I tried the sports bra worn by athletes at the Paris Olympics
If, like me, you’ve had your eyes glued to the Olympics coverage for the past two weeks, you may have spotted the zebra-like stripes on some of Team GB’s kit, including that worn by the likes of Josh Kerr, Matthew Hudson-Smith and Louie Hinchcliffe. Well, they’re not just part of the design. That’s RHEON – a new, cutting-edge technology designed to help direct more energy into performance.
What began as an idea used in a NASA project has been in development for over 15 years at Imperial College London.
‘[RHEON is] effectively a technology that is able to turn your sports garments and supercharge them to become dynamic,’ explains Olga Kravchenko, head of design at RHEON Labs. ‘Your day-to-day sport garments can do one thing and provide one level of support. With our technology, it makes a garment reactive. That means it changes the levels of support depending on the activity you do, or the body shape or weight that you have.’
Think of RHEON like running on wet sand: the technology hardens on impact, then softens, ensuring muscles are positioned for maximum efficiency.
‘[My team’s] study is really about how to optimise and place it around key muscle groups – in the case of shorts, for example – in a way that is blocking the type of energy that is wasted,’ adds Kravchenko.
‘If you look at anyone running, you’ll see that kind of wobble and shake of the muscles as you hit the ground. But, ultimately, that’s wasted energy that makes you make less out of your own body. So [we’ve been] thinking about what kind of design can block that type of vibration and motion, but still maintain the good levels of support that are important to the user, from a comfort perspective.’
RHEON is also different to standard compression technology, Kravchenko adds.
‘It’s not necessarily the best strategy to just block every type of motion. In fact, the best piece [of apparel] is the one that can dynamically change with your movement.’
Last year, RHEON Labs joined forces with Adidas to launch the Techfit Control collection and the Adizero Control running collection. Athletes from Great Britain, France and Ethiopia have also been wearing Adidas products featuring RHEON technology at the Paris Olympics.
The latest collaboration between the brands is the Techfit Control Medium-Support Bra, also worn by a number of female athletes at this year’s Games.
To design it, Adidas and RHEON Labs collaborated with Joanna Wakefield-Scurr, Professor of Biomechanics, and her team at the University of Portsmouth, alongside their specialist breast biomechanics laboratory. Over the years, Portsmouth’s research has revealed that poor breast support causes the entire body to compensate for this additional movement, leading to significantly reduced running performance.
Additionally, the effects of RHEON were tested at the biomechanical lab of Professor Bryan Heiderscheit at the University of Wisconsin, using advanced motion capture systems to measure breast displacement both with and without RHEON.
I received a sample of the Techfit Control Bra a couple of months ago, and, as a DD-cup runner, at first I was sceptical. How could this compression-style bra possibly provide me with the support I required for a high impact activity like running?
Well, spoiler alert: I was quickly proved wrong. And let me tell you, I’ve since found myself reaching for this bra for both training runs and race day.
When you first put it on, it feels fairly similar to a standard pull-on compression bra — which admittedly, does take a bit of wiggling to get into. But it’s when you start moving that the magic happens: the stripes of RHEON, strategically placed across the bust and straps, harden, in turn providing that heightened level of support.
‘Ultimately, [with this technology], you can have a very high-support, high-impact bra that feels like a medium-support bra,’ says Kravchenko.
And she’s right – I’ve raced a half-marathon in the Techfit Control Bra and it provides just as much support as one of the best sports bras for running, despite being touted as ‘medium-support’. The underband feels snug and my breasts feel like they’re being held securely in place, without being overly restricted. I’ve also never experienced chafing in the Techfit Control Bra, which is a big win for me.
The technology does come at a cost, though. Priced at £65, the Techfit Control Bra isn’t a cheap option. Sizing wise, it’s also limited to a DD-cup or smaller. So, at the moment, it doesn’t quite make the cut as one of the best sports bras for bigger busts. For anyone else, though, it’s a great alternative to a traditional high-impact bra which removes the need for all that adjusting and strapping.
Shop the full Adidas X RHEON collection
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