Being asked to go to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History to tell them about myself and about inventing the very first sports bra back in 1977 was a humbling moment. Actually many humbling moments.
Many moments because we took time during that trip to D.C. to also visit the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) into which I will be inducted later, in May, this year. The NIHF honors the likes of Steve Jobs, Thomas Alva Edison, and surprisingly Hedy Lamarr. More surprising is the fact that only 4% of US patents name women-only inventors, and less than 20% have a woman’s name on them at all.
Upon entering the NIHF one sees a beautiful, glittering glass wall, looking a bit like a giant glowing honeycomb. Walking closer this wall reveals itself to be a mosaic of shiny tiles, each inscribed. Some are lit up. Magical! This turns out to be the museum’s “Gallery of Icons™” displaying and commemorating more than 500 Hall of Fame inductees. We will put our tiles into this honeycomb of innovators in May. I teared up. We took a few selfies.
My two female co-inventors and I were treated like royalty, meeting the head honchos of the US Patent and Trade Office, being photographed and interviewed, touring the beautiful museum, and getting a preview of what the May induction event will entail and doing a mini-rehearsal of how to put our own glowing tiles into the Gallery of Icons ™
Back at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, we spoke to an audience of about 150 at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, an amazing place celebrating inventive minds. It was a panel format, with a Q&A at the end with plenty of questions. I spoke openly (as always) about the role having epilepsy played in my decision to be an entrepreneur and the ways in which it impacted that aspect of my life.
The next day the archivists from the Smithsonian interviewed my co-inventors and I as a group, where we told (once again) the Jogbra “creation story” and reviewed some of the physical items housed in their archives. Polly was able to clarify about timeline and origin of some of the very early bras they have in the archives. Later, as requested of each of us, I gave an oral history (in front of yet another camera) telling tales of my upbringing, education and influences.
After an interview for CBS radio and the Smithsonian Magazine, Polly and I finally had a free day to do some wind-down sight-seeing of the place we were — our nation’s capitol. We went to museums, took selfies in front of the White House, the Washington Monument and joked about how, really, we invented the first selfie at age 14 (see the pic in “Unleash the Girls”). Sitting there together, on a bench in front of the Washington Monument, American flags waving vigorously behind us in the March wind, the events of the past few days began to coalesce in my consciousness.
When I got back home, exhausted and awed, my niece asked “Is your head too big to get through the door now?” and she laughed. But that felt so off the mark! Meant as funny or not, she didn’t get it. So here I’ll try to explain it both to her, and to myself.
Our inclusion in the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the Smithsonian recognizes the historical significance of the invention of the sports bra; that Polly and I created it and that Hinda and I were able to form and run a company in a time fluid and transformative in American history, especially for women. We did so in an industry, sporting goods, that was deeply masculine. We did not fully understand what we were accomplishing while we were accomplishing it. The ripple effects of our actions have turned out to be greater than we ever anticipated. Both the NIHF and the Smithsonian’s archivists saw and understood the significance of both the product and the story behind it, and in their recognition came my own cognition: my idea for the sports bra was not, as I had been thinking for so long, just about solving my own problem…no. It also served to help unleash the potential, the possibilities, the power within women and girls everywhere. Not just to participate in their chosen athletic endeavor, but to confront and overcome whatever their perceived barriers might be. Along the way it also broke down the old male-influenced idea of how bras should be constructed and what they should do and feel like, not to mention how our breasts appear under their male gaze. The concept of “sports bra” became a feminist one. The sports bra itself became a feminist icon.
When I came to understand and accept this more fully (around 2017-18 which is about 40 years after my original ah-hah! moment) is when I finally sat down and wrote “Unleash the Girls, the Untold Story of the Invention of the Sports Bra and How It Changed the World (And Me).” I had only just finished the book when the call came from the National Inventors’ Hall of Fame about being inducted. Talk about serendipity!
Alone, I look in the mirror and think, “Who’d have thunk it?!” I am amazed. I am in awe, but not of myself — of the series of events. I do not feel I can take credit for this phenomenon. It was the right concept/product at the right time. And I now understand more fully the term “change agent.” I was simply an agent of an aspect of the change that was brewing in the late 1970’s and is still swirling about these days. Oh, I am a bit proud, yes; but way humble in the face of the many unforeseen ways in which we all manifest that which creates the change we can hope to see.
Photo credit Jay Premack/USPTO
The National Inventors Hall of Fame showcases the more than 500 inventors who have been inducted into NIHF and their great technological achievements that helped stimulate growth for our nation and beyond. NIHF inspires the next generation of innovators by connecting them through the story of invention. The interactive gallery of icons allows you to discover how these innovators have shaped the world around us. The most recent inductees are featured in a special display where you can see prototypes of their inventions and hear them discuss their inventive processes.