Why is  there a man on our blog about boobs? I’ll give you a hint: you met him on Hourglassy on February 9, 2010.

“How old are you?” I asked.
“29,” he answered.
“No one thinks you look that old, do they?” I asked.
“No one thinks I’m a guy,” he replied.

This is JJ, the brains and passion behind Bratabase, the most thoughtfully designed database for matching a woman’s unique breast size and shape with the right bra. Since you couldn’t join me when I met him in July, I’m doing the next best thing and telling you about our meeting.

First, I didn’t need to worry about what to wear. Either JJ has perfected the sidelong boob glance, or he’s seen so many amazing breasts that mine didn’t warrant notice. Bratabase now has well over 6000 bra entries recorded on its site, and JJ reviews each submission, including the photographs.  He admits that he originally joined a breast-oriented forum in 1999 because of the photos, so he definitely doesn’t mind this aspect of his hobby.

Fortunately for us, JJ didn’t become a creepy lurker. Instead, he became fascinated with the potential for bra fitting data to help women. You can read more about JJ’s evolution to Bratabase coder in this Bra Stop interview with him earlier this year. Suffice it to say, he’s come a long way from comparing a bunch of bras that he bought on eBay against each other on his bedroom floor.

JJ is working with data from bras actually available in the marketplace. He isn’t depending on specs provided by manufacturers or a special algorithm. Because of this, he can tell immediately if something seems off with a newly added bra–either the owner has measured it incorrectly or something went wrong in production–and flag it for removal from the database. He has even discovered bras with misprinted sizes. Size misprints are “not common but more than you would expect”, and they occur in some popular brands more than the others. There is even one particular Freya DDD bra that is his nemesis. Ask him to explain in the comments if you’d like more details.

The biggest lesson he has learned so far? Without knowing the brand, a cup size is meaningless.

JJ told me that he’ll ride his scooter around Lima, Peru, solving Bratabase problems in his head. His most labor-intensive improvements are not even visible to Bratabase users. For instance, it can take a month to restructure the back end just to add one new button to the front end.  Some of  his recent improvements to the site have been adding a band stretchiness feature and the ability to size across systems. He has also added new social features, including the ability to follow certain contributors.

Here are two things that I especially appreciate about JJ:

  • Perhaps because he’s a guy, he’s hyper aware of the potential for creepy lurkers on Bratabase. This is why he has implemented a reputation system, privacy settings, and watermarks on the photos.
  • Despite being a guy, he really listens. He constantly seeks feedback from the site’s most active users, and he frequently consults with highly respected members of sites like Balkonetka and Thirty-TwoD.  He even went out of his way to meet me!

He’ll also listen to you, so get involved! I encourage you to play around with Bratabase and see what it can do for you. Some of its benefits may not be immediately obvious, but don’t let that deter you. Just have fun with it and click away. And if you notice a lack of data for your particular size and shape, help fill the gap with your own contributions.