a range contains 43 styles, so everyone can find the right fit for them,” the accompanying caption states. First posted on Twitter a week ago, and appearing on billboards in cities around the world, the breast mural has received mixed reactions.  To some, it’s a refreshingly ‘real’ response to a problem that many women face. To others, it’s a calculated attempt to shock people into sharing the brand’s content – and therefore driving its sales.  Retail expert Rosanna Iacono is a fan of the photo: “Anything that works towards desexualising and normalising what real breasts look like has a strong social impact message supporting women,” Iacono, managing partner of strategy consultancy The Growth Activists, told Inside Retail.  But she can see why some people would question Adidas’ motives, given how much of a departure it is from the brand’s usual behaviour and tone of voice. “The brand perhaps underestimated how the shock factor might overshadow the actual product leadership message they were aiming to get across,” she said. Macquarie Business School senior lecturer and ‘woke’ marketing expert Dr Abas Mirzaei believes Adidas should have let the new collection speak for itself, rather than linking it to a social issue, which could be perceived as opportunistic. “Cute woke moves like this aren’t really woke deep down. It can just be boiled down into designing a product that meets the needs of the target audience, no need to make a big deal out of this,” he told Inside Retail. The fit problem in sports bras  What’s not in dispute, however, is the need for brands to offer a wider range of sports bra sizes and styles than they typically have in the past.  “The offering certainly was extremely limited for a very long time, and it has only been in the last few years that leading brands like Nike and Adidas have moved to truly inclusive sizing,” Iacono said.  Part of the problem is that bras come in a lot more sizes than other types of apparel, which can be challenging from an inventory and cost management perspective.  “The combination of diverse cup sizes and chest circumferences means that a single style [of sports bra] may end up being offered in dozens of size combinations versus the usual size offering of say a running tight or a singlet,” Iacono explained. But not offering a full range of sports bras can have real-world consequences. Studies show that breasts can undergo damaging skin stretch without the right bra, and ill-fitting bras may lead women and girls to avoid physical activity.  In a survey conducted by Adidas, 46 per cent of schoolgirls said their breasts affected their participation in sports. “The wrong sports bra can have a serious impact on performance and efficiency – for example, if you run a marathon, unsupported breasts travel an extra four miles on their own,” said Amy Charlton, senior director of product at Adidas. Part of the solution To solve the fit problem, Adidas worked closely with leading breast biomechanics researchers at University of Portsmouth to understand exactly what happens to breasts during exercise and reengineer its entire bra portfolio. It now offers an impressive 43 styles in 72 sizes.  “It was a significant undertaking with an all-female team of designers, testers and experts, and we hope this collection will help more sports bra wearers experience the benefits of added support and a better fit, and not be held back when doing the sports they love,” Charlton said. And sports bras are just one example of Adidas’ broader efforts to improve its offering for women.  Last year, it launched a line of period-proof activewear with the goal of keeping girls in sport after they start menstruating, and later this year it is launching a new Ultra Boost shoe that has been designed with women’s feet in mind.