Thirdlove

If precise fit is your priority, ThirdLove makes a strong case. The brand was built on a data-driven approach to bra fit, and its signature half-cup sizes exist specifically for the roughly 37% of women whom standard cup sizes don't fit. You're paying for that engineering rather than runway spectacle, so the value lands best for anyone who has struggled to find a bra that genuinely fits between standard sizes.

ThirdLove approached bra design like a product problem, starting in 2013 when founder Heidi Zak left a Google advertising job to take a data-driven approach. Early prototypes were developed with proprietary lingerie designer Ra'el Cohen using photographs of 100 women in fitted tank tops. That emphasis on fit and construction is the brand's calling card, so quality is most evident in how well a given style sits once you've used the fit tools.

The two are direct rivals, and the contrast is part of ThirdLove's identity. ThirdLove markets body positivity and size-inclusive fit, while Victoria's Secret long leaned on fantasy and spectacle. The rivalry boiled over in 2018 when a Victoria's Secret executive said the brand was 'nobody's third love'; Zak responded with an open letter in the New York Times that went viral. By 2021 the NPD Group named ThirdLove the third-largest online intimate apparel brand in the US, behind Victoria's Secret and Aerie.

Half-cup sizes are ThirdLove's signature innovation. After finding that standard cup sizes do not fit 37% of women, the brand created in-between cup sizes so you don't have to round up or down to the nearest standard size. It's the clearest expression of the company's fit-first philosophy.

The FitFinder quiz is ThirdLove's online tool that helps users determine their best-fitting bra and style. It grew out of the brand's origins, when ThirdLove built an app to determine bra size, and it remains central to the company's online-first, fit-led shopping experience.

ThirdLove is an American lingerie company founded in 2013 by Heidi Zak and her husband, David Spector. The idea came from Zak's own frustration with bra shopping, when she could not find bras that were both beautiful and comfortable, prompting her to leave her job at Google to build a better one.

While bras are its foundation, ThirdLove has expanded its range. As of 2022 the brand offered underwear, loungewear, sportswear and sleepwear and had doubled its 2021 style count. It also launched a new Seamless wireless bra line in 2021, broadening beyond the wired styles it started with.

Body positivity is core to how ThirdLove presents itself. The brand is known for marketing body positivity and offering size-inclusive bras, and in June 2018 it added 24 larger sizes to widen who it could fit. That inclusive stance also fuelled its very public defence of inclusivity against Victoria's Secret in 2018.

Yes. In October 2018, Forbes estimated ThirdLove to be worth $750 million and placed it on its Next Billion-Dollar Startup list. In 2019 the company raised $55 million in a Series B round led by L Catterton, and by 2021 the NPD Group ranked it the third-largest online intimate apparel brand in the US. Founder Heidi Zak was also named one of Fast Company's '100 Most Creative People' in 2017.

Start with the brand's own FitFinder quiz, since the whole company is built around solving fit. If you've always felt stuck between two cup sizes, this is exactly where ThirdLove's half-cup options come in, so don't be afraid to choose an in-between size rather than forcing a standard one. Treat the first wears as a calibration period and adjust from there.