Posted: 5th August 2016 | Back to news feed
Equestrianism isn’t just about sitting comfortably - but also about riding comfortably. And for women, that means a comfortable bust. Let’s remember that horse riding is a high impact sport that (whatever your bust size) involves extensive vertical chest movement - and potentially lots of bouncing! To avoid damage to the breast tissue, it is therefore important to wear a good quality, well engineered sports bra to support the breasts.
Derriere Equestrian are proud to announce the launch of the “DE Sportief Bra” After two years of development, we will be bringing to the market a revolutionary, innovative, sports bra designed specifically for the horse rider. A hybrid bra, delivering a fusion of sporting excellence with the design style of luxury lingerie. Designed to provide additional support during physical exercise, minimise breast movement, alleviate discomfort, and reduce potential damage caused to chest ligaments.
Why do we wear a sports bra, as opposed to a ‘normal’ bra, for riding?
Breast tissue, which is made from both fat and glandular (milk-producing) tissue, can become damaged and stretched when undertaking high impact exercise. Our beautiful boobs are suspended by fibrous tissue called Cooper’s ligaments (Fibrocollagenous Septa), but are still very vulnerable to motion. In fact, studies have found that a good, supportive bra can prevent damage to the breast tissues by 74 per cent, as opposed to an ‘everyday’ bra, which compensates by around 38 per cent. It is important to wear a sports bra when riding that provides full support to the Cooper's ligaments.
We are therefore pleased to announce our new Derriere Sportief Bra - a sports bra which utilises high-tech fabrics, coupled with brilliant design-features. We have developed a bra that boasts a fusion of the two ‘styles’ of sports bra - encapsulation and compression. The Sportief combines the perfect balance of breast compression and bust support, delivering a blend of sporting excellence with lingerie design style. It is designed to provide additional support during physical exercise, minimise breast movement, alleviate discomfort, and reduce potential damage caused to the chest ligaments. We truly believe it empowers lady riders to feel confident, comfortable, healthy and stylish in their sporting underwear!
If you are not a fan of under-wiring, you will be pleased to know that our carefully developed Derriere cupping system seam is designed to lift, separate, shape, and support the rider’s breasts, removing the necessity for underwire, and providing a higher grade of health benefits and safety benefits for any high impact sport. Breast pain has been reportedly experienced by over 70% of women during exercise - unsurprising given that more than half of the ‘bounce’ experienced is from vertical forces [Gehlsen & Albohm; Scurr, White & Hedger] - and we are delighted to help eradicate these problems for sporting women. Underwired bras have been linked to health conditions including breast pain, injury, rubbing, chaffing, mastitis, and allergies.
Hence, it has been important to our team to design a sports bra with the encapsulation benefits of underwiring, without using actual underwire, ensuring an effective and safe garment for riders and all female sporting athletes.
The Sportief Bra has been two years in development, and is made from high-tech, breathable, temperature-regulating fabric. It boasts comfortable, robust straps to help alleviate neck strain, and the fabric wicks away moisture, to evaporate; a clever, two tier fabric system breaks the surface tension of sweat, and propels it through the hydrophobic layer into a secondary, natural wicking outer layer.
Like our other undergarments, the racer-back-style Derriere Sportief Bra with padded straps features completely seamless areas, to minimise rubbing - the cup areas are therefore super-comfortable and soft to the touch. It offers full zipped entry for easy access - so no more getting ‘stuck’ when you try to remove your sports bra after a hot training session! As you’d expect from Derriere, we have created a fashion-focussed product in a stunning colourway that you will be proud to show off at your exercise class or gym - the Sportief is no shrinking violet! Remember too that if you do choose to ride in a ‘normal’ bra that the standard strap formation can be extremely inconvenient and annoying, if the straps fall down beneath a show shirt, stock and jacket! So our racer-style is practical too.
Because a good sports bra like the revolutionary, innovative Sportief bra from Derriere allows the rider to actually sit up, open the chest area and hold the shoulders back comfortably, wearers are able to use the postural muscles of the back to stay vertical, in an optimised riding position. Whether we realise it or not, sometimes female riders hunch forward or close the shoulders to compensate for the bouncing movements. This potentially tips the head forward and the lower back backwards; you may also end up drawing up the knees or tipping forward onto your pelvic bone, causing the heels to come up; all of this results in imbalance and a compromised connection with the horse. A good bra like the Sportief will offer full support to the thoracic and lumbar spine, and aid the rider’s core stability, control and strength. We also took care to offer padded support across the rider’s trapezius muscles, which extend over the back of the neck and move the shoulder blades, helping to prevent neck and shoulder pain, numbness and headaches.
Therefore to conclude, we do recommend that all horse riders, no matter what their cup size, invest in at least a couple of sports bras (so you always have one to hand while the other is being washed), to help keep those boobies perky - after all, when we are horse riding, breast discomfort is the last thing we want to be focussed on!
The DE Sportief Bra is set for launch to the Equestrian Trade 1st September 2016 and will be on exhibition at SPOGA Horse 2016 at Koelnmesse at Cologne in Germany 4th - 6th September.
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