Tested to Perfection: A Wear Testing Adventure

What’s the first thing you do after a long day? If you said, “Take off my bra,” you’re not alone. Little compares to that feeling of relief when you finally unhook those clasps and slip that bra off. It shouldn’t be like that though. Your bra should not be so uncomfortable that you can’t wait to take it off.

This is why testing bras for sizing and durability is so important – and the bra industry really falls short on this. Manufacturers don’t do enough thorough wear testing to ensure that bras are comfortable and functional for multiple sizes and body types.

Evelyn & Bobbie is challenging this archaic practice and revolutionizing the bra as we know it. But first, let’s see why industry wear tests don’t cut it.

The Perfect Base Layer

What Is Wear Testing in Fashion?

Wear testing is a vital aspect of the apparel development process. It involves various tests to assess elements of the garment such as functionality, durability, fabric quality, fit, construction, and wear. It’s intended to identify potential weak points or flaws in the product that need to be improved before it goes to production.

For some garments, this process works quite well. For bras, the industry oversimplifies the process. This is because most bra companies overlook one major point:

There are many, many different body shapes and sizes—and that affects fit, wear, and comfort.

Why Current Industry Wear Tests Aren’t Enough

Comfort & Support

The current industry bra testing standards simply aren’t good enough for bras. The majority of bra brands only test their product on one or two models. They then take that “prototype” and create a base size or model. Then they grade this bra up or down to create the various sizes. This process has several issues. First, most bra companies use proportional formulas to create those larger and smaller sizes. Essentially, they assume that the difference between all sizes can be accounted for in a single mathematical formula.

Additionally, they often fail to test the practicality of their product by running it through standard day-to-day scenarios. Whether it’s wearing the bra for multiple days in a row or throwing it in the wash, many manufacturers simply ignore the overall strength of the bra.

Bottom line, apparel wear testing, for the most part, is seriously flawed. It doesn’t account for different fit preferences or different body types. If you don’t fit in the tidy little mold they created, you’re out of luck.

However, we’ve found a better way.