Why Memory Foam Makes Our Bras Unforgettable

A good bra is like a good partner: supportive but flexible, soft yet strong. You’d gladly spend all day with it and, best of all, it makes you feel amazing. While we can’t compete with your partner (we’ll admit it: we’re lousy cooks), we do want you to fall in love with your ThirdLove bras.

We design our bras using data and feedback from thousands of real women, helping us achieve a perfect fit and supreme comfort. So how did we eventually turn to memory foam—a material originally invented by aerospace scientists—for our signature cups?

The History of Bra Materials

If you look back through history, you’ll find a staggering range of materials used in women’s undergarments. You name it, and they’ve tried to construct some sort of bra with it: from linen, leather, and whale bones in the earliest days to hard plastic, gel filling, and even inflatable air pillows as of late.

The unfortunate truth about a lot of these materials and designs is that a woman’s shape has often taken precedence over her comfort, so provided that she looked good, it didn’t matter that her bra was impractical, absurd, or downright painful.

Nowadays, women are still settling for substandard bras. When we set out to build a better bra, we found a wide world of lousy foam cups out there. Most bra cups are fashioned from a polyester foam that’s often dense, bulky, and turns an unsightly shade of yellow over time. Shape issues are common with this typical foam, from cups that are unnaturally “bubble-shaped” to lumpiness after repeated wearing and washing.

From Mattresses to Bra Cups: The Story of Memory Foam

Searching for other options, our Head of Design, Ra’el Cohen, saw the opportunity to use memory foam—the same material that makes mattresses ultra-soft and getting out of bed ultra-hard—for bra cups because of its suppleness, flexibility, and breathability. But not just any memory foam would do: we needed a version delicate enough to feel like a second skin, yet supportive enough for all-day wear.

If you’ve ever picked up a memory foam pillow and been surprised by its heft, you know that the material can be very dense. To combat unnecessary bulkiness, we created a proprietary memory foam that’s ultra-thin and more resilient than other versions on the market.

Because of its supple properties, our memory foam molds to your breasts in a way that typical foams don’t, providing a custom fit that’s unique to you. And because it’s so thin, women who tend to avoid foam cup bras because they don’t like extra padding have become devoted ThirdLove fans.

In fact, memory foam impressed us in so many ways that we also use it to cover the back clasp and to line the straps on our larger bra sizes. True to its origins as a shock absorption material for spacecraft, it provides a soft and secure cushion that feels delightful against your skin. “I knew there was a way to make a super comfortable bra using memory foam,” says Ra’el, “we just had to do a little rocket science to get there.”

Learn more about how (and why) we're doing things differently at ThirdLove here.