From your gym to your swim, you will feel light on your feet in these near weighless stretch-woven gym shorts. The fabric is as soft as cotton, with unbeatable stretch, and drying times not worth recording.
Anyone who was as taken as I was, by Tom Wolfe's description of the Iliocostalis and low belt lines, in the title piece in his collection of essays, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, will understand my eagerness to name something, anything, after that book. Or am I the only person who read it?
Compression
The elastane in a regular stretch garment doesn't begin to exert tension until it has been significantly stretched. That is because it is part of a looped (knitted) structure. Stretch-woven fabric - developed for medical applications and now the choice of elite sports teams - only needs to fit snuggly, to exert just as much tension as when it is strretched.
Weight
If the animal kingdom had evolved to wear leggings, only the terrestial creatures would wear ones that were knitted. The birds and the fish would be wearing stretch-woven.
It is simply that light!
Abrasion Resistance
Regular stretch fabric incorporates fine elastane fibres into a knit, leaving them largely exposed. In a stretch-woven garment, every fibre is elastane, with fluffy nylon spun all around it. The elastane in each fibre is encased, and therefore protected, once it is put into a weave.
Breathability
People who really work out (meaning they sweat) know regular sports tights only disguise perspiration, by keeping it trapped. Even though they stretch, hug and compress you, these pants are not much thicker than muslin, and have exactly the same woven structure. That means, they actually breathe.
Learn more about stretch-woven fabric on our French manufacturer's website.
Features
- stretch-woven fabric, milled for Pride, by Payen Sa, in Saint Julien en Saint Alban in France.
- 145gsm stretch-woven lining to waist band for added support.
- All seams 4-thread overlocked then cover-stitched flat, for comfort, smart looks and long life.
- 0.65mm x 12mm rubber through bagged-out waist seam
Credits
- Each piece hand cut and sewn in Newcastle East in Australia.
- Design and prototyping by Dr. Steven Fleming