Research from the charity Women In Sport has found only a third of girls aged 11-18 wear a sports bra in PE, while Bright was shocked to learn she had been wearing the incorrect bra size for most of her adult life after a consultation with Maaree and insists football can do more to explore bespoke bras.
Brands she worked with focused on sports bras that reduce the downward motion of breasts, but with ample research showing they move in a figure of eight during running, she was convinced there needed to be a mechanism at the top of the bra to reduce upward breast motion and provide superior support.
She has lost count of the number of sports bra brands she has tried and tested and, as a bigger-chested athlete, doubling up on bras felt like the only option to support her performance and try to reduce breast movement.
“I’ve played with back pain and shoulder pain from wearing bras that are too tight,” says Bright, who wore two during the entirety of England’s victorious European Championship campaign in 2022 and when she captained the side to the World Cup final the following year.
With a growing number of brands selling sports bras that favour sex appeal over practicality (such as backless and halter neck styles) it is no surprise up to 90 per cent of women are thought to be wearing the wrong one.
