Millie Bright jumped up and down, testing willpower and strength between pristine white kitchen drawers filled with cutlery and dog kibble. A change of direction. Left, right, a rogue jumping jack.
"(My partner) Levi was looking at me with all sorts of faces," the Chelsea and England defender tells The Athletic . "I was just like, 'Oh my God, this bra! Look, there's zero movement!' That was the first time I've worn one sports bra and had zero movement but a level of comfort where I'm not in pain."
The 31-year-old, a European champion with England in 2022, is not embarrassed by it, just a little annoyed that it has taken this long to discover she never had to in the first place. Bright, now an investor in the sports bra brand MAAREE, heard the promises of support, pain relief and ease before.
"The first training session with my (MAAREE) bra on, I told all the girls straight away," says Bright with uncontainable enthusiasm. "I was like, this is my new bra if you've not noticed. I'm pain-free. I'm happier than ever on the pitch. Hopefully, we can help people at the start of their careers rather than now because I played through tournaments wearing two bras. If only I'd known sooner."
Drawing a line directly between Bright's sports bra and her performances is dramatic but, in a game of ultimate marginal gains, the sports bra's influence in the calculation, Bright says, should not be underestimated.
For the past five years, the England Football Association (FA), the British Olympic Association and the British military have worked with the University of Portsmouth's Breast Biomechanics Research Institute (BBRI) to explore the effect of sports bras on performance and women's health. Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur are devoting resources to the field, as is Kynisca, the global organization owned by Lyon and Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang. Brands like MAAREE, Casall and SHEFIT are positioning themselves as bespoke alternatives to mainstream brands.
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