- Faye Bingham tried to design a better backpack than the one she was given to support a feeding tube.
- She sourced a backpack and adapted it to her needs — and she saw a market for the product.
- This is how she grew her business from her spare room, as told to Amber Sunner.
This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Faye Bingham, a 26-year-old founder from Kidderminster, England, about starting the business. It has been edited for length and clarity. Insider has verified Bingham's sales with documentation.
From age 13, doctors misdiagnosed me with anorexia nervosa. I spent a lot of time in the hospital growing up because I was very underweight and very malnourished.
I was often put on feeding tubes during my prolonged hospital stays from 13 to 22. I had a gravity-fed nasogastric tube, or NG, a tube that carries food and medicine to the stomach through the nose.
In January 2019 I was fitted with a permanent NG tube to help me maintain a consistent weight. This one was pump-fed and required a backpack to carry the pump and feeding bag. At the time, I was 22 and studying at university.
I took my favorite Disney backpack and asked my husband to get some fishing wire and ribbon. I sewed the ribbon and wire into the top of the bag with a needle to hold my feeding tube and pump.
The hospital gave me a backpack to carry my pump, but it was black and boring
In February 2019, a month after being released from the hospital, I went to an adult eating-disorder unit in Glasgow. They discovered that my previous diagnosis of anorexia nervosa was wrong and correctly diagnosed me with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder.
ARFID is a physical aversion to food that is separate from body image. This diagnosis meant I started getting the correct treatment I needed. I felt like I could finally be with friends and plan for the future, and I started going out more.
Every time I went out between March and June 2019, I had to carry around three backpacks because I couldn't fit all my feeding-tube supplies into one.
It was a hassle.
I wanted a bag that would make me feel more confident and own my diagnosis
During that time, I began designing a big-enough backpack for day-to-day living with a feeding pump. I wanted it to fit a laptop along with textbooks, pencil cases, and a spare change of clothes.
I tried backpacks and materials from a variety of retailers. I also researched how to create safe entry and exit holes for the tubing that connects the feed bag to the pump and the pump to the NG tube.
I bought a £20 sewing machine and started hand-making the bags with special adaptions. It took a few months to design the product.
I hand-make all of the backpacks from a spare room in my house. I watched a couple of YouTube videos to learn how to set up a business and paid a website-subscription fee to sell my bags on Etsy.
In July 2019, while I was still doing my master's degree, I launched Tubie Life, selling the adapted backpacks I had designed.
I made about £30 of profit in my first month — but I loved making the backpacks, so I kept at it, and sales picked up.
Having a tube on your face is noticeable
People stare.
I knew hospitals would tape children's IV lines with teddy-bear cannula dressings. I thought, why can't adults and other feeding-tube users have patterned medical tape to replace the boring white tape used on NG tubes?
In December 2020 I invested the money I'd made to buy specialist printers for personalized Tubie Tape — a patterned, medical-grade tape — to replace the boring white tape used on NG tubes.
I paid a graphic designer £150 to touch up the logo I had designed.
In May 2021 I created a Shopify website. I currently run both the Etsy and the Shopify sites, and I've expanded my product range into tape and stickers and bags.
The critical thing I have learned is to make your brand personable
I built brand recognition through Instagram.
The Tubie Life Instagram tells you who I am as the creator. I post a healthy mix of Reels, Stories, and in-feed posts, but Reels has been the most successful.
One of the first Reels I made was to audio of the days of the week showing seven NG tube tapes. I want to inspire people to feel confident and express themselves through their tapes.
We have seen an increase in sale conversion rates when I post a Reel of about 7% to 8%.
It was incredibly hard juggling university and Tubie Life. I dropped out of university in January 2022. I feel passionate about my business and want to devote myself fully to growing it.
Since last April I have made more than £61,000, almost $77,000, in revenue from my handmade products on my site and my Etsy store. Last month I made £7,000 in income.
I am proud that my job is increasing the quality of life of my customers.