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Now, we don’t know about you, but here at Boobuddy we couldn’t imagine a life without sports bras. Kudos to the women who, until the 1970s, had to sweat and exercise in their everyday bra with very little or absolutely no support.

The evolution of the sports bra dates back 50 years and it’s a pretty interesting story with women at the helm, of course.

1970's

Even though the likes of Jazzercise, mini trampolines and aerobics were a popular form of fitness for many women in the 70’s, there were no specialist bra’s to keep everything in place.

The first ever sports bra was created in 1975 by Glamorise Foundations and was named the ‘Free Swing Tennis Bra’.

They claimed this bra had more support than a normal bra but as you can see from their advert, the thin straps suggest there are not many dissimilarities between the tennis bra and an everyday bra from that time. 

Women who golf, ski, bowl, skate, sail, ride and cycle were the main target audience with no mention of running, jogging or other strenuous activity.  The advert only really addresses the freedom of movement, comfort and coolness and ignores the issue of support ie. the REAL issue. 

2 years later, in 1977, the “Jock Bra” was born.

Lisa Landahl was a big fan of jogging with her husband but hated the lack of support for her breasts when exercising. She often doubled up on bras or even sometimes wore a bra that was too small for her, all in an attempt to lock her lady lumps in place, we can almost feel her pain just thinking about it.

She was fed up with her bra chafing on her skin, runaway straps and sore boobs while her husband ran freely and supported, wearing a jock strap to keep his privates in place.

One day, Lisa’s sister called her for advice on jogging and was shocked to discover that Lisa wore a normal bra for running and joked “we need a jockstrap for women!”, which Lisa thought was actually not a bad idea.

Lisa then called her costume designer friend, Polly Smith, to ask for help with designing and creating a supportive running bra. After many failed prototypes, her husband came downstairs with his jockstrap over his chest and joked, “here’s your jock bra, ladies!”. Little did he know his joke was about to change the active world forever.

Lisa took 2 jockstraps and sewed them together, crossing over the leg straps to make shoulder straps, the waistband became the ribband, and the supportive aspect became the cups.

She tried it out and couldn’t believe she’d finally created The Jock Bra, which was eventually renamed to the JogBra, which gave her the support she was missing.

Who knew husbands could be so helpful?

1980's

 Fast forward to the 1980s and Jane Fonda’s workout video launched the aerobic dancing craze that took over the world.

This trend inspired women all over the globe to dance around in front of their television in neon leg warmers and bright, stretchy lycra bodies, which offered no support for the breast. 

Come on Jane, we thought you’d know better than that. 

1980’s

The sports bra has come a long way but they were still designed for smaller-breasted women and offered little or no support to big breasted ladies.

Renelle Braaten was a hair stylist and fitness enthusiast who loved volleyball but struggled with finding a sports bra that supported her big boobs. Instead of quitting sports because of her frame, she decided to make a change and one evening said to her mum, “get out your sewing kit because we need to make me a better bra”.

She moved away from traditional elasticated materials and instead opted for less-stretchy fabrics and implemented a full-coverage back panel, something which hadn’t been done before. 

This was a new wave of the sports bra and Braaten spent the next nine months perfecting her prototype, all the while testing it out whilst running and working out.

The Enell bra finally hit the market in 1992, but it wasn’t until almost 12 years later in 2004 that Enell became a household name thanks to Oprah Winfrey endorsing it on her TV show.

1990's

Sports bras were always treated as hidden undergarments that women should be ashamed of. But this all changed in 1984 when Joan Benoit won the first ever women’s Olympic marathon, causing uproar as her lingerie-style bra strap showed as she completed her closing lap.

Thanks to American soccer star Brandi Chastain, who in 1999 celebrated her winning point by taking off her top to reveal her sports bra, this brought attention to sports bras and increased social acceptance. 

This move by Chastian increased awareness for sports bras but also attracted a lot of criticism from many who said Nike’s sports bras were boring and unimaginative. This prompted many other companies to step up their game and design sports bras that were not only practical but also nice to look at.

2000's

It’s only been 48 years but the sports bra has come a long way and the advancement is only getting better.

Researchers are still studying breast movement during exercise to help improve the technology around sports bras and how to best protect the breasts during exercise. 

Yet, even after 40 years of development, there are still lots of problems with sports bras and they often fail at their sole purpose, which is to support and keep breasts from bouncing during exercise, with many large breasted women having to double or even triple up to achieve optimum support.

The problem is, most sports bras focus on vertical displacement (bouncing up and down) as opposed to side to side and forward and back, whereas the breasts actually move in a figure of eight motion.

This is where the Boobuddy comes to the rescue. The Boobuddy adds support, comfort and confidence when exercising. It can be worn alone or in conjunction with a sports bra to eliminate the bounce of your boobs.

We wish we could go back in time and give a Boobuddy to Lisa Landahl and save her from wearing her husband’s old jock strap. Thankfully the Boobuddy is available to you today, check out our latest products here or read testimonials from previous customers here.

Nearly one in five women say their breasts stop them from partaking in physical activity, but this doesn’t have to be the case. We know working out isn’t the easiest of tasks, particularly when it’s something you don’t really enjoy.

From the uncomfortable pain of bouncing breasts to feeling self-conscious in a public gym and everything else that comes with working out, we know the struggles you face.

We wanted to make a difference to your work out, which is why we created the Boobuddy, a supportive, wearable fitness band that keeps everything in place and helps you to workout.

Boobuddy was created to help women all over the world feel confident when they work out and provide additional support to the breasts which often suffer during workouts.

Whether you’re new to Boobuddy or you just want to learn more, we’ve discovered 6 benefits to working out with a Boobuddy and we assure you’ll never complete a run, yoga session or horse ride without one again.

How Boobuddy Works

Boobuddy is a unique, wearable fitness band that sits on your breasts during workouts.

With an adjustable strap, the band can be worn as an additional support to a sports bra or worn on its own.

Research has shown that your breasts can move as much during a jog as they do during a sprint and this causes the breasts to move in a figure of eight motion. This excessive movement is thought to be bad for your ‘breast kinetics’ which may result in eventual breast sagging.

The science behind it is quite simple, the connective tissues in the breasts are called Cooper’s ligaments and they ultimately help to maintain structural integrity, but they’re not that strong. The Cooper’s ligaments help to support your breast and maintain its position and shape, however when these ligaments are stretched it can give the appearance of sagging, contributing to the breast losing their natural contour and shape.

The Boobuddy helps to reduce the movement of the breasts which research has shown to be a factor in breast kinetics.

The Benefits of Boobuddy

Benefit 1: Reduces Damage to Cooper’s Ligaments

The Boobuddy helps to keep your breasts in place and reduces the effects working out has on your breast health.

By securing your breasts during excessive movement, this contributes to reducing the stretching of your Cooper’s ligament and therefore the overall sagging of the breast.

Benefit 2: Increases Confidence

Many women with large breasts fear working out because of the movement of the breasts during exercise. Sometimes sports bras aren’t enough to secure you so the Boobuddy can help by giving you extra support.

With a Boobuddy you don’t need to worry about bouncing breasts which many women have said is a huge confidence boost.

Benefit 3: Provides Comfort

Many larger breasted women will be able to relate to the pain and discomfort that comes with working out and thankfully Boobuddy helps to alleviate some of that pain.

The support of the band gives you the feeling of comfort during your workout so you can focus more on the actual exercise and not alter your workout for the sake of your breast pain.

Benefit 4: Looks Stylish

Sports bras are renowned for being less than attractive, and although that’s not their purpose, we’d all prefer a stylish alternative.

The Boobuddy comes in a range of popular colours such as hot pink, stylish black or fluorescent green, allowing you to match your Boobuddy band with the rest of your workout outfit. (If you struggle to pick one colour, don’t worry we do multi-packs to take the stress away).

Benefit 5: Easy to Store

We all know the struggles of getting a sports bra on and off, with Boobuddy you won’t have that problem. 

The band is easily worn with a Velcro fitting which means it can be put on and taken off without faffing about. This Velcro further lets you adjust the Boobuddy to fit comfortably on your breasts

Benefit 6: Fits Perfectly in your Gym Bag

Whether you work out at home, in a gym or at your local park, Boobuddy is the perfect accessory that can easily be carried in your sports bag, handbag or even just in your hand (and you won’t be embarrassed when it fall out of your bag in Tesco).

So there you have some of the best benefits of Boobuddy. You can learn more about our incredible fitness band and discover what other women have had to say about their Boobudy experience on our testimonials page.