Product Notes - The Brief Behind the Sports Bra
We set out to create the best sports bra that is supportive without feeling restrictive and looks great. If you’ve ever designed anything, you’ll know that every product is a balance of decisions and compromises. The Design Brief informs how you make those decisions and dictates what product you end up with. Is your focus sustainability, function, aesthetics or something else?
Ultimately, I couldn’t find a sports bra that felt supportive and looked good. I quickly realised support means something different at every cup size, and no single design could work across all of them.
I couldn’t do it all at once, so a decision was made to focus on women between D-FF. This is the demographic that has the least options on the market, despite the average size in the UK being 34D. Brands often base their designs on a 32B or size S. I am not from a fashion, but what I gather is that it’s partly a historical norm and sometimes an intentional choice to design for an athletic build. This is why if you’re above a D cup, you probably ended up buying sports bras not from your favourite sportswear brands, but from lingerie shops instead.
Bringing that all together for Stana’s first product, our sports bra design brief revolved around designing for D-FF around three key pillars:
- Function - how do we design a truly supportive sports bra?
- Feel - how do we ensure no restriction and comfort for any movement?
- Look - how do we make it look great?
1. Function
Most of the brief here focused on science and research coming out of University of Portsmouth Research Group in Breast Health. Having attended their workshops and also tested the bras in the lab, we pulled out the top design features of a sports bra that makes it effective:
- Underband that is wide and not too loose - this is where 80% of support comes from.
- Racerback - spreads the pressure better across your shoulder and feels more supportive.
- High neckline - ensures upward movement is supported (as well as downward and side-to-side).
- Materials - using a woven material (rather than knitted) that holds its shape.
2. Feel
In one of the first design meetings, I said: There is no point designing the most supportive sports bra, if it feels so uncomfortable that no one wants to wear it. And that became an important sense check to our decisions.
- Does the underband feel so tight, you can’t breathe?
- Is the cut or coverage such that it restricts movement?
- How does the material feel against the skin?
- How does the sports bra feel in different conditions? e.g. when it’s wet?
- How does it feel to put on and off?
All these pieces were as important as function for the design and testing of the sports bra.
3. Look
It’s a common misconception that things are either functional or they look good - not both. Well, that’s a design choice. Often brands will compromise on the colour of the fabric, to be able to get better technical qualities at a cheaper price. Totally understandable, but not what we’re after at Stana.
A lot of sports bras for bigger breasts still look like lingerie, rather than sportswear. I wanted to see if we could still get substance and style.
The end product
What we ended up with is a sports bra that feels incredibly supportive, but without restriction. No chafing or digging, you almost forget you’re wearing it during movement. The Italian fabric dries quick, so if you’re grabbing a coffee after you run, you’re not stuck in a wet sports bra for hours. It doesn’t look like lingerie, so you can ditch your top in hot weather. And with adjustable underband and straps, it’s easy to take off once you’re home.
The sports bra has been tested on runs, during hyrox and a 70.3 triathlon - we can’t wait to see what challenge your Stana sports bra ends up supporting you on.