Skins Men's Tights 3/4 Review

It takes a real man to wear 3/4 tights on a run and then to the Post Office after said run to mail a birthday gift for his mom. Fortunately for the readers of RunColo, I'm willing to make these sacrifices.

The Skins Snow 3/4 tights were my first venture into compression clothing. The stated benefits of compression clothing are to reduce fatigue and minimize muscle injury. Other benefits are limited lactic acid build-up, improving muscle oxygenation and enhancing circulation. These types of claims are hard to substantiate, thus I'm not going to but I will talk about the fit and the feel of the product.

Compression clothing has been out for a while, in the past I've worn spandex shorts and full length tights, thus I didn't really think there would be much difference and was skeptical of the high prices of compression clothing. When I first tried on the Skins, I immediately noticed that they don't feel like a normal pair of spandex tights, the $50 variety that I was previously wearing. What I noticed was tightness around the muscles, reinforcement, however it wasn't so tight that it felt uncomfortable or cut off blood flow.

I tested the Skins out on a 32 degree day, running ten miles. This was also my first venture wearing 3/4 tights, I've never been a fan of full length tights and found 3/4 to be more comfortable and a good hedge on a cold weather day. The Skins were incredible comfortable and more form fitting than what I experienced running in conventional tights.

The obvious drawback of Skins or compression clothing in general, is the price. If you're a serious runner, I'd make the investment in at least owning one pair of compression shorts or pants, use them on race day and for recovery at the minimum and if your wallet can afford more and you think they are worth the investment, make the investment.

Purchase Skins at Running Warehouse and save 15% off your order.