2025 Year-End Startup Grant Awarded to SparkFR

WomensNet is pleased to announce the recipient of its 2025 annual $50,000 Year-End Startup Grant.

Heather Stewart, based in Heather Stewart, won the September 2025 Startup Grant, and is the founder of SparkFR.

Take a few minutes to be inspired by her interview with Jama Hernandez about her business growth this year and her plans for the year-end grant.

Video Transcript

Jama: Hi everyone. My name is Jama, and I am on the board of WomensNet. We are so excited to introduce to you our 2025 year end winners. Our winners are all ones that won a monthly $10,000 award, and now we’re here celebrating because they’ve won $50,000! Thank you for carving out some time today to be able to talk to us about what you’ve been doing, and what you’re going to do with the $50,000! Heather, you are our startup grant winner, and you’re also you won the September 2025 award. Can you please remind our network about SparkFR?

Heather: Spark FR is a safety company and we’re building flame resistant gear for women’s bodies specifically. I’ve spent 20 years in construction and utilities, so I know firsthand how improperly fitting PPE can be. And most people don’t realize that in a flash fire or an arc event, regular fitting clothing will catch fire and it’ll keep burning, and FR (fire resistant) safe clothing will self extinguish and help limit heat transfer. So knowing those risks, we decided to create this clothing so that it would fit women’s bodies more properly and then reduce the safety risks.

Jama: Thank you so much. So, what have you been up to since September?

Heather: So the original Amber Grant allowed me to move from planning into execution. I prioritized certifications early-like before we won the grant so that as soon as we received funding we would be able to just move. I purchased certified FR fabrics and compliant components, and I funded professional pattern making and I protected our ip, which includes SparkLE, which is our FR safe laundry ecosystem. Most people don’t realize that when they wash their FR clothing ,that any kind of scented products or even dryer sheets will compromise the clothing (because it can leave behind flammable residues). So we designed SparkLE to help basically protect garment performance and extend the lifetime of it. And then we are planning on using that when we do our pop-up events and our mobile fitting trailer and educating people on how to keep their clothes safe. And because testing and certification is super expensive, we tried to be really thoughtful early on. By choosing certified materials, I was able to extend the impact of the grant and still meet our safety standards. And then with all of that, I was able to produce our first prototype, which is a long sleeve button up women’s utility shirt. So that is currently in wear testing. And yeah, hopefully we’ll be launching it soon.

Jama: Wow. Thank you. You’ve been a busy, busy person this past year! Wonderful.

Jama: Tell us how and where you’re gonna go this next year.

Heather: So many places! So the grant will help us basically move from pre-launch into certified production and revenue. And it will help fund the completion of third party testing. It also supports early revenue through SparkLE, which is the laundry or the FR safe laundry ecosystem while our garments are moving through final testing. And then it will support our pop-up activation kit, and that will be the first step for deploying our mobile fitting trailer-which brings safer options directly to the field to women so they can try on our gear and be safer and bring them education as well!

Jama: That’s a lot!

Heather: Yeah. There, there’s other things too, but I will go on all day about it!
Jama: Well, thank you so much for considering our women, especially our women in the trades that need to be protected. It’s such an important thing to have a well-fitting garment- it is truly lifesaving. And so thank you for the important work that you’re doing.

Heather: Yeah, It’s just amazing that we are in 2025 and we really don’t have a lot of options- it seems like it’s so simple, just being clothing. Hopefully we’ll be changing that!

Jama: Absolutely. I remember even just going to Home Depot and getting gloves that fit- just finding something to protect your hands is so hard. And so we do really appreciate the work that you’re doing! And so there you have it. Our 2025 year end winners! Please check out these businesses- they’re amazing. They’re doing awesome things, and track them as we will be in the year and seeing how they are doing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!