easier to talk about, their users say. Emily Ufland, 25 years old, didn’t think a portable urinal belonged in her life—or that one could be beautiful.

That was before she got trapped in Los Angeles traffic with a full bladder in May. Desperate, she hopped into the SUV’s trunk to use the Loona her mom bought for just such occasions. “My entire family was in the car and they couldn’t hear me," she says.

“I was sold." Ufland, who works in human relations for a fashion company, now uses the $40 device, which she says resembles a vase, on road trips with her boyfriend. He appreciates not having to pull over at a rest stop so frequently. “I’m not embarrassed about it at all," she says of using the portable urinal.

“Everybody pees." Loona’s co-founder, Dr. Valerie Ulene, estimates that about a third of customers buy the device for nonmedical reasons such as camping, boating and music festivals. “When a product like this fits in with what you’re already wearing or with the design of your home, all of a sudden it doesn’t feel like a big deal anymore," says Alyssa Ambroz, a retail strategist at Minneapolis consulting firm JLB who works in wellness-trend forecasting.