A New Zealand bra manufacturer has hired British biomechanics researchers to help it build a sports bra with plastic cups to protect women playing contact sports such as rugby or soccer.
Quality Performers, a New Plymouth company owned by Richard Shearer and Rebecca Scott, asked the Portsmouth University researchers in Britain for advice on how to change its bra design to offer more protection to players in high impact sports.
Led by Dr Joanna Scurr, the sports scientists have tested about 50 bra designs on hundreds of women during the past three years.
The researchers tested the current NZ design by measuring breast movement while the bra was being worn, and by asking women how they felt about the fit, shape, and design of the strap, underband, and other parts.
One researcher, Wendy Hedger, found that breasts typically move up to 21cm and jiggle around in every direction while a woman is running, but most bras are designed to limit just vertical movement.
Dr Scurr said the speed at which breasts move could be the key to preventing breast pain and damage to fragile ligaments.
Her team helped design the new bra made with moulded plastic which is expected to go on sale in Europe later this year. The bra will also be available in New Zealand, though the company exports about 98 per cent of its product.
The New Zealand bra has solid cups that are designed to protect the breasts when playing contact sports.
"They came to us because they knew their bra protected women in high-impact sports but they weren't sure it supported women well enough," Miss Hedger said in a statement.
"The tests included measuring precisely how much breasts moved in all three directions, as well as more subjective tests about how women felt about the fit, the shape, the strap design and the underband and so on."
They found that many women will not buy a sport bra that resembles their everyday bra and does up at the back.
Ms Hedger also said there was a social stigma about certain sizes and that some women caused breast pain or discomfort by not buying the right-sized bra.
"For instance many women don't want to be seen as too small or too big and buy a bra that doesn't fit well in order to be what they consider to be a `normal' size," she said.
