VANCOUVER — With sports apparel retailers increasingly relying on tech to create better products for their customers, Lululemon has patented a device to measure breast movement to help athletes find the most comfortable sports bra.

“The biggest athletic companies are aiming to figure out how to use technology to optimize fit and experience,” said Simeon Siegel, a managing director and senior analyst at BMO Capital Markets with a focus on retail and e-commerce. 

“Typical athletic or sports bras are designed to restrict the movement of breast tissue related to activity by uniformly compressing the breast tissue to the wearer’s chest,” reads a patent application that Vancouver-based Lululemon filed in Canada. This can create discomfort “because it does not effectively distribute the pressure around the wearer’s torso,” and can create back and shoulder pain. “There exists a need for measuring movement of breast tissue during activity, and then fitting an undergarment that provides more precise management of movement.”

It created a device with sensors that are placed on a person’s sternum and breast tissue to measure acceleration in three dimensions—side to side, up and down, and in and out—relative to their torso. The system includes a database of so-called breast-motion profiles that could be used to recommend bras for the wearer.

The Commissioner of Patents granted Lululemon a patent for this “sensor and method for measuring breast tissue during activity” in late November 2021. It has also filed for patents for the device in other jurisdictions, including the U.S. Companies don’t always intend to manufacture the inventions they patent. The company did not respond to an interview request or a list of emailed questions. 

Over the last several years, major apparel companies have pushed into connected fitness and incorporating digital feedback into products, said David Swartz, an equity analyst in the consumer-sector research group for Morningstar. The data gathered from e-commerce and connected-fitness moves can be used for marketing, product development, inventory management and improving customer experiences.

The retailer, which is aiming to double its digital revenues by 2026 as part of its new growth plan, has recently made big investments in technology. In June 2020, Lululemon made its first acquisition, paying US$500 million for the connected-fitness device Mirror—though that hasn’t been a seamless transaction. It announced earlier this year it was launching a new loyalty program with a paid subscription tier to replace Mirror memberships.

Lululemon’s “emphasis is on improving the function of fashion, and that’s going to be a perpetual mission,” said Siegel. Many of its efforts have focused on materials and fabric. In August 2021, it announced a partnership with Genomatica, a sustainable-materials maker, to create a plant-based nylon to make Lululemon apparel. “So I think we’re going to continue seeing new patents and new technologies and new ways to improve areas of fashion that perhaps hadn’t changed in the past.”

Lululemon is targeting areas that Siegel said historically have not seen much innovation, such as intimates or footwear. Earlier this year, Lululemon announced its first footwear collection, and that it would be “made for women first.” Four women’s styles would arrive in stores this year, with a men’s shoe line expected to come in 2023. “So much of the research happens in the men’s space and there’s a lot less that happens in women’s,” said Sun Choe, chief product officer, in a marketing video. “Women have been underserved.” Lululemon used data from millions of foot scans, it said.

This marketing angle made sense amid high-profile complaints about the lack of women-specific athletic shoes, said Swartz. He pointed to backlash from U.S. college women’s basketball players about how shoes marketed to them were just downsized men’s shoes. “It wasn’t until the last few years that these companies even really started designing shoes specifically for women,” he said.

In addition to a marketing play, Lululemon’s exploration of smart-bra technology could be a hedge to differentiate itself from competitors in a now-saturated athleisure market and to prevent copycats, Swartz said. It’s difficult to patent most fashion or fabrics, and to stave off imitators, he wrote in a 2021 note in which he outlined risks he saw for the retailer. 

Lululemon’s strategy has been to secure patents for product designs. It has dozens of registered industrial designs in Canada and design patents in the U.S. “This means the best it can do is threaten or file lawsuits over certain design elements, such as a specific type of waistband or fastening system,” Swartz wrote.

In one lawsuit, Lululemon alleged that Under Armour infringed on its patents by selling sports bras similar to one of its with a criss-crossed strap design. In October 2017, the companies asked a U.S. judge to dismiss the lawsuit. It has also entered legal battles with Peloton and multiple other retailers. 

Swartz said these types of lawsuits are “limited” in effectiveness and tend to settle out of court. If Lululemon dreamt up this type of contraption, it’s likely some of its competitors have had similar ideas, said Swartz. “They have to be wary now that Lululemon has a patent.”

Swartz, who believes too many patents are issued each year, said he doesn’t know whether Lululemon’s technology would work. “Just because a patent is issued for something, it does not really mean that it’s a meaningful product.” The device might be “overkill,” he said, noting Lululemon already conducts significant testing on its bras. If the goal is to use the sensors in stores, he added, it could be difficult for staff to find the time to run these tests on customers in small, busy stores.

Still, perfecting the fit of intimates is “absolutely” a priority for many retailers in the space, including Victoria’s Secret and Savage X Fenty, said Siegel. Some are finding ways to achieve this in stores, while others are exploring remote options using smartphones. “This is going to be an ongoing process and … optimizing fit and experience is something that is at the core of what Lululemon does.”