Thursday 22 January 2009

Double D Review: Sports Bra Round-up, part 1

Noelle asked if I'd ever found a sports bra with no bounce whatsoever. Unfortunately, I can't say that I have. But I have tried a lot, and have some thoughts for you.

First of all, I'm American by background. So most of what I know are American stores. (If any of my large-breasted English friends have suggestions, I'm all ears...or eyes...or whatever.)

I buy most of my sports bras from two places: Title Nine and Athleta. They carry some of the same styles. Title Nine annoyingly names theirs differently than the brand names.

OK, got to go to work...post to be updated later, I promise.

Here we go again. All prices listed are for my size (38DD, if you must know) when prices differ by size. I generally start, when looking for new bras (I'm still in search of The One), by looking at the sizes of women they use to model them (if it's modeled by a B-cup, I'm moving on) and knowing that, no matter what, I always want the most supportive ones they have - that's why I like Title Nine.

First up, the Glamourise Sport Bra, known at Title Nine as the Having-It-All Bra ($39), not sold by Athleta. I wrote about this one before, so I won't rehash it here. I'll just generally say I like this one. If you've been doing your workouts in your daytime underwires, you'll actually probably get along with this bra, though it doesn't have an underwire. If you've been using drug store pull-overs (even double-bagged), this will probably feel a little weird and grandma-ish, but you'll be so happy to not be bouncing all over with your uniboob that it's probably ok. Still, I'd say this is not an easy first step for those just coming to grips with their ta tas.

The Hallelujah Bra ($42), also not sold by Athleta. This one looks intriguing in the online catelog. Actually looks kinda similar to the one above. On further looking, I think it is the same one, with a higher price. This makes me mad at Title Nine. If anyone from T9 reads this, could you let us know what the difference between these two is?

The Frog Bra ($32), exclusive to T9. This one used to be my favourite, back in the day. It's the most "regular-sports-bra" looking one, so I recommend it to people who are changing in front of people (like collegiate sports) and don't want to be embarassed by more supportive bras that generally seem to look like grandma bras. However, I think that, over the years, this one has gotten less supportive or else I've gotten more bouncy, because it doesn't seem to hold me in as well as it once did. Still, it's pretty chafe free for me and it's a good first big-breasted-girl bra.

The Enell ($64), known as the Last Resort ($60) at T9 (used to be sold at Athleta but doesn't seem to be listed today). The bra that Oprah made famous. I haven't quite been able to get myself to try this one yet. I probably should, though.

The Helena bra by Moving Comfort, known as the 3-Reasons Support Bra at T9 ($45) or maybe the Marvel Bra ($58) and available for $58 at Athleta. I like this one, and will write a more detailed review later. It's pretty comfortable and highly adjustable, which is good for those of us who go up and down in size throughout the cycle.

Even I'm bored by now, so I'll come back to this for part 2 sometime later. Let me know what you've tried, what you like, what you want to know about, what you'll send me to try for free (!), etc.

1 comment:

Megan Hall said...

Metropolitan Mama recommends the Fabulous Athletic Bra and says it's worth the $119 price tag: http://metropolitanmama.net/2008/12/best-of-2008-fabulous-athletic-bra/