UK-based sports bra brand MAAREE has raised concerns regarding a recently launched sports bra by Champion Shock Absorber which, in MAAREE’s view, appears materially similar to its award-winning Solidarity Sports Bra which features its proprietary Overband® Technology.
MAAREE holds UK registered design protection for key aspects of the Solidarity Sports Bra’s construction and overall visual appearance. Following the release of Champion Shock Absorber’s product in autumn 2025, MAAREE asserted its UK design rights. At that time, the product was not being offered for sale within the UK market. Whilst it did not admit MAAREE’s claims, Champion (via its lawyers) indicated that it had no plans to place the relevant products on the market in the UK.
Unfortunately, international retailers were still making the bras available to UK customers. and now it appears that Champion’s own plans for distribution have changed.
MAAREE has identified that additional colourways of the product have been released, and appear to be available for delivery to UK addresses via Champion’s own website, and priced in GBP. MAAREE is currently considering its own legal position. MAAREE maintains that the key support principles underlying its flagship Solidarity Sports Bra are distinctive elements of its original engineering-led design work. MAAREE founder Mari Thomas-Welland commented:
We are a small, female-founded business built around solving real performance challenges for women in sport. I developed the Solidarity Sports Bra through research, testing and engineering-led design, after recognising that big brands were failing to address real problems for women’s movement.
We welcome competition and innovation within the industry. However, we believe innovation should be original. Protecting independent design is essential to ensuring that smaller brands can continue investing in better solutions for women.”
Mari Thomas-Welland launched the company in 2018, having worked as a professional sports bra engineer at the University of Loughborough. Her personal experience as a hockey player, alongside her work testing sports bras under lab conditions led her to design her own concept for a sports bra that protected against upward motion, and she subsequently invented the Overband® Technology now baked into all MAAREE designs. The bras released by Champion Shock Absorber appear to emulate this technology, as well as the rest of the design.
Mari further added:
The approach taken by Champion Shock Absorber is disappointing, but this experience has only reassured me that the work we’re doing is credible.”
