Textile Insight

20 • Textile Insight ~ Winter 2025 textileinsight.com TRENDSETTER / SHAPEWEAR its height, Champion Jogbra had about 80% market share. Champion gave a priority to research decade aer decade. I feel amazingly lucky to have landed in such a great place advancing design and development in sports bras. I love that I can be relevant in the present day, but have the richness of the background." Women today want their sports bra to be like their current, everyday bra, but perform better. Tell me more. "A bra is the most personal piece of apparel that we have. ere are social norms about how the breasts should look. If the materials start to look more like a scuba suit or something that you don't want on your body, that's it. Do you like the touch and feel of it? Is it flattening? Is it going to call attention to where I don't want it to? I'm working on a 'perfect panty' project with a client and we're asking, what do women want to have next to skin as their first layer? en there are all of the multicultural norms about how things should look. It's also functionality – is it going to be hard for me to get on? If I have to stop and think about it, I may not want to do that." What are some of the worst offenders out there? "If I look over to one of my rolling racks for the Hall of Shame, we have $60, $70, $80, $90 sports bras just dripping with new technology that aren't wearable. Sports bras are expensive. An example for me is Lululemon. e sports bras that they produced in the first five or six years were the best they have ever done. ey were kind of cut and sewn. Women still ask why they stopped doing that. When Brooks took over Moving Comfort, why did they go to all of this lamination and bras that don't last? I would give anything on eBay to get another Moving Comfort Maia. I love the new technologies and problem solving, but we have to be very careful because sometimes if we solve one problem, we introduce another." Consumers are becoming more aware of sustainability issues such as having microplastics next to skin and the recyclability of foam pads. What are you hearing? "Most important, let's create product that lasts longer. We also need to find ways to create less sizes – bras that are more adaptable to different bodies. All of those samples you have to create, that's not sustainable. Our bodies and our breasts change shape on a weekly and monthly basis. About 80% of women have two different sized breasts. Making smarter bras that can adjust to individual changes is a big part of sustainability. ere are fibers out there, more in the nylon category, where you don't worry about shedding. Fabrics that are healthier, last longer, maybe you don't have to wash as oen – those are high level sustainability. Gelmart's Sugarcup is one example. It's a sustainable bra pad (the material of the pad uses harvested bio-based EVA from sugarcane). Having tons of sizes is not revolutionary, instead, having say seven size SKUs, that's it, would be holy grail." What else is innovative out there? "ere is a braided bra called AMBI (from Tensengral). e wear testers say they can wear it all day, especially in the summer with the Supima cotton/Tencel Lyocell blend and adjustability. I'm working with them to make it more supportive and responsive. It has zero waste. I'm also interested in the use of auxetic materials because of their form-fitting characteristics. You can stretch them in one direction and the sides expand to make an upward and outward curve. Under force, they can expand, contract and accommodate more volume. ere was a study in July 2024 about this. It is a much more complicated path that yarns take, but that creates a form-fitting expansion material. An auxetic cup really outperforms both a spacer and foam cup. If we had the ability to scale up, that would mean less SKUs. I could see a company that develops components doing this." What is something consumers may not know about sports bras? "e biggest problem is that women don't get BUILDING A SOLID FOUNDATION "The biggest problem is that women don't get measured. I have wear testers come in who have never been measured and/or have been wearing the same bra size since high school. It's about getting into the right bra for your body size."

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