New London native Hayley Cannon (Segar) has an origin story that will be familiar to many women: seven years ago, she was shopping for swimsuits for a trip to Miami and couldn’t find a single one she liked. Nothing fit as well as her beloved no-show underwear, with its bonded seams and lay-flat fabric. That’s where the a-ha moment comes in: she wondered, why not take the concept of what makes no-show underwear so flattering and turn it into swimwear?
“People kept telling me over and over that it couldn’t be done,” Hayley, who now lives in Fairfield County, tells Westport Lifestyle. But with a true entrepreneur’s spirit, Hayley didn’t take that for an answer. The University of Connecticut alumna connected with an advisor at the Connecticut Small Business Development Center—a no-cost resource affiliated with the university—and they suggested she apply for the summer accelerator program at UConn’s Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CCEI). At the time, Hayley only had a prototype of her seamless swimwear, but she was accepted into the program, which came with $15,000 of nondilutive funding and eight weeks of startup support. “They took a chance on me,” Hayley says. “They weren’t really doing apparel or consumer products at the time. The startup support was amazing. Their vote of confidence was huge for my confidence in myself.” With the funding, Hayley found a technical designer who was willing to bring her concept to life. “Basically, we took two layers of normal swimwear fabric—not one, like no-show undies use–and bonded them together, instead of using seams that are bulky and squeeze,” she explains. “And then we have a soft, flexible, inner grip strip that keeps things secure in the water without the use of seams or elastic.” The result was almost exactly what she’d originally envisioned when she sketched out her idea. In 2020, she started production of the line, which she named onewith—after her pursuit of swimwear that is “one with” your body.
The brand took off immediately, proving that Hayley’s lightbulb moment packing for her trip to Miami was an experience that women all over the globe could relate to. “We went viral so many times,” Hayley says. “We really found our market.” Things were growing steadily, but onewith exploded in popularity after Hayley appeared on season 16 of Shark Tank to pitch the line. Hayley had actually been hesitant to apply, but after she sat in on a webinar with her founder’s networking group where alums of the show raved about their experiences, she took a chance. “I was like: you know what? I’m going to use this as a moment of confidence and apply. Of course, you’re thinking you’ll never hear back,” she says with a laugh. But she did, and she got a rare double-shark deal, with Barbara Corcoran and guest shark Jamie Kern Lima (the co-founder of IT Cosmetics) sharing 20 percent equity of the company. “Shark Tank was gas on the fire,” she says. “Being able to say ‘we were on Shark Tank’ instantly legitimizes what you’re doing. I think some people honestly thought [when I said I had a swimsuit line] that I was in my spare bedroom crocheting bathing suits. But when you say ‘Shark Tank’ it clicks for people that we’re doing something different. It is just really validating as an entrepreneur.” And as you’d expect, having insight from Barbara Corcoran and Jamie Kern Lima has been invaluable. “It’s been incredible to have the sharks on our side and get advice from them,” Hayley says. “The sharks have been there, and done that. They remind me that when in doubt, cut out the noise and follow the data.”
While onewith has become go-to swimwear for women all over, it also has deep Connecticut roots, and not just because Hayley grew up here, or even because onewith’s offices are in Darien. “My coastal Connecticut upbringing shaped the entire brand,” says Hayley. “From the beginning, I never wanted palm trees in our branding. To me, the beach is going to Anchor Beach in Milford or Compo, not Turks and Caicos.” (She even named one of the brand’s core bottom styles after Compo Beach.)
And as Connecticut has influenced her, she’s giving back to the next generation of CT-based entrepreneurs: she recently joined the advisory board at the CCEI, the same organization that kickstarted onewith’s journey. “I feel forever grateful that they saw something in me so early on, and I feel like the least I can do is help other entrepreneurs in their journeys by advocating for them,” she says. “I really appreciate UConn building this infrastructure to facilitate entrepreneurs and give them funding and support they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. They’re being so looked out for. I can’t wait to see how that progresses through the years.”
Hayley never stops innovating, either. When she got married earlier this year, she had the idea to create her own wedding dress with onewith’s patented construction (see right). “I woke up one day and just knew I needed to wear one,” she says. It's a testament to how much the brand means to her. “Onewith is so fulfilling, because it allows me to do everything I love to do, and express myself in all the ways I’ve always wished I could express myself,” she says. “It’s the most rewarding thing I could have asked for.”
To shop onewith, visit onewithswim.com
“Being able to say ‘we were on Shark Tank’ instantly legitimizes what you’re doing," says Hayley.
“My coastal Connecticut upbringing shaped the entire brand,” says Hayley. "To me, the beach is going to Anchor Beach in Milford or Compo, not Turks and Caicos.”