How two jockstraps sewn together changed women’s lives for ever

The first of its type was fashioned from two pieces of male underwear 45 years ago. These days, no lingerie drawer is complete without one and so ubiquitous has this cleverly engineered swathe of stretchy fabric become that British women have snapped up somewhere in the region of 7.1 million of them in the past 12 months. 

What could this item of clothing be? The sports bra, of course. Distinguished from its everyday cousins by its wider straps, soft band, crossed back and invisible reinforcement to contain rather than lift, the invention of the sports bra has surely done more to support — literally — modern womankind than almost anything else. 

This may well explain why in Britain alone in the past year spending on sports bras jumped by a quarter to £72.3million (nearly 10 per…