The inspiring story behind one of the 20th century’s least-appreciated innovations—the sports bra
Lisa Lindahl and Hinda Miller created the first sports bra in 1977, liberating millions of female athletes and forming the basis of a multi-billion dollar industryisa Lindahl wasn’t a jock; she didn’t even like gym class. But like so many Americans in the 1970s, the University of Vermont graduate student was swept up in the running craze, jogging 30 miles every week.
Lindahl and Smith sent Miller to the University of Vermont bookstore to buy more jockstraps; Smith crisscrossed two and sewed them together, making the pouches the bra’s cups with the waistband as a rib band. Lindahl then volunteered as the guinea pig, going for a run while Miller jogged with her, running backwards so she could assess how vigorously—or not—Lindahl’s breasts bounced in the garment. The verdict: They had a viable prototype.
In 1999, the sports bra got fresh exposure when U.S. soccer star Brandi Chastain ripped off her jersey after scoring the game-winning goal in the Women's World Cup.“When we started we were the only women-owned business in sporting goods,” Lindahl says. “I was clear from the beginning that the Jogbra was not lingerie, it was athletic equipment.”
They priced the Jogbra at $16 apiece, and by the end of their first year in business, Lindahl and Miller had $500,000 in sales and a profitable company. “We didn’t know that was unusual,” Lindahl says. Eventually, that demand created its own problems. By the late 1980s, Jogbra was a 200-person company with manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico and competing against the likes of Nike and Reebok. Lindahl and Miller couldn’t expand anymore without taking on significant debt, which they did not want to do.
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