7 Reasons Why Women Over 70 Quit Bras for a Soft Tank They Forget to Take Off (Hint: Nothing Digs Into Their Shoulders or Sides)
A nurse sees women count the hours until the bra comes off. In the soft tank, they forget it’s on.
My name is Janet Albrecht, and I’m a registered nurse. I’ve been a nurse for 30 years. For the last 22, I’ve worked in a small family doctor’s office in Indiana.
A big part of my job is getting women ready for their yearly checkup. I weigh them. I take their blood pressure. Then I hand them a paper gown and step out so they can change.
Most of the women I see are 70 to 90. And for 22 years, the moment the bra comes off has sounded exactly the same.
A long sigh through the curtain.
“Oh, that’s better.”
“Janet, do I have to put this thing back on?”
“I count the hours till I can take it off. Today I got to take it off early.”
“It’s like kicking off a pair of tight shoes.”
When the doctor comes in to listen to her heart, I see why. Two deep grooves on top of her shoulders, where the straps sat. Two red lines on her sides, right under her arms, where the band pulls the hardest.
I see those four marks on every woman, whether she’s a size 8 at 72 or a 3XL at 88, in a cheap bra or a fancy one.
For years, when I said something, they’d shrug. “That’s just what a bra does, Janet. It’s my body.”
But if it were her body, the marks would land somewhere different on every woman. They never do. When it’s the same four spots every time, it’s the bra.
Susie is one of my patients. She’s 67. Two years ago she sat on the end of my exam table, unhooked her bra under the gown and said what they all say. “Do I have to put this back on?”
I told her what I’d seen for 22 years: the same four marks on every woman who comes through that door. She turned and looked at her own shoulders in the mirror on the back of the door. She didn’t say anything for a while.
Then she told me she’d spent years working for one of the biggest makers of women’s underwear and bras. “Then I’ll make one without those four spots,” she said.
Six months later she came back for her next checkup. She changed into the gown, and when I came back in, I looked at her shoulders. Then her sides. There were no grooves and no red lines, and she was grinning at me.
“I put it on at 7 this morning,” she said. “I forgot it was on until you handed me the gown.”
It was a soft tank she’d made herself, with no band, no hooks and no wire. Since then I’ve watched it come through my exam room on woman after woman, and the marks are gone every time. Susie’s says more than 50,000 women have ordered it. Here’s what I’d been seeing, and the seven reasons my patients give me most.
📋 What I See When the Bra Comes Off
THE SAME FOUR MARKS ON EVERY WOMAN
Pick up any bra you own and look at what’s holding you up.
- Two thin straps, each about as wide as your finger, sitting on top of your shoulders.
- One band that pulls tightest at your two sides, right under your arms.
That’s four narrow strips. Every bit of you hangs from those four spots, from the minute you hook it in the morning to the minute you take it off. That’s why they’re the four spots that dig, and the four spots where I see the marks.
So by noon you’re tugging at it. By 3 o’clock you’re counting the hours. And the second you walk in your door, before your coat is even off, the bra comes off.
Women try everything. A bigger band. A soft bralette. A fancy bra from a fitter. Every one of them still hangs you from the same four spots. Going without stops the digging, but then nothing holds you, and you feel that with every step.
Susie changed where the weight goes. Her tank has no band, no hooks and no wire. The molded cups are sewn in, the straps are wide and flat, and the long, snug body tucks into your slacks. So your shoulders, your ribs, your sides and your waist all share the weight. No one spot carries it, so no one spot digs in, and there’s nothing to race home and take off.
Here’s what my patients noticed first.
👚 Maxine Kept Tissues Under Her Straps
REASON 1: NO MORE GROOVES IN HER SHOULDERS, BECAUSE THE STRAPS AREN’T HOLDING HER UP ANYMORE
Look at the tops of your shoulders tonight. Those two dents are the first two of the four spots.
A bra band can’t hold all of you by itself, so it hands part of your weight up to the straps. A strap is about as wide as your finger, and it carries you on that one thin line from the minute you get dressed. So it sinks in. By night there’s a groove you could lay your finger in.
I see those grooves every time a woman slips her arms out for the gown. On some women, they’re still there the next morning.
The tank’s straps are wide and flat. The bigger change is the body. It’s long and snug and tucked into your slacks, and it carries most of the weight from below, down to your hips. The straps don’t have to hold you up anymore. They just rest on your shoulders.
If your blouse has a wide neckline that slips off your shoulders, a strap will show. Under an everyday blouse, they lie flat and stay put.
Maxine is 74. For years she folded a tissue and tucked it under each strap, just to soften the grooves. She went through a box a month. This spring she came in for her checkup wearing the tank. When she slipped it off for the gown, I looked at her shoulders before I even reached for the cuff. There wasn’t a line on either one.
“I didn’t put any tissues in today,” she said. “I never even missed them.”
⏰ Geneva Used to Watch the Clock in Church
REASON 2: SHE STOPS COUNTING THE HOURS TILL IT COMES OFF, BECAUSE NO BAND IS SQUEEZING HER SIDES
The other two spots are on your sides, right under your arms. That’s where a bra band pulls the hardest.
A band has to be tight to hold you up. Then you sit down. When you sit, your middle gets a little wider. Everybody’s does. The band doesn’t, so it squeezes those two spots a little harder every time you sit.
So the day goes like this. At 9 it feels fine. By lunch you notice it. By 3 you’re counting the hours till you can take it off. By 6 you’re walking in the door with one hand already reaching up your back for the hooks.
The tank has no band. There’s no strip of elastic around your ribs at all. The snug body holds you a little bit everywhere, from under your arms down to your hips, and it stretches all four ways when you sit. Nothing gets tighter at your sides as the hours go by.
It’s snug when you first pull it on, so you’ll feel it at first. By midmorning, most of my patients tell me they’ve stopped noticing it.
Geneva is 79. Every Sunday she sat in her pew with a thumb hooked under her band on each side, waiting for the last hymn so she could get home and take it off. She was always the first one out the door.
A few weeks after she started wearing the tank, she stayed for the potluck. Then she drove over to her sister’s for coffee. She didn’t get home until after 6.
“I never once looked at the clock,” she told me. “I forgot I had it on until I got ready for bed.”
🪑 Bette Hooked It in Front and Spun It Around
REASON 3: NO MORE REACHING BEHIND HER BACK, BECAUSE THERE ARE NO HOOKS TO FASTEN
Ask a woman over 70 how she gets her bra on. Most of them quit reaching behind their back years ago. They hook it in front of their belly, spin it around and wrestle the straps up over their shoulders. Some mornings it takes three tries.
The hooks aren’t one of the four spots. They’re only there because the band has to close. And once they’re fastened, they sit right on your spine all day. Lean back in the car or in your favorite chair, and there they are. So without even knowing it, you sit a little forward all day to keep them off your back.
Take the band away, and there’s nothing left to fasten. The tank has no hooks, no clasp and nothing behind you at all. It goes on over your head like a nightgown. One arm, then the other. Pull it down, tuck it in, and you’re dressed.
It does go on over your head. If you can pull on a nightgown, you can pull this on.
Bette is 83. Her shoulders don’t like reaching back there anymore, so every morning she stood at the dresser, hooked her bra in front and twisted it around. Then she spent her afternoons on the front edge of her big blue recliner, because when she leaned back, the hooks pressed into her spine.
The first Sunday she wore the tank, she leaned all the way back after lunch and slept for an hour.
That night, out of habit, she went to unhook it, the way she had every night for 60 years. “There was nothing there,” she told me. “I just stood in the bathroom and laughed.”
⚖️ Myra Was Sure It Wouldn’t Hold Her
REASON 4: IT HOLDS HER ALL DAY WITH NO WIRE, EVEN IN A 3XL, BECAUSE THE WHOLE TANK SHARES THE WEIGHT
This is the first thing fuller women ask me. “Janet, if there’s no band and no wire, what’s holding me up?”
It’s a fair question. In a bra, the band and the wire do almost all the holding. The fuller you are, the harder those four spots have to work, and the wire is the first thing to give. By afternoon it’s poking you under the arm or in the middle, and you’re pushing it back through your blouse.
There’s no wire in the tank at all. It holds you a different way. The molded cups are sewn in, so they hold you in front. The wide straps take a little of the weight. And the long, snug body, tucked into your slacks, carries the rest down to your hips. Four narrow spots used to fight to hold you up. Now your whole middle shares the job.
It won’t push you up and out like a padded bra. It holds you where you belong, all day, with nothing poking. It goes all the way up to 6XL, and you order by your bust measurement, not a cup letter.
Myra is 72. She wears a 3XL, and she wore a 44DDD underwire for 40 years. She was the one patient I was sure it wouldn’t work for, and she told me so herself. “Nothing without a wire has ever held me, Janet.”
At her next visit she came in wearing it under a knit top. She’d been to the grocery store and the bank that morning. I asked her how it was holding up. She lifted both arms over her head, put them down and shrugged.
“Same place it was at 7 this morning,” she said. “And nothing poked me once.”
🌡️ Sylvia Keeps Her House at 78
REASON 5: SHE GETS THROUGH A HOT DAY WITH NO WET BAND STUCK TO HER RIBS, BECAUSE THERE’S NO BAND AT ALL
More women tell me about this one than any other, and every summer I hear it again. The band gets wet.
A band is a thick strip of elastic pressed tight around your ribs. On a warm day, or over a hot stove, it soaks through and stays wet, and it rubs that one line all afternoon. By supper there’s a red, itchy stripe right where it sat. Plenty of my patients keep a can of powder by the sink just for that line.
There’s no band on the tank, so no thick strip of elastic holds the damp in one place. It’s one soft, stretchy layer that breathes, and it lies against you evenly all the way around.
It won’t stop you from sweating on a hot day. Nothing will. But there’s no wet band rubbing the same line raw by supper.
Sylvia is 77. She keeps her thermostat at 78 and won’t turn it down for anybody. Every summer she’d unhook her bra at the kitchen table after lunch and sit there with it hanging loose under her blouse, just to let some air in.
This summer she wore the tank, all through July and August.
“That can of powder is still sitting by the sink,” she said. “It’s as full as the day I bought it.”
🧺 Lila’s Laundry Day
REASON 6: SHE STOPS TUGGING AT IT ALL DAY, BECAUSE THERE’S NO BAND TO RIDE UP WHEN SHE BENDS
Think about how many times a day you fix your bra. You reach behind you and pull the band back down. You hitch a strap back up onto your shoulder. Every one of those tugs is your bra reminding you it’s there.
Most of it starts when you reach or bend. Reach up to the top shelf, and the band slides up your back. Bend into the washer, and it climbs higher. Then it stays up there, in the wrong place, until you fix it. The soft wireless ones are even worse. They roll up into a rope under your bust.
With the tank, there’s no band to slide. It’s cut long, so the bottom tucks into your slacks, and that’s what keeps it down. Reach up or bend over, and it stretches and bends with you. When you stand back up, it’s right where it was.
Untucked, it can creep up when you bend over. So tuck it in.
Lila is 76. Monday is her laundry day, and her old washer opens on top. Every load meant bending way down inside to pull out the wet clothes, and every time she stood up, she had to reach under her blouse and drag the band back down.
The Monday after she started wearing the tank, she did four loads and hung two of them out on the line.
“I never fixed it once,” she told me. “I didn’t think about it again until I got undressed for my shower.”
🤗 Marlys Stopped Hugging Sideways
REASON 7: NOBODY CAN TELL, NOT EVEN IN A BIG GRANDKID HUG, BECAUSE THERE ARE NO HOOKS TO FEEL
A bra shows. Under a blouse you can see the band across your back and two curved lines where the wires sit. And anybody who hugs you can feel the hooks.
Grandkids hug hard. When they squeeze, their arms press those hooks right into your back. A lot of grandmothers I know have learned to hug with one shoulder, sort of sideways, so it doesn’t hurt.
The tank has no band, no hooks, no clasp and no wire. The cups are molded and sewn into the same smooth knit that covers the whole front, so they can’t slide around. Under a blouse it just looks like you, and a hug just feels like a hug.
Under a very thin, clingy knit, you’ll still see you have a layer on, the same as with any top. You won’t see hooks or a wire.
Marlys is 81. For years she gave her grandkids that sideways hug. This fall her granddaughter came home from college, ran up the front steps and threw both arms around her. Marlys hugged her right back, with both arms, for a long time.
“Nothing dug in, and nobody could tell what I had on,” she told me. “Janet, I forgot I had anything on at all.”
WHAT ALL SEVEN HAVE IN COMMON
If you read all seven, you saw the same thing every time.
Straps digging into your shoulders, a band pulling at your sides, hooks on your back, a wire poking you, a band soaked through on a warm day, a band riding up every time you bend and lines under your blouse all come from one thing. A bra hangs all of you on four narrow spots, each about an inch wide, and narrow things dig.
None of it was your body. Take the four spots away and spread the weight over your whole torso, and there’s nothing left to count down to. You put it on in the morning, and you forget it’s on until bedtime.
WHAT WOMEN WHO WEAR IT SAY
I’m not the only one who’s noticed. Here are three women who wear it, in their own words, from Susie’s page.
“I wore it all day long.”
Judy, 74Verified Customer
“Feels like a little hug.”
Ren, 68Verified Customer
“The pads stay in their little pocket. I tuck the bottom into my slacks and it stays put. I spend half the day bent over in my garden and I haven’t tugged at it once. My old shelf tank was up under my arms by ten in the morning.”
Wanda K. · Spokane, WashingtonVerified Customer
THE QUESTIONS MY PATIENTS ASK ME FIRST
Whenever one of my patients hears about it, she asks me the same few things. Here’s what I tell her.
“Will it really hold me without a band? I’m big up top.”
Myra wears a 3XL and wore a 44DDD for 40 years, and she was sure it wouldn’t. It won’t push you up like an underwire. The molded cups, the wide straps and the long, snug body all share the weight, so you’re held where you belong, all day, with no wire and no band.
“Will it ride up?”
Not if you tuck it in. It’s cut long so it tucks into your slacks and stays down, even when you bend or reach. Untucked, it can creep up when you bend over.
“What size do I get?”
Measure around the fullest part of your bust and check the size guide on Susie’s page. There’s no band number and no cup letter. If you land between two sizes, take the larger one. It comes in S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL, 5XL and 6XL, in 8 colors.
“Is Susie a real person? Who am I buying from?”
Yes, she’s real. She’s one of my patients, she’s 67, and she spent years at one of the biggest makers of women’s underwear and bras. Susie’s is sold only at susies.co, and shipping is free in the US. If you email support@susies.co, a real person writes you back.
“Is there a guarantee?”
Yes. Every tank comes with Susie’s 90-Day Guarantee.
“Will it feel tight?”
It’s snug when you first pull it on. By midmorning most of my patients stop noticing it. If it still squeezes after that, it’s too small, which is why I tell everyone between sizes to take the larger one.
“Janet, are you telling me to buy this?”
No. I take blood pressures and hand out paper gowns. I’m telling you what I’ve seen in my exam room, and what my patients told me. Whether it’s right for you is up to you.
“How do I wash it?”
Wash it on gentle in cold water. Lay it flat to dry, or tumble dry on low. The cups are sewn in, so you wash it just as it is.
🏡 A Real Woman, and One of My Patients
WHO YOU’RE BUYING FROM
My patients always want to know who’s on the other end before they order anything off the internet. That’s a fair thing to ask.
Susie is a real woman. She’s 67. Before Susie’s, she spent years at one of the biggest makers of women’s underwear and bras. She can’t say which one. After that day in my exam room, she knew exactly which four spots she had to take away.
She tried her samples on her sister and the women from her church before she sold a single one. At every fitting she asked the same thing: “Can you feel it?” She kept changing the samples until they all said no.
Susie’s says more than 50,000 women have ordered the tank. It’s sold only at susies.co, and shipping is free in the US. If you email support@susies.co, a real person writes you back. Every tank comes with Susie’s 90-Day Guarantee.
WHAT MY PATIENTS KEEP IN THE DRAWER
Most of my patients end up with three. One to wear, one in the wash and one saved for church. Myra has one in every color.
Right now Susie’s has Buy 2, Get 1 Free, so the third one costs you nothing. If you want five, it’s Buy 3, Get 2 Free. Shipping is free in the US, and you can mix the colors any way you like.
I don’t know how long they’ll keep that going, and the popular sizes go first. If your size is there today, that’s when I’d get it.
On Susie’s page it’s called the Susie’s Built-in Bra Comfort Tank. Buy 2, Get 1 Free is the one most women pick, and you don’t need a code.
⚠️ Look-Alikes Are Out There
WHY YOU WON’T FIND IT ON AMAZON
Susie’s is only sold on susies.co. It isn’t on Amazon or Walmart, and it isn’t in stores.
Copycat sites have copied the look, and some even use Susie’s own photos. What comes in the mail is a thin shelf cami with two loose pads and a strip of elastic where the band would be. That’s two thin straps and a band again. The same four spots.
Twila is 80. Her daughter ordered her a look-alike online. Twila wore it to her checkup, and when she changed into the gown, there they were: two grooves and two red lines. She brought it back the next week in a grocery bag to show me.
So get it from susies.co. That’s the only place the 90-Day Guarantee and Buy 2, Get 1 Free apply.
The 90-Day Guarantee
Every tank comes with Susie’s 90-Day Guarantee.
Susie’s Built-in Bra Comfort Tank
Buy 2, Get 1 Free · Free US shipping
- Put it on in the morning, forget it’s on until bedtime
- No band pulling at your sides
- Wide, flat straps that don’t dig into your shoulders
- No hooks and no wire
- Cut long, so it tucks in and stays put
- Molded cups sewn in, so nothing shows through
- S to 6XL, 8 colors, sized by your bust
90-Day Guarantee
CHECK AVAILABILITY →Free US shipping · 90-Day Guarantee · Only at susies.co
WHAT I SEE IN MY EXAM ROOM NOW
Tomorrow morning, you can hook on the same bra. By noon the straps will be digging into your shoulders. By 3 o’clock the band will be pulling at your sides, and you’ll be counting the hours. The second you get home, before your coat is even off, it comes off. And tonight you’ll rub the same four marks.
You’ll tell yourself that’s just what a bra does. I’ve heard it from hundreds of women in my exam room.
Or you can do what Maxine, Geneva, Bette, Myra, Sylvia, Lila and Marlys did. Pull it on over your head in the morning, tuck it in and forget about it until bedtime.
It was the four spots all along. Take them away, and there’s nothing to race home and take off.
Janet
P.S.
These days, when I hand a patient her gown and step out, I listen for the sigh. More and more, I don’t hear it. Last week Maxine called through the curtain, “Janet, I forgot I had it on again.”
P.P.S. The button below takes you to Susie’s page. It starts with the same promise: put it on in the morning, forget it’s on until bedtime. You don’t need a bra size there. Measure the fullest part of your bust and check the size guide. If you’re between two sizes, take the larger one.
Buy 2, Get 1 Free. Free US shipping. 90-Day Guarantee.
“Do I have to put this back on?” I have said those exact words at my doctor’s office. More than once.
Arlene, me too. My nurse laughed and said everybody asks.
I just went and looked in the mirror. Two on the shoulders, two on the sides. Fifty years of bras and I never once counted them.
My coat isn’t even off and the bra is. My husband says I come in the door like I’m escaping something.
Is this a real company? I don’t buy from anybody I can’t email.
Hi Jo Ann! We’re real. Susie is 67, and she still reads a lot of these herself. We only sell on susies.co. Email support@susies.co any time, and a real person writes you back. Shipping is free in the US, and every tank comes with our 90-Day Guarantee.
Does it go up to 5XL? Every bra I own digs in worst at the sides.
Hi Winifred! It goes from S to 6XL. Measure around the fullest part of your bust and check the size guide. No band number, no cup letter. If you’re between two sizes, take the larger one.
I keep a can of powder by the bathroom sink for the band line every summer. Never once thought it was the bra’s fault.
I was a nurse’s aide for 18 years. She’s right about the marks. You see them on everybody.
I almost bought one on Amazon last month that looked just like this. Same picture and everything. Is that one yours?
Hi Marian! That one isn’t ours. We only sell on susies.co, not on Amazon or in stores. Some sites copy our photos, but our 90-Day Guarantee only covers tanks bought on susies.co.
My mother is 84 and unhooks her bra under her blouse in the middle of Sunday dinner. Sending her this tonight.