a piece of sports equipment, not lingerie

May 12, 2022 9:02 AM

Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller, and Polly Smith are among this year's inductees for the US National Inventors Hall of Fame because they created the first sports bra. Jogbra started in 1977 -- five years after Congress passed Title IX. This BBC article details the story and includes cool photos of old advertisements.
posted by brainwane (6 comments total)

I will love them forever for inventing sports bras and also for this which has to be a Romy and Michele reference, doesn't it?

"When we saw the list with all the other inventors we thought, 'We'll just tell them we invented Post-its.' We just didn't feel as serious," Smith said.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:51 AM on May 12, 2022 [10 favorites]

But speaking to store owners and managers - mostly male - "we would be laughed out," Lindahl said. "Almost every time they'd say 'we don't sell bras in our store.'

Is it humanly possible to not immediately, scornfully reject a new thing simply on the basis that it's new? Do people hear themselves?
posted by bleep at 10:06 AM on May 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

Yet, despite their current bra'd appeal......
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/may/11/adidas-sports-bra-ads-banned-uk-twitter-asa
posted by johnjohn4011 at 10:34 AM on May 12, 2022

I played high school soccer from 1978-1982, on the first girls' soccer team my high school had, and I have vivid memories of girls layering bras over bras, because there was no such thing as an exercise bra then. You had special bras you used for sports because they got sweaty and gross.

I don't think I bought an actual sports bra until I was out of college, though. Things are better now, in some ways.
posted by suelac at 11:01 AM on May 12, 2022 [3 favorites]

The wider 'athleisure' market is $25bn and also booming.

Some perspective though - I barely leave my house and I just bought four pairs of yoga pants and I'm definitely not in the market for a bra.
posted by bendy at 10:26 PM on May 12, 2022

Sports bra! Sports bra! Lifts and separates
Sports bra! Sports bra! Baby don't jiggle around
Wear it all over town
posted by rocketman at 7:11 AM on May 13, 2022