IN FOCUS
MAAREE Solidarity Bra
This award-winning bra – designed by a woman who runs – significantly reduces upward and downward motion with its clever Overband technology. We wanted to find out more about it
Words Esther Newman
The MAAREE Solidarity Bra has won Best in Test in Women’s Running twice. Twice! As a sports bra, the Solidarity is nothing short of a game-changer, as we’ve discovered, and especially so for women with bigger boobs, a sector of our running community that has historically been very poorly served. We wanted to speak to its creator, Mari Thomas, about how and why she designed it, and to find out what makes this bra so good.
The Solidarity is a high-impact bra that combines elastic and non-elastic panelling, convertible shoulder straps and that winning ingredient; the Overband. The Overband is a curved panel which runs over the top of the breasts to provide extra support and reduce upward motion when exercising. It’s designed to distribute the pressure across the breasts, and reduce motion. The technology is sewn into the front of the bra and also into the underband on your back; fastening the clasp applies tension from the underband and the Overband at the same time. “Sports bras serve a purpose; they prevent injury,” says Mari, the designer of the Solidarity bra. “Companies [that design bras] don’t take as much care as they should, and some design bras for how they look rather than what they can do.