Establishing the new fit

In 1979, Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller, and Polly Smith received U.S. Patent No. 4,174,717 for the athletic brassiere, or “Jogbra.” More than 40 years after their invention, they gathered in the National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum in Alexandria, Va. to discuss their experiences as pioneers in the women’s fitness industry and to reminisce about their days as young friends and creators.

“The bra industry sold in department stores, and we instinctively knew we [couldn’t] play with those guys,” says Lindahl. The Jogbra was athletic equipment women needed for running; therefore, “we put it into the store[s] where we bought our running shoes, which was small franchises,” says Miller. 

Surprisingly, the women believe their business would never have existed if they had done market research beforehand. According to Lindahl, “There had been no increase in bra sales in over a decade. The reason was that all of us women at the time—we weren’t buying any bras. We were burning them, if not literally, then metaphorically. They were just sitting in drawers and certainly not being bought."

 “The most important thing was that we were designing for ourselves and we were designing for our friends,” says Miller. “We just came from what we needed. We listened to people around us.” 

Lindahl feels this concept is important for young inventors today: “I think it’s really important to say—especially in this information age—don’t feel like you have to know everything before you take action. I think people get crippled by thinking they have to have all their ducks in a row. That’s a killer for the creative process.” In fact, Lindahl points out that in 1977 they had no idea they were the first women-owned sporting goods business.

“We didn’t know what we didn’t know. I remember walking around on this trade show floor, and every other woman there was either a wife, a secretary, somebody’s daughter, [or] a model.” 

Being first came with its own set of challenges. “We had to spend money to educate people why they needed a sports bra,” says Miller. “To be the first in a category, you have to tell people why [they] have to buy it. So, we had a nude profile of a young woman, and that was very risqué at the time. We explained why it needed a sports bra.” Another challenge was proving their product’s worth to sales representatives.

“These reps worked for shoe companies, and they worked for big clothing companies,” Lindahl says. “How did we compete with them for their attention and their passion so that when they went into a store, they left time to bring our stuff out of the bag?” 

 “And the way, I felt,” continues Lindahl, “was by having a different sort of relationship with them. We came to know them, were their friend. … And we had fun. We had ski races. We brought them to Vermont, and we did things like get on the stage and perform the Jogbra rap. We were not distant suits behind a podium.” Lindahl and Miller’s marketing efforts clearly paid off: by the end of their first year, Jogbra’s sales reached $500,000 and continued to grow steadily in the years to come—and they were profitable. 

Miller stayed on, and the Sara Lee Corporation bought Jogbra from Playtex in 1991. In 1994, Miller became the chief executive officer of Sara Lee’s Champion Jobgra division until she left the company in 1997. In 2000, she was named on U.S. Patent No. 6,083,080 for the protective brassiere with local energy absorption.

“I had no idea that my personal experience of being transformed and empowered through running… that this garment could do that for so many others,” says Lindahl, who, in addition to several other patents, was named on U.S. Patent No. 7,922,682 in 2011 for the method of providing compressive forces to a human torso. “It wasn’t until someone called me and said, ‘Do you understand how your invention has empowered all these young women?’ And then I began to get it and say, ‘I need to take this seriously.’”

Smith talks to many students who are interested in a career as a costume designer: “I often point out to them how beneficial it was for me to be a hands-on builder and craftsperson at every stage of my career. I was always employed before I was given productions of my own to design and, later on, better able to direct others who were constructing my designs."

Invented on the heels of Title IX, which prohibited sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding, the change the Jogbra inspired is not lost on the women. 

“I’m most proud of the fact that we were part of a generation that started sports and fitness for women,” says Miller. “Our vision was that no matter what your shape, size, or age, every woman and girl had the right to the benefits of exercise.” They are also confident this vision will continue to grow beyond their part in it. 

“The concept and the dynamic that [the sports bra] performs for women and girls has had this whole life of its own,” says Lindahl. Miller adds that women “are demanding comfort and fit.” She pointed out that just as women’s underwear represented the “social, political, and economic status of women” throughout history, the sports bra continues to contribute to the “evolution of women.” 

For their contributions to the female sports equipment industry, Lindahl, Miller, and Smith were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2022.

In her acceptance speech, Lindahl — who was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 4 — said she hopes her recognition "serves to inspire and empower other women and girls like me with a disability. It is often that very disability, that differently abled, that births the new and different perceptions, new ways of looking at old problems, [and creates] new solutions for our world and for the future of our children."