I was shopping at a new store in my area called Bargain Hunt and found a Panache sports bra. If you aren't familiar with the store, they are most similar to Close Out style stores like Big Lot's, Ollies, and DFWH. Bargain Hunt gets a wide variety of brands, I've seen Panache, Cleo, Curvy Kate, Levi's, Victoria's Secret, and more. How it works is most the merchandise has a tag with a price along with a date, based on the date on the tag you get an additional percentage off (I'm not affiliated with Bargain Hunt in any way, just bargain shopper). Anyway, one of the few Panache sports bras was in my size 32DD. Since I have yet to try any sports bras from a full bust brand I decided to try it on. I do apologize for the horrible dressing room lighting. I was mostly taking pics for fit assessment and decided to make a quick blog post too.
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| Panache Underwire Sports Bra 32DD |
While I didn't have a measuring tape handy, the 32 band fit quite nicely on the loosest hooks. I took a look at Bratabase and it seems the bands measure fairly TTS the average stretched measurement for a 32 band is 31.8. Although I don't think this takes into account different colors of the bra and I did try it on in black and black fabric sometimes has a bit less stretch than other colors.
The wires seem to be fairly narrow and the cups are also decently projected, and the gore tacks nicely. Overall the Panache sports bra seems to be very comfortable and a nice fit. There is also plenty of room in the cups for someone who is a bit more FOT. The extra space at the upper cup portion is part of why I did not purchase the bra though. I would ideally like to try it on in a 32D just to compare. Realistically the 32DD would most likely be fine for most activities, but I am curious if I could get a bit extra support from a cup size down.
As you can see the tag says $20, that's a bargain in itself. Based on the date on the tag I think it would have been an additional 40% off so about $12 is what I would have paid. I'm probably insane for passing on it, but I'm not sure how much use I would get out of a sports bra. Most of workouts are hiking and my boyfriend and I tend to decide on hiking spontaneously when we are already out of the house, so I would most likely not have the bra on and I don't know that I really need a sports bra for hiking. The upside would be I wouldn't fee bad about sweating in "pretty" bras.
I did find the Panache sports bra to be very comfortable in the short time I tried it on. I also think it provide adequate support up to medium impact workouts. While it was a good fit I would still like to see if I find a cup size down to provide a bit extra support. I'm also just not sure how often I would really utilize the bra, and I'm trying be less impulsive (especially with bras) with my money. If I thought I would get a lot of use from it, I would have went ahead and purchased it in the size, especially now after looking at Bratabase measurements for cup depth (32D average 7.7, 32DD average 8.2) most bras I wear have cup depth around 8.5in.
Also, a funny story. I recently did a factory reset on my phone because it was acting up. Apparently my camera noise in back on now. My boyfriend was outside the fitting room and there was apparently a couple in the fitting room next to me. He heard one of them say something about someone taking pictures, and it seemed to be making them a bit nervous. I found this pretty amusing when he told me so I figured I would share.
I've had a lot of success with Cleo by Panache as well.
