So many great inventions spawned from a moment of desperation. No where is that truer than for athletes and fitness buffs, who so often have had to jimmy together the one thing they need to perform their sport better.

Necessity breeds creation and that was what brought about the first sports bra. In 1977, women were still subjected to running, working out, riding horses, and cycling in their plain jane bras. That was until Lisa Lindahl and her sister, Victoria Woodrow, decided to take up jogging. Like most women did (and unfortunately still do), Lindahl just doubled up on regular bras or wore bras a size too small when she went out for a run. Doesn’t it hurt just thinking about it?

What women needed was a jockstrap for their breasts...

What women needed was a jockstrap for their breasts, suggested Woodrow. With that, she and her sister decided there had to be a better way, and they set out to create the first sports bra.

The prototype, called a jockbra, was just that, two jockstraps sewn together and it was the first functional attempt anyone had made to keep women’s breasts from bouncing and jerking here, there, and everywhere during physical activity. The prototypes, created in the University of Vermont theater costume shop by Lindahl and a fellow theater student, are now bronzed and on display near the university, the Smithsonian, and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The real result is worn by millions of women around the world every day, and we’re all eternally grateful to these brilliant, desperate women!

We’ve been there ourselves! Enell was born of the same desperation to keep a pair of large breasts contained during sports activity. Our founder, Renelle Braaten, had had enough of her double-Ds during volleyball and racquetball games. Nothing on the market provided her breasts the support she needed, and she was tired of doing the wear-two-bras thing. Renelle worked with her mom, a talented seamstress, to construct the first Enell sports bra. Finally, something IS available to support, stabilize, and secure large breasts!

Breasts are “a barrier to physical activity participation for 17 percent of women,” found a study out of the UK last summer. The pain, strain, and discomfort that comes from unrestrained breasts during any kind of activity is a major reason women skip working out at all. The result of that kind of stationary lifestyle is a major detriment to women’s health. So invest in the right sports bra and you are more likely to make a physical fitness investment in yourself.