Our Story

My name is Julie, and I am the founder of Zippaport. Our shirts were inspired by my four year old daughter, Sadie. Sadie was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in December 2019. She has been such a trooper, but asking her to take off her shirt so that her port could be accessed was a continued source of anxiety.

While perusing Instagram one day, I found some zippered shirts designed for port access. It was at the begining of COVID, and the shirts were coming from the US. I thought I could try making my own and it worked perfectly. I posted about it, and soon found that there was a huge need for this kind of shirt in Canada. Zippaport was born.

On most days it feels crazy to be launching a not-for-profit while my kid is still in active treatment, but it also feels like the best time – because I know what it’s like, I’m in the hospital to share information about the product, and I have my very own Zippaport model.