Changing What We Wear

The Sports Desk

How does tailored sportswear empower women and improve athletic performance?

In this episode we explore how women’s sportswear is changing - and where we’re seeing that. Women’s dress codes in sport have often been determined by ‘traditions’ that are both outdated and gendered. However, in the past year we’ve seen Wimbledon relax their all-white dress code for women to help ease anxiety around their menstrual cycles. Meanwhile Manchester City women are one of a number of football clubs to have also ditched their traditional white shorts.

Plus in a year that contains the netball and football World Cups, why is it still easier to find unisex boots than those designed specifically for women? And should sports bras and fittings be a mandatory part of the kit given to sportswomen to compete in?

Katie Smith is joined by England netballer Ellie Cardwell who used her own experience of poor-fitting sports bras and body image issues to start making social media reviews of the different types of bras on offer.

Doctor Jessica Pinchbeck, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Fitness at the Open University, explains why it’s essential to wear appropriate kit and the dangers that may come with not doing that or treating female athletes like small men.

Meanwhile co-founder of IDA Sport, Laura Youngson, tells the story of how playing football on Mount Kilimanjaro led her to begin creating football boots designed for women and how research is helping to reduce injuries and give women a range of options that have previously only been available to men.

We also hear from Tonje Lerstad, part of the Norwegian Beach Handball team who were fined for wearing bike shorts instead of bikini bottoms during a European Championship match in Bulgaria in 2021.

Panel: Ellie Cardwell, Dr Jessica Pinchbeck, Laura Youngson, Tonje Lerstad.

Producer: Jonathan McKeith