If so, tell us all about it. And you can answer even if you have tiny little boobs; we promise not to discriminate.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2000

Answers

My candidate for best sports bra would have to be the Olympia bra from Moving Comfort (www.movingcomfort.com). I know that Nordstrom and REI carry at least some of their bras, and I've seen a few at G.I. Joe's as well.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2000

We went outlet shopping today for the specific purpose of buying running shoes, sports bras, and snow gear. I bought several sports bras, because they were so cheap that I thought I could just test drive them.

Verdict: the no name brands I bought for three bucks, with the underwire, won't do for any sport activity whatsoever. They'll be fine under a t-shirt, though, and they're perfectly comfortable. Underwires are a bad idea for moving around. The Champion bra that everyone raved about is okay, but nothing spectacular. I wouldn't run in it.

I also (forgive me) picked up two bras at the Nike outlet. One of them is a standard compression bra. Not good enough for running, but it'll be fine for other workouts. And this one is the best -- I can run in that one.

But I still want that frog bra.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2000

I wear these bras by, I think, Lily of France. White, cotton, flattens everything out and keeps it from moving. I wear them for all occasions, actually, because I find them the most comfortable. That is, I rarely know I have them on.

My beef with Title IX and a lot of the other wimmen's sports companies is that they don't have larger sizes. I sympathize with women who can't get running shorts or shoes to fit their smaller than men's bodies, but Title IX's idea of XL is about a size 14. Don't they think us fatsos do anything athletic? This fatso is at the gym every day, wearing men's spandex shorts. But it would be nice to be able to get one of those one piece workout costumes, say.

Anyway, another company that folks I know adore, though I've never tried their products, is (let's see if I can make this link look nice) Decent Exposures. They make custom bras in all sizes and a variety of fabrics.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2000

Actually, Lizzie, I linked to several sites that had sizes for larger women. I liked Title Nine for the opposite reason, because believe it or not, they are nowhere near as bad as many of the major athletic wear companies. Most of those seem to cater to the notion that a "small" is somewhere between size 0 and 4. At Title Nine, a small is a 6-8, which means a small will fit a normal, healthy woman who happens to be small. You're right, though; their sizes stop at about 14, although I think some of their sports bras are available in bigger sizes. Try Women's Sports Specialties for a more expanded size range.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2000

A great place for us fat people to shop ( I'm a 22) is Junonia. They mostly sell stuff through their mail order catalogue, but they do have a small web site at www.junonia.com. You name it-- sports bras, running tights, unitards, flippy little tennis skirts,... -- Junonia has it in size 14 and up.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2000