From Jockstraps to Icons: How Three Women Invented the Sports Bra
Discover how Lisa Lindahl, Polly Smith, and Hinda Miller revolutionized female athletics by inventing the sports bra during the jogging craze.
POLICY WIRE — Vermont, USA — The late 1970s marked a massive surge in fitness culture, fueled by best-sellers like Jim Fixx’s ‘The Complete Book of Running’ and the public enthusiasm of President Jimmy Carter. Amid this jogging boom, an ordinary woman created a breakthrough that transformed female sports forever.
Lisa Lindahl, who previously avoided gym classes during her school years, started running in 1977 while working at the University of Vermont. She quickly found that standard bras caused significant physical pain and discomfort. During a phone call with her sister, Lindahl vented about the chafing wires and painful movement, leading her sister to jokingly ask if a female version of a jockstrap existed.
Driven to find a solution, Lindahl teamed up with her old friend Polly Smith, who was working in costume design. They brought in another designer, Hinda Miller, to help them engineer a prototype that was breathable, seamless, and offered necessary compression.
The design process involved weeks of repeated failures. The breakthrough occurred when Lindahl’s husband at the time pulled a jockstrap over his head as a joke. Smith immediately recognized the potential and sewed two jockstraps together to create the first functional design.
Lindahl and Miller patented the invention and established Jogbra Inc. in 1979. Armed with a $5,000 loan from Miller’s father, they sought investment and began pitching the product to boutique shops, initially viewing it as a modest side business.
The timing was perfect, as Title IX—the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination—was driving female participation in school and college sports. Lindahl and Miller operated the company until 1990, when it was acquired by Playtex Apparel. Sara Lee later bought Playtex, and the design was integrated into the Champion brand.
In 1990, Nike introduced its own sports bra, and years later, Brandi Chastain famously wore a sleek black version during the U.S. soccer team’s World Cup victory. Today, data from Circana shows that sports bra sales exceed $1 billion annually in the United States.
In 2022, Lindahl and Smith were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for U.S. Patent No. 4,174,717. Speaking to The Associated Press, Lindahl admitted she never expected the small mail-order project to grow into such an overwhelming success.
em>Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
