Drumroll please…it’s time for another Guest Cup!! This one continues our recent sports bra series (see 30G Freya Active review here, the 30G Shock Absorber and a comparison of three over at Brastop) comes from the lovely Zoe who agreed to test out the Pour Moi Energy Non-Wired Sports Bra for us in a 32F. Thank you to Brastop for providing this one – you can find it here in sizes 32-40 D-G for only £26.
(And can we please show some major appreciation that she got her top off in the freezing Scottish sunshine to take these photos just for us!)
A few years ago, I moved to Scotland and began to discover this thing called…Outdoors.
This fledging interest was treated with relative scepticism by family and friends (“since when do you like yomping up hills and stuff??”), and their raised eyebrows were not without good reason. It’s safe to say that over the years I have owned more 6-inch heels than I have sensible walking boots and I was, for the lion’s share of my early 20s, more likely to be found in a pair of pyjamas with a bottle of wine yelling at an episode of Don’t Tell The Bride than donning a backpack and taking to the hills…
Yet, in 2014, I began to abandon years of sullen resistance to exercise in lieu of a new-found obsession with “fresh air” and “getting away from it all”. Now I just needed to tackle my biggest lingerie demon: the sports bra.
I have never been able to find a decent bra for exercise. I’m closer to Big Cup than Little Cup in size – I fluctuate between a 30FF and 32F depending on the brand. Like many of us in that size, I’ve had various bra woes. I’ve been measured and crammed into all sorts (36E, 28G, etc.!) and still get irritated at the lack of beautiful or exciting bras in my size in many a high street shop…
But never mind beautiful, I’ve struggled to find anything *practical*. I think it’s easy to forget how difficult it was – only a few years back – for women of a small band and big cup to find sports bras. I have been through the agony of rib-squeezing bands, crushing straps, badly made cups that divide my otherwise-reasonably-symmetrical breasts into four squidgy lumps – you name it! We can all accept that we’re maybe not going to look at our most attractive when working out – but there’s no denying how much a bad fitting sports bra knocks your confidence and your willingness to go out for a run, down to the gym, or even out on a hike. The fact that I had only ever found sports bras that made me resemble the Michelin man around the chest area definitely impacted how much I saw myself as someone who could pursue a healthier, exercise-filled and outdoorsy lifestyle.
I may have ever-so-subtly relayed this sob story to Little Cup a few times…so you can imagine how much I jumped at the chance to review the Pour Moi Energy from the wonderful Brastop!
My criteria for a sports bra won’t be the same as everyone’s. I’m not much of a runner, but hours of walking, camping and exploring the Highlands and Islands over the last few years has made it plainly obvious to me that any of my ‘usual’ bras aren’t up to the job – you don’t need to be doing constant star-jumps to feel that lack of support. As a result, one of my biggest downers on doing any outdoorsy stuff has been pain: pain from wiring, pain from nipples rubbing against a cup, ache-type sensations from your boobs simply shifting around too much… the list goes on!
So, my first comment has to be how well supported I felt in this, and I’ve certainly tested it out! At the time of writing this, the Pour Moi and I have been on three little trips into the great outdoors – we’ve been up the Fife Coast, hiked some of the Pentlands and up Braid Hill in Edinburgh, taking in approx. 15 miles together. Happy to report they were all boob-pain-free excursions!
The band is a good width and sits comfortably – I’ve got quite a short torso, so anything a bit long-line always feels like it’s chopping me in half, but this sat perfectly at the bottom of my rib cage. You may be able to see from photos how it sights flat against the skin, without digging in too much. The straps are very nicely cushioned as well, so I felt comfortable tightening them properly to prevent unwanted bounce. No nasty red lines on the shoulders when I took it off – win. It’s versatile as well: if you wanted to do something more high-impact than me, then it has the brilliant J clip option, pulling the straps in together to give you that extra support.
The other big win for this bra is the breathability. As a kind bra shop assistant once remarked, I have “very dense and heavy” breasts (err, thanks?) – this means that, with any exercise, it really doesn’t take much before my boobs start, well, sweating quite a bit. Pour Moi scored big points for me here as it’s the only sports bra I’ve ever worn that allowed my skin to breathe well enough that this wasn’t the case after many miles of use. My suspicion is that this is down to the lack of padding which, as a F/FF cup, I only ever find a nuisance!
The only area it fell down for me was the ‘squash’ factor. This is an encapsulation style, but I think I would have wanted a bit more structure in the cup to create a bit more of gap between each boob – I’ve seen Big Cup refer to this as the “divide and conquer” method in some of her posts! However, I do think this is more personal preference than a design flaw.
Overall, this bra does a really great job of being two things: soft and breathable, but capable of high impact support. As a real testament to its versatility, I’m even considering going for a jog in it soon – something I have never felt secure enough to do before!!
