The North Face Mountain Athletics Bra review: all-day comfort and support even with high intensity activities

The North Face Mountain Athletics Bra: first impressions 

The North Face Mountain Athletics Bra is designed to create support during high intensity activities as well as long-lasting comfort when you’re hitting the trail for hours on end. Made using The North Face’s FlashDry fabric, this good-looking sports bra wicks away sweat and dries quickly to keep you cool and comfortable.

The square-shaped collar, thick straps, and broad elasticated band around your ribcage provide good coverage and give maximum support when you’re running, while soft jersey fabric and flat-locked seams mean no chafing, even on long days. This bra is definitely built for performance, which means it can be a little hard to pull on and off, but the trade-off is that once it’s on, it keeps everything in place even when you're sprinting for the finish line.

The North Face Mountain Athletics Bra: in the field 

I’ve been wearing this bra on every trail run as well as hiking the West Highland Way for about a month now and I’m really pleased with its performance. Not being especially busty, I actually don’t usually give a huge amount of thought to my sports bra and I’ve been running in old yoga bras for years that don’t actually offer much support, so I was interested to see how I’d like something so robust. 

The first thing that caught my eye was how nice it looks on. It’s super stylish and even if it’s going to be covered up with my running top, it’s still a nice detail. I got a small, which is my usual size, but when I first went to put it on it felt a little tight and I was afraid I’d got the wrong size. In reality, it fits perfectly and feels really good on, but I think the tightness is the price you pay for extra support in the field. I’m not sure how this will translate if you have a much bigger cup size, other than to say that I can’t imagine finding something more supportive than this, because you’ll lose that support with good stretch.

When I’m running, it is definitely really supportive but somehow manages to not be too tight as to restrict my movement or breathing, which is obviously super important. The FlashDry fabric definitely works well. Even with a good sweat going, I just get a little damp around my chest but I stay cool and it does dry quickly – not as fast as their Flight Series Weightless running top but I definitely don’t feel soggy after my run. Being synthetic material, it does get smelly faster, but not more so than my other synthetic bras.

When it's time to get it back off, I still have to do a little wrestling and I can hear the odd stitch giving way, so I’m not sure how it will hold up over time – it seems really robust otherwise – but right now, it still looks brand new.

Here’s how it performed:

Sizing

Don’t be fooled by it being a little hard to pull on and off, this fits true to size. 

Comfort 

Really comfortable thanks to soft jersey fabric, flat-locked seams and good coverage. 

Breathability 

FlashDry fabric keeps you dry and cool and dries fairly quickly. 

Durability 

Sturdy construction and design but the seams do pop a little when pulling it on and off. 

Here’s where we tested The North Face Mountain Athletics Bra:

The Strathblane Pipe Track is a classic fell running track just outside of Glasgow at the start of the Highlands that follows the route of the pipe that brings water from Loch Katrine to Glasgow, at the foot of the Campsies.

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