There were a few companies. Maybe more now, I'm not quite sure.

Sensoria was one that I think even sent me a sample at one point for my wife to try, I know they're one of the better known ones: https://store.sensoriafitness.com/sports-bra-black/

Victoria Secret also did one around 2014, but best I can tell, they no longer sell it.

Which exact HR strap is she using today? That tends to be the biggest factor for chaffing.

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My tiny little slice of the internets: dcrainmaker.com

You're the man Ray!

She wears the strap that came with the Suunto watch.
I'm trying to convince her to switch to Garmin tech, but she won the watch at a race giveaway, so seems to be hanging onto some loyalty to them. IMO, Garmin will give her more flexibility with crossover items as she adds pieces like power. I bought her a brand new pretty Garmin 830 cycling computer to help motivate the transition along. We'll get there eventually.
Thanks again and please keep doing what you're doing. You're an amazing resource to the sport!

Cheers - Jeff

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Naturally Fit Coaching
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twitter.com/jeffbabister

Gotchya, no problem!

Depending on which watch she got, assuming it's semi-recent, it supports Bluetooth HR staps. So you could pickup any dual ANT+/Bluetooth one and be in a good spot if/when she makes a transition, but, it'd solve the issue now.

In terms of straps that generally don't chaffe for most women, it'd be the Polar H10 as well as the Garmin pod-based ones (e.g. Garmin HRM-PRO or PRO Plus). The main reason most straps chaffe is that the edge of the strap becomes 'sharp' over time with endless cycles of dried sweat, and then basically cuts back into the person. The Polar and pod-based Garmin ones don't tend to do that for whatever reasons. While some have had issues with the past Garmin pod based ones in terms of battery changes, the new Pro Plus aims to eliminate that by changing the pod design. Of course, the Polar H10 is cheaper.

In the meantime, one thing you can do that my wife has done in the past is simply add a bandaid to the edge of the strap. Here's a decade-old post (this week!) that still works to this day and is often used: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/...-strap-chaffing.html

If you find a good waterproof band-aide, it'll last a surprisingly long time, usually months.

Cheers!

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My tiny little slice of the internets: dcrainmaker.com

Mrs Sheridan says Polar used to do one, as did Shockabsorber but she hasn’t seen any for quite some time.

She also adds try wrapping the HRM belt in cling film and see if that stops the chaffing. Who would have known!

I have permanent scars from my HRM chest strap. As a result, I won't ever wear one again. I did have a few of those sports bras that worked with HRMs. None of them had a pocket for the HRM, most had electrodes built into the bra and you snapped the HRM into them (just like the HRM snaps onto the chest strap).

For whatever reason, none of the bras ever worked reliably for me. I don't know if something happened with the resistance/conduction when they got wet the readings were bonkers. Like either really high or not reading at all. Getting wet during a triathlon race is inevitable - no one will change sports bras in transitoin - and of course there's the whole sweat thing.

My coach doesn't love it but I figure if the Garmin Fenix 7 optical HR is even 80% directionally correct that's better than no data (which is what I'd have without it).

One of the brands that had the HRM snaps was Adidas and Polar, but I think Ray told you all of those.

Ray, I must be the lucky winner ;) my scars from the HRM straps are from the Polar soft strap and the garmin soft one. I only wore the harder rubber/plastic type one a few times.

To be fair, I chaff just from my sports bra at the same spot, but when I wore the HRM it seemed to make it worse. Finding a long-lasting anti-friction substance is really the key but I never really did find one that could prevent the rub from the strap.

My wife had a couple of sports bras that used to allow the older Garmin (or polar) HRMs to clip on - the ones that had the the two press-studs about an inch and a half apart. In fairness she liked the fit/support more than it allowed the HRM, and half the time she just used the strap positioned below anyway. This was just cycling though, not running.

As for protection from being 'eaten' then I (male) really struggled with those press stud ones eating my right in the middle of my chest. I used a similar approach to Ray's other half, but to wrap the entire thing - strap and transmitter unit in Fixomull Stretch Tape - Blister Prevention (blister-prevention.com). Would actually last for months, and totally solved the issue. Generally got swapped when it was too obviously grimy and I wanted to give the whole strap a run through the washing machine.

Of course you could also apply the tape to yourself and not the HRM, but that would require way more swapping of tape ;-)

Same. There aren’t really functional HRM that don’t cause chafing/ scaring in women. Wrist based is the way to go.

The Whoop 4.0 can be removed from the strap and placed in garments as you described. I believe they have sports bras, compression shorts etc

I didn’t realize that the new Whoop could be worn ‘anywhere’. But - I’m out with proprietary clothing to make it work and the subscription for crap data.

hey mate -
my wife hates chest straps, so i recently got her a polar verity. huge fan! it goes on a band around the bicep, and is much more accurate than the wrist-based monitoring. she uses it for zwifting (pairs easily with the ipad), running (pairs with her garmin), and we're both working on getting it going for the swim. you can attach it to the strap on your goggles, but i can't get it to play nice with garmin in the pool, yet.

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