It was the height of the jogging craze. Jim Fixx’s The Complete Book of Running became a bestseller in 1977. Even President Jimmy Carter caught the jogging bug, lured by an accessible way to keep fit.
One of the millions of ordinary joggers quietly had a brain wave that would produce a now-ubiquitous symbol of female athleticism: the sports bra.
Lisa Lindahl had never been particularly athletic; she was the kid who’d skip gym class with her best friend. But working at the University of Vermont in 1977, she took up jogging to lose weight and found it empowering. In a phone call with her sister one day, Lindahl complained about the discomfort of running with a regular bra—wires chafing her skin, breasts bouncing painfully. Her sister jokingly wondered why there wasn’t a jockstrap for women.
Lindahl set out to solve the problem.
She recruited her friend Polly Smith, her erstwhile fellow gym class truant who was working as a costume designer. Smith brought in Hinda Miller, a fellow designer, and the trio set out to develop a prototype that would be seamless and breathable, and provide compression.
Weeks of frustration followed. Trying to lighten the mood, Lindahl’s then-husband pulled a jockstrap over his head and joked he had solved the puzzle—and Smith had a light bulb moment. Sewing two jockstraps together, she created a workable design.
Lindahl and Miller patented it and co-founded Jogbra Inc. in 1979. Miller secured a $5,000 loan from her father, investor funding, and manufacturing partners. They pitched the product to boutique shops and trade shows, figuring it could be a side gig.
But the Jogbra hit the market just as women’s participation in high school and college sports surged in the wake of Title IX, the 1972 law that banned sex discrimination in federally funded education programs.
Lindahl and Miller would run their company until 1990, when Playtex Apparel bought it. A year later, Sara Lee acquired Playtex, and the Jogbra was absorbed into the Champion brand.
Nike launched its first sports bra in 1990. Nine years later, a euphoric Brandi Chastain ripped off her jersey, revealing her sleek black sports bra to the world as the U.S. women’s soccer team celebrated their World Cup victory.
Today, sports bras top $1 billion in annual U.S. sales, according to market research company Circana. And the Jogbra—U.S. Patent No. 4,174,717—got its due when Lindahl, Miller, and Smith were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2022.
“I thought it would be a nice mail-order business on the side,” Lindahl told The Associated Press. “I had no idea that it would become so overwhelming.”
___
Part of a recurring series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.
—By Alexandra Olson, AP business writer