7 Reasons Why Women Over 70 Quit Bras for a Soft Tank That Gives Them a Shape Again
A nurse sees empty, gaping cups on women every flu season. In the soft tank, their tops fill out again.
My name is Gail Sorensen, and I’m a registered nurse. For 28 years I’ve worked at the county health department here in Nebraska.
Every fall, I run the flu shot clinics. Church basements, the senior center, the back room at the library. I set up a folding chair and a little table, and I give about 900 shots a season. Most of them go to women between 70 and 90.
A flu shot goes in the top of your arm. So every woman who sits in my chair unbuttons her top button and slides her blouse off one shoulder.
That means every fall, I look at the top of a bra cup about 900 times.
Over and over, I see the same thing. The strap and the cup are right where they should be, but the top of the cup stands away from her like a little empty bowl, with nothing in it.
The women know it. They make jokes before I even pick up the needle.
“Don’t look, Gail. There’s nothing left in there.”
“These used to be a 36C. Now they’re a 36Long.”
“I’ve got two empty socks, honey. Just poke me and let me go.”
I laugh with them, because they’re funny. But then I watch them stand up. They reach down for their purse, and the cup rides up, and they slide right out the bottom of it. They push themselves back in with one hand, button up and hurry out.
Some of them got soft with age, and some lost a lot of weight. Others were sick for a long time or are on that weekly shot from their doctor. Whatever the reason, the cup looks the same on all of them.
For years they’d tell me, “That’s just what happens, Gail. I’m old. Everything looks bad on me now.”
But if it were only her body, her blouse wouldn’t cave in at the top. It caves in because the cup is empty, and the cup is empty because it was built to be filled.
Susie is one of the women in my line. She’s 67. Two falls ago she sat in my chair at the Lutheran church, slid her blouse off her shoulder, saw me looking and laughed. “Don’t look. There’s nothing left in there to hold.”
I told her what I’d seen for 28 years. The same empty cup on almost every woman in that line, and the same push back in at the bottom when they reach for their purse. She looked down at her own shoulder for a long time.
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 with nothing empty in it,” she said.
Last fall she was back in my line. She slid her blouse off her shoulder, and I stopped with the needle in my hand. There was no gap. The top was smooth, and she was filled out under her blouse the way a woman is supposed to look.
“I’ve got a shape again,” she said. “Go ahead and poke me.”
It was a soft tank she’d made herself, with no band, no hooks and no wire. This fall, I’ve seen it on woman after woman in my chair. Susie’s says more than 50,000 women have ordered it. Here’s what I’d been seeing, and the seven reasons the women in my line give me most.
💉 What I See at the Top of the Cup
THE EMPTY CUP
Pick up any bra you own and look at the cup.
- It’s shaped like a bowl.
- It only keeps that shape when something firm is inside it, pushing it out.
When you were 30, you filled that bowl. Now you’re softer. Maybe you lost weight. Maybe it just happened, a little more every year. Either way, there isn’t enough firm in there to push the cup out anymore.
So the cup does what any empty bowl does. The top stands away from you and gapes. The bottom has nothing to sit against, so when you reach or bend, it rides up and you slide out under it. Then your blouse caves in where the cup is empty and bunches where you slid out. That deflated look comes from an empty cup under your blouse. Your age has very little to do with it.
Women try everything. A smaller cup, but then they spill out the sides. A padded one, but then they look stuffed and it still rides up. A soft bralette, but then they’re flat as a pancake. Going without feels worse, because then nothing holds them at all.
Susie built it the other way around. Her tank’s molded cups are sewn in, and they hold their shape on their own. They don’t wait for you to fill them. And there’s no band. The long, snug body stretches four ways and gathers you up and in from below, then holds you there, all the way down to your hips. There’s no empty cup to sink into and no band to slide out of. You just look like you, filled out and finished.
Here’s what the women in my line noticed first.
🪞 Charlene Called Herself a 36Long
REASON 1: HER TOP FILLS OUT AGAIN, BECAUSE THE CUPS HOLD THEIR SHAPE ON THEIR OWN
Stand sideways in the mirror tonight in your bra and a blouse. Look at the front. If the blouse dips in at the top and pleats in the middle, that’s the empty cup.
A bra cup has no shape of its own. It’s just fabric waiting for you to fill it. When you’re soft, it folds and dents wherever you don’t fill it, and your blouse lies right on top of those folds.
The tank’s cups are molded and sewn in. They keep their shape whether you fill them all the way or not. So the front of your blouse has a smooth, round shape to lie over again. And the snug body underneath gathers you up into them, so you’re not sitting at the bottom of them either.
It won’t make you look 30, and it won’t make you look like you had surgery. It doesn’t add size like a padded push-up. It gives you back a soft, natural shape, the kind a woman your age is supposed to have.
Charlene is 74. She’s the one who told me she’d gone from a 36C to a 36Long. For years she wore loose tops and a long cardigan over everything, buttoned up, so nobody could see the front of her.
This October she sat in my chair in a fitted red sweater, no cardigan. She slid the neck off her shoulder, and there was no gap at the top. It was smooth all the way across.
“I bought this sweater in 2015,” she said. “This is the first time I’ve worn it out of the house.”
🍂 Ardella Rakes Her Own Leaves
REASON 2: SHE DOESN’T SLIDE OUT THE BOTTOM WHEN SHE REACHES, BECAUSE THERE’S NO BAND TO SLIDE UNDER
This is the one I watch happen right in front of me. A woman stands up from my chair, reaches down for her purse, and slides right out the bottom of her bra.
A band is supposed to sit under you and hold you in place. But a band only stays put when there’s something firm above it to hold it down. When you’re soft, the band slides up the minute you lift your arms. You stay where you are. Now you’re hanging out under it, and the empty cup is riding up near your collarbone.
The tank has no band. Nothing sits under you as a single line that can slide. The long, snug body holds you from below, all the way down to your hips, and it stretches four ways when you reach. Lift your arms, and it stretches with you. Put them down, and you’re right where you started.
It’s snug when you first pull it on, so you’ll feel it at first. Most women tell me they stop noticing it by midmorning.
Ardella is 78. She still rakes her own leaves, and she told me at last year’s clinic that she couldn’t do it without “falling out” of her bra. Every few minutes she’d put down the rake and push herself back in through her sweatshirt. “Like rocks in socks,” she said. “I have to tuck them back in every time I bend.”
This year she came in straight from the yard, in the tank under a flannel shirt.
“Fourteen bags,” she said. “I didn’t tuck anything back in once.”
🎂 Glenna Said Tanks Were for Skinny Little Things
REASON 3: SHE LOOKS NEAT, NOT SLOPPY, EVEN IN A 3XL, BECAUSE THE WHOLE TANK GATHERS HER IN
This is the first thing fuller women ask me. “Gail, I’m not empty. I’m big. Is this for me?”
In my chair, I see plenty of big women who are soft, too. They fill the cup at the bottom and leave it empty at the top. Or they spill over the top in front and slide out under it at the bottom. Either way, the blouse looks lumpy, and they look like they just threw something on.
The tank holds a full, soft woman a different way. The molded cups are sewn in, so they keep a smooth shape in front. The wide, flat straps take a little of the weight. And the long, snug body gathers everything up and in from below and holds it close, down to the hips. Nothing spills and nothing slides, so the front of her blouse lies smooth and neat.
It won’t hoist you up to your chin. It holds you where you belong and keeps you looking put together. It goes all the way up to 6XL, and you order by your bust measurement, not a cup letter.
Glenna is 80 and wears a 3XL. She told me flat out that a tank was for “skinny little things.” Then her granddaughter ordered her one for her birthday.
At this year’s clinic she unbuttoned her blouse for the shot and looked down at herself like she’d forgotten something. “I keep checking,” she said. “Nothing’s spilling anywhere. I look like I got dressed on purpose.”
⚖️ Leona Lost 60 Pounds and Gained Two Empty Socks
REASON 4: SHE LOST THE WEIGHT AND FINALLY HAS A SHAPE THAT FITS, BECAUSE SHE ORDERS BY THE BUST SHE HAS TODAY
More and more women in my line have lost a lot of weight. Some were sick and some changed how they eat, but a lot of them are on the weekly shot their doctor gave them for their sugar.
They’re proud of the weight, and they should be. But almost every one of them tells me the same thing. “My clothes fit better, Gail, and I look worse in them.” When the weight comes off, the skin stays. What’s left is soft and long, and the old cup is half empty. A smaller cup doesn’t fix it, because nothing fills that one either.
With the tank, you don’t need a cup size at all. You measure around the fullest part of your bust today, and you pick from S to 6XL. The cups hold their own shape, and the snug body gathers up all that soft extra and holds it close, so there’s no loose skin bunching under your blouse and no empty cup gaping on top.
It won’t make long breasts short again. Nothing will. It holds them up and in, close to you, so your blouse has a shape instead of a sag.
Leona is 71. She lost 60 pounds this year on the weekly shot. At the clinic she slid her blouse off her shoulder and laughed before I could say anything. “Two empty socks, Gail. Sixty pounds gone and that’s what I got for it.”
She came back three weeks later for her shingles shot, wearing the tank.
“Now I look like I lost the weight,” she said. “Before, I just looked like I lost something.”
🥄 Beulah’s Morning Scoop
REASON 5: SHE STOPS SCOOPING HERSELF IN AND FIXING IT ALL DAY, BECAUSE IT’S STILL WHERE SHE PUT IT AT SUPPER
Ask a soft woman how she puts on her bra in the morning. She bends forward, scoops herself up with one hand and drops herself into the cup. Then the other side. Then she stands up and hopes it stays.
It never does. By lunch she’s slid down to the bottom of the cup and the top is empty again. So she spends the whole day fixing herself. She tugs at a strap in the car, pushes under her blouse in the church hall and slips off to the ladies’ room to scoop herself back in.
The tank pulls on over your head. As you pull it down, the snug body gathers you up into the molded cups on its own, so there’s nothing to scoop. It’s cut long, so you tuck it into your slacks, and that keeps it down all day. The cups hold their shape at 4 o’clock the same as at 7.
Untucked, it can creep up when you bend over. So tuck it in.
Beulah is 76. She told me she’d scooped herself into a bra every morning for 20 years, “like serving potatoes.” And she fixed it all day long after that.
She came to my clinic at the senior center right after the Wednesday lunch, wearing the tank.
“I put it on at 7 and haven’t touched it since,” she said. “I didn’t know you could go a whole day without fixing yourself.”
☕ Ruthanne Pours at the Church Supper
REASON 6: NO GAP AT THE TOP WHEN SHE LEANS OVER, BECAUSE THERE’S NOTHING EMPTY TO GAPE
Every woman who’s ever leaned over a table knows this one. You bend forward, and the empty cup falls away from you. Anybody standing across from you can see right down to your belly button.
So you learn to hold your neckline with one hand every time you lean. You pour coffee one-handed and set down pies one-handed, and you never forget it for a minute.
The tank’s cups are sewn into the same smooth knit that covers your whole front. They hold their shape and stay against you, and the snug body holds you up and in from below. So when you lean forward, the whole thing moves with you. There’s no empty cup to fall open.
If your blouse has a wide neckline that slips off your shoulders, a strap will show. Under an everyday blouse, the wide, flat straps lie flat and stay put.
Ruthanne is 79. She has poured coffee at her church’s supper for 30 years, always with her other hand flat on her chest. “So the pastor doesn’t get a show,” she told me.
This fall she poured for 120 people with both hands, the pot in one and the cup in the other.
“I leaned over every table in that hall,” she said. “Nothing fell open, and I didn’t think about it once.”
📸 Etta Used to Stand Behind the Grandkids
REASON 7: SHE STANDS IN THE FRONT ROW OF THE FAMILY PICTURE AGAIN, BECAUSE HER BLOUSE LOOKS FINISHED, NOT DEFLATED
One of the women in my line said something I wrote down. “No matter what we wear, we look very old.” She meant the front of her blouse. When the cup is empty, every top caves in and hangs, and you look older than you feel.
So women hide. They stand in the back row of the family picture, behind a grandchild, holding a purse in front of them.
The tank pulls on over your head like a nightgown. One arm, then the other, pull it down, tuck it in. The cups give your blouse a soft, round shape to lie over, and the snug body keeps everything up and in. So your nice blouse hangs the way it did on the hanger, and you look finished.
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 an empty cup or a band line.
Etta is 84. She told me she’d stood in the back row of every family picture for ten years. “Behind the tallest grandson, with my purse in front of me,” she said.
Her family had their picture taken at her 84th birthday this summer. She showed it to me on her phone while I was swabbing her arm. Etta is in the front row, in the middle, in a pink blouse, with her hands in her lap.
“I asked them to put me there,” she said. “First time in ten years I liked how I looked in one.”
WHAT ALL SEVEN HAVE IN COMMON
Look back over all seven.
A top that dips and pleats in front, sliding out under the band when you reach, spilling and lumping when you’re full and soft, cups half empty after you lose weight, scooping yourself in every morning and fixing it all day, a gap when you lean over and a blouse that makes you look old in pictures all come from one thing. A bra cup only has a shape when something firm fills it, and you got soft.
None of it was you getting old. Give the cup its own shape, take the band away and hold you from below, and there’s nothing empty left to sink into. You pull it on in the morning, and you look finished all day.
WHAT WOMEN WHO WEAR IT SAY
I’m not the only one who’s noticed. Here are four women who wear it, in their own words, from Susie’s page.
“Same me, completely different shape. The support pulls everything into place. I finally feel put-together, no hooks.”
Karen B.Verified Customer
“Look at the lift. No wire doing that, just the tank. I look ten years younger from the side and nothing digs in.”
Patricia R.Verified Customer
“I’m big up top and I did not believe for one second a tank could hold me without a wire. It does. It’s not a push-up, it doesn’t hoist anything, but I walked the whole outlet mall with my daughter and never once hiked a strap back up. I ordered three more when I got home.”
Carol H. · Wichita, KansasVerified Customer
“I have a drawer just like Susie’s. Some of them still had the tags on. I bagged up every one for the church rummage sale except one black one I was saving for my granddaughter’s wedding. I wore Susie’s to the wedding.”
Rosemary T. · Toledo, OhioVerified Customer
THE QUESTIONS THE WOMEN IN MY LINE ASK ME FIRST
Whenever a woman in my line hears about it, she asks me the same few things. Here’s what I tell her.
“Will it make me look padded or pushed up?”
No. It doesn’t add size and it won’t push you up to your chin. The molded cups hold their own shape and the snug body gathers you up and in, so you get a soft, natural shape. It won’t make you look 30. It makes you look finished.
“I’m small and flat now. Will the cups just sit there empty?”
The cups are molded and sewn in, so they keep their shape on their own, and the snug body gathers you up into them. There’s no loose cup to cave in. Pick your size by your bust today, not the size you used to be.
“I lost a lot of weight. What size do I get?”
Measure around the fullest part of your bust as it is now 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.
“Will it ride up when I reach?”
Not if you tuck it in. There’s no band to slide, and it’s cut long so it tucks into your slacks and stays down. Untucked, it can creep up when you bend over.
“Is Susie a real person? Who am I buying from?”
Yes, she’s real. She’s 67, she stands in my flu shot line every fall, 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, because that’s what gathers you in. By midmorning most women 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.
“Gail, are you telling me to buy this?”
No. I give flu shots. I’m telling you what I’ve seen at the top of a lot of shoulders, and what the women 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 the Women in My Line
WHO YOU’RE BUYING FROM
The women in my line 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 folding chair, she knew exactly what she had to get rid of: the empty cup and the band.
She tried her samples on her sister and the women from her church before she sold a single one. At every fitting she had them stand sideways at the mirror and asked the same thing: “Is anything empty?” 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 THE WOMEN IN MY LINE KEEP IN THE DRAWER
Most of the women I see end up with three. One to wear, one in the wash and one saved for church. Charlene bought one to match that red sweater.
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. The pads have no shape of their own, so they fold over and sit empty, and the elastic slides up the first time you reach. It’s the empty cup and the band all over again.
Gaylene is 77. Her daughter ordered her a look-alike online. Gaylene wore it to my clinic, slid her blouse off her shoulder, and there it was: a loose pad folded in half and a gap at the top you could drop a quarter into. 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
- A soft, natural shape again, not padded and not pushed up
- Molded cups sewn in that hold their shape on their own
- No band to slide out of when you reach
- Long, snug body gathers you up and in from below
- Cut long, so it tucks in and stays put
- No hooks and no wire, pulls on over your head
- S to 6XL, 8 colors, sized by your bust today
90-Day Guarantee
CHECK AVAILABILITY →Free US shipping · 90-Day Guarantee · Only at susies.co
WHAT I SEE IN MY FOLDING CHAIR NOW
Tomorrow morning, you can scoop yourself into the same bra. By lunch you’ll have slid to the bottom of the cup. Every time you reach, you’ll slide out under it, and every time you lean, the top will fall open. You’ll stand in front of the mirror in your nice blouse, see it cave in at the front and reach for the cardigan again.
You’ll tell yourself that’s just what happens when you get old. I’ve heard it from thousands of women in my chair.
Or you can do what Charlene, Ardella, Glenna, Leona, Beulah, Ruthanne and Etta did. Pull it on over your head in the morning, tuck it in and look finished all day.
It was the empty cup all along, and Susie’s cups hold their shape on their own.
Gail
P.S.
These days, when a woman slides her blouse off her shoulder in my chair, I look at the top of the cup out of habit. More and more, there’s no gap. Last week Charlene sat down, slid her sweater off her shoulder and said, “Go on, Gail, look. There’s something in there now.”
P.P.S. The button below takes you to Susie’s page. You don’t need a bra size there. Measure the fullest part of your bust as it is today 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.
“36Long.” I am crying. That is me exactly and I never had a word for it.
Ilene, mine are 38Longer. My husband calls them the twins who moved south.
I just went and stood sideways in the mirror like she said. The front of my blouse has a dent in it right where the cup is. Fifty years and I thought that was my fault.
I’m on the weekly shot. Down 45 pounds and every bra I own looks like an empty purse. Does this come small enough?
Hi Deloris! It comes from S to 6XL. Measure around the fullest part of your bust as it is today and check the size guide. No band number, no cup letter. If you’re between two sizes, take the larger one.
I hold my neckline every time I lean over a table. Every single time. I didn’t know other women did that too.
Is this a real company? I’ve been burned twice by bra ads on the computer.
Hi Earlene! 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.
I don’t want to look stuffed. I tried a padded one once and my grandson asked what was in my shirt.
I give flu shots at our pharmacy and I see that gap at the top every day. She’s not making it up.
I almost bought one on Amazon last week that looked just like this. Same picture. Is that one yours?
Hi Lavina! 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 86 and scoops herself into her bra every morning like Beulah. Sending her this tonight.