Emily Pyke spent 13 years in the Royal Australian Navy wearing protective equipment that was never designed for her body. That’s a common experience for women working not only in defence, but other high-risk occupations as well. And that includes the base-layer, where a sports bra and other undergarments are substituted into these dangerous jobs.
“I’ve just been given a unisex uniform and equipment, and I’ve just gone on to do my job,” she told the Commercial Disco podcast. That experience is the reason Ms Pyke co-founded the Sydney startup UndaTech. It was a problem worth solving, she says.
UndaTech was set up in 2023 and makes fire-resistant and high-performance base layer garments for women in high-risk work: defence, fire and emergency services, mining and construction, and the oil and gas industry.
As UndaTech CEO Ms Pyke was last year name Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2025 Prime Minister’s Veteran Employment Awards, and in August she was named Female Founder of the Year at Westpac’s inaugural 2026 Female Founder Awards.
The former electronic warfare petty officer says the problem starts with the bra.
“Commercially available sports bras were designed around a 45-minute workout, or a [high intensity] session, or a run, or a yoga session. They were not designed to be worn in operational environments for 14-hour patrols with heavy body armour,” Ms Pyke said.
They are usually made from synthetic compression fabric that can melt under a protective layer when exposed to fire, radiant heat or an explosion, and built with underwire, foam, elastic and sometimes exposed metal.
On a warship, that matters. “Everyone on that ship has been trained to be first response to a fire, first response to a flood, response to a toxic hazard,” she said.
A soldier carrying webbing, a ballistic vest and comms gear can also suffer bruising and breast injury if her bra doesn’t integrate with equipment that already ignores her anatomy, she says. Ms Pyke rejects the idea that this is anlo about comfort.
“We’re not dismissing the fact that it’s a safety and a performance issue by saying discomfort, because if you are holding your weapon a different way, or if you lose mobility or speed, that has a flow-on effect,” she said.
Breast support and menstruation management are the two layers UndaTech has gone after first, because neither has been addressed for high-risk workforces globally.
Its “fire-resistant protective system” pairs a fire-resistant bra with a fire-resistant menstrual brief, made from inherently fire-resistant fabric rather than chemically treated material. A performance range is built for wear under body armour.
After UK Ministry of Defence research in 2020 found high rates of breast injury among female recruits – with many never fitted for a bra – Britain began issuing performance bras as PPE.
UndaTech now has products in trial with the Australian Defence Force, with UK and Canadian forces through suppliers, with several state fire services and with mining and construction partners.
It has also bid for a Swedish Armed Forces tender for field bras. Europe is moving fast, she says, “because when conflict’s right at your back door, it’s taken very seriously.”
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