Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. is a professional underwear sourcing & supply-chain management company based in Xiamen, Fujian Province, in the Xiamen–Quanzhou–Jinjiang knitwear cluster of south-east China. Founded by Will Lin, who has worked in the apparel trade since 2004, the company has been exporting since 2009 and was incorporated in Xiamen in 2013. It runs its own liaison office in Jinjiang and works with a network of BSCI & OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified partner factories to serve retailers and brands across Europe, the US and Australia.
The inventor of the sports bra, Lisa Lindahl, marked the birth of the sports underwear. At present, wearing outside of the underwear has already become fashion tide. As one of the men and women’s underwear wholesale suppliers in the market, UNITE shares some knowledge about our female sports underwear as follows.
From Breast Protection To Fashion Trends
In 1970, during the period of women’s equality right in the United States, more and more women began to run and keep fitness under the effect of the equality movement. At that time, women’s requirement for sports bra set was limited to its functionality. In that period, the position of traditional sexy underwear bra with steel ring is still immovable. However, as more and more modern women are independent, they are less concerned with being “sexy” to appeal to the men, and they’re more focused on getting fit and healthy for their body.
According to a report by data agency EBITED, the sales of traditional undergarments with underwires were down by 50% year on year, while sales of new undergarments without underwires were uprise 18% and sports underwear was uprise 27%. In recent years, Nike, Adidas and other sports underwear products are popular by most of women’s preference. The “perfect body” advertised by traditional lingerie is no longer perfect. It become even more important to appeal to yourself with sports underwear that represents sweat and health. How to choose your comfortable sport bra? It should be very concerned with Tips as followings:
1. Choose the correct one according to the intensity of exercise
Sports underwear can be divided three different level of support into low, medium and high, they are suitable for different intensity of exercise:
- Low intensity sports underwear: examples for yoga, brisk walking, stretching ect.
- Moderate intensity sports underwear: examples for dancing, hiking, cycling ect.
- High intensity sports underwear: example for Zumba, running, boxing, playing basketball, tennis ect.
Generally, the higher level of support, the better fixation effect of sports underwear, but the corresponding of wearing experience will be more “oppressive”.
So, How Do We Know The Support of Sports Bra ?
Generally, when we buy sports underwear in stores or online, the product introduction or care label will indicate what intensity of exercise is suitable for the sports underwear usually. Of course, if there isn’t marked, you can also make a general judgment based on the appearance of sports underwear:
First, you can refer to the design of sports underwear directly.
Female sports underwear normally is divided into three types in design, which are compression/one-piece, wrapped and hybrid sports bra.
- The compression/one piece type is much more suitable for low intensity exercise.
- The wraparound sports bra is better than the one-piece bra to prevent the shaking, because of its similar cup design, it is suitable for moderate intensity exercise.
- Hybrid sports bras are more suitable for high-intensity sports, because of the combine cup design and one-piece coverability.
Second, pay more attention to the 4 details as followings after you choose the style
a. Check the width of the straps: The wider a sports bra strap, it usually has the more support.
b. Check if the straps are vertical, crossed, or Y-shaped: In terms of fixing effect, Y-shaped > crossed > vertical straps.
c. Check bottom circumference width: generally, the wider of the circumference is done, the better for the support.
d. Check if there are back buttons or front zippers: Sports bras with back buttons and front zippers provide better support than regular pull-tops.
2. Choose the correct one according to the breast cup
For the same type of sports, the people who has larger breast tend to wobble more than smaller one, which requires more supportive short sports bra set. Therefor, for C-Cup or above, it is usually recommended to buy sports underwear with high support as much as possible. If it is a small chest, as long as it is not a particularly strong exercise, to choose moderate or low support of sport bra set is actually enough.
So many sports underwear, who can stand out ? Although the potential and development of the World’s sports underwear market is still behind, the market competition is also very fierce, with “a big cake, surrounded by tigers” to describe the present situation, it is no exaggeration. However, who are these tigers?
As the present market, the women sports briefs underwear market is mainly dominated by European and American brands. The European and American giants can be roughly divided into two categories. The first one is the traditional sportswear brands, such as Nike, Adidas, Under Amour etc, which were originally professional sportswear manufacturers, while the sportswear underwear is a product line derived from it. Because of this background, their products have more sports attributes and less underwear attributes. The second category is opposite, they are the originally of women’s underwear manufacturer, sports underwear is an one branch derived from it. They have the advantage of knowing more about women’s breasts, but its degree of movement isn’t more enough.
Also, it is relatively simple, the strength is average and the practicality is not so strong. So, these brands of sports underwear always give a person with “halfway” feeling. In view of this situation, the new brands need to take more stronger ability. They need to consider the differences between Asian women’s bodies and those of Europe and the United States. It is necessary to measure for Asian women, and create a sports underwear which suit the needs of Asian women, and improve the physical and psychological fit with consumers.
The future of sports underwear, consist in multiple scenarios, start with the fitness room. With the rise of women’s sports and fitness lifestyle, women are in greater needs for comfortable sport bra, which are becoming more earthquake-resistant and functional. Among them, the underwear with low support force requires less pressure and intensity on the chest, and has relatively loose bondage to the body, which is also more comfortable in daily wearing.
But, while you do HIIT, boxing and other high-intensity training that can’t effectively protect the chest of the violent concussion. And the high support force underwear commonly use compound type to fix a structure, to ensure that all aspects of the chest are adequately protected and wrapped. The pressure on the chest is stronger and more constricted. Due to its complex structure, the material may also be relatively unbreathable, also it unsuitable for everyday to wear. Of course, the modern women are not just satisfied with the functionality of her sports bra in the gym, but also need to explore how to better to integrate the exercise into daily life scenes.
According to the data, about forty-six percent of people already wear sports underwear as part of their daily wardrobe. Even part of thirty-one percent of them expressed that they would wear the sports bra directly in outdoor. More women are realizing that they can avoid the shock of rushing through the office door every day by wearing sports underwear. The sporty style has become an attitude towards life and a fashion concept. Just as when you wear Adidas’s coconut sneakers that you don’t necessarily mean you’re on way to the gym, sports underwear is better suited to meet the dual needs of everyday walking and working out. Unitex Underwear, which has professional team and professional factory, is leading the trend of The Times. We can provide all kinds of underwear include not only traditional knitting boxer, briefs but also new styles of female sports underwear. We would like to share more knowledges about sport wear, welcome to contact us to start our cooperation.
· Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. — OEM & ODM underwear sourcing partner