Discomfort + inspiration = the invention of the sports bra

NEW YORK (AP) – It was height of the jogging craze.

Key points

• Lisa Lindahl had never been particularly athletic; she was the kid who'd skip gym class with her best friend.
• One of the millions of ordinary joggers quietly had a brainwave that would produce a now-ubiquitous symbol of female athleticism: the sports bra.

What happened

NEW YORK (AP) – It was height of the jogging craze. Jim Fixx's "The Complete Book of Running" became a best seller in 1977. Even President Jimmy Carter caught the jogging bug, lured by an accessible way to keep fit.

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 discovered it empowering. In a phone call with her sister one day, Lindahl complained regarding 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 difficulty.

The bottom line

Taken together, the developments around discomfort + inspiration = the invention of the sports bra point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.