Workout Gear Has Never Looked Swaggier. So, We Tested 10 of the Coolest Brands Doing It
I’m not really a technical-fabrics guy. A couple days a week I work out hard, and a couple days a week I work out easier, almost always wearing a very analog outfit: a Pro Club T-shirt, usually, and old Lotto F.C. Lumezzane shorts from eBay. While I’m not opposed to cutting-edge fabrics — for years I lifted in wicking materials — I settled on the current kit for convenience’s sake.
Pro Clubs can undergo a week’s worth of workouts before needing a wash, which makes my life easier. And it’s not like I’m running marathons. The kettlebell and landmine work, cables, dumbbells, calisthenics and the occasional sprint I put in are kind of anaerobic, and can be done in just about anything.
But over these years of lifting low-tech I’ve missed out on several evolved generations of workout gear. Specifically, the new suite of brands making gear designed for performance that actually look good too. This is new. Is there stuff I can lift in that looks slick and might actually improve my performance? Highsnobiety thought so, and asked me to test out 10 looks from some of the buzziest performance brands from this season.
Ideally, these will live up to the workout-wear philosophy of Rick Owens, who famously said, “I couldn’t imagine having to change outfits every day or having to change for the gym. This outfit takes me to the gym, to work in the studio, and then to dinner with a mink coat over it.”
My Lotto shorts and Pro Club T-shirt don't quite fit that bill.
Here, based on hours of unscientific testing, my impressions of this season’s best — according to Highsnob editors — performance brands.
ADIDAS EQT
I started out in a tracksuit from adidas Equipment, the least technical fit of them all; not breathable but retro — and specific. The cut wasn’t that far from the trackies I see worn every day by the old heads in Brighton Beach on the weekend. In a muted colorway — ruby, maybe, put through a thresher — the suit had a real ’90s appeal but fit blousier than the vintage equivalents I’d been buying unsatisfactorily on eBay. (This update was helpful: I like to wear things “relaxed.”) No breathability here, but this was a good thing, as the warm-ups — toe touches, pogo hops, some cossacks — helped me build up a sweat.
SATISFY RUNNING
I think of myself as someone who doesn’t wear bright colors or neon, but reviewing my workout videos from the month, my T-shirt is often on the high-vis spectrum. Still, the highlight of Satisfy’s gear isn’t the colorways, it’s the fabrics. The technical Cordura shorts and PES T-shirt — recycled, very low weight, breathable — in which I did my sprints and footwork were worlds different than anything I’ve sweated in over the past several years.
Did the high tech stuff help? Well, the Paris-based brand’s gear felt almost like wearing nothing, and the shorts, especially, stayed cool as I worked up a sweat. The same couldn’t be said for my vintage shorts, making Satisfy a rewarding option for heavier cardio days.
DISTRICT VISION
I dress as vainly for the gym as the next person but this look, by LA’s District Vision, felt more about being seen than something to sweat in. A fleece — high pile and Italian, with a Southwestern motif — layered over a graphic sweatshirt and tee did the job with compression shorts and another pair over them made for a nice high-low dichotomy.
The outfit was perfect for a cold weather run, or, better yet, a post-workout errand to Whole Foods for a protein shake — or, more likely, a couple of yogurts, a Mexican Coke and four hard boiled eggs. In the DV kit I busted out a dozen or so L-sits, and, true to form, I stayed dry as the fleece picked up the sweat. Not bad!
GR10K
The value proposition for workout wear at the non-competitive level is simple: clothes must allow you to move unencumbered, cool you down or warm you up, and, if you’re lucky, inspire you to work out more.
After a couple dozen or so banded pull-ups, GR10k’s hooded sweatshirt here revealed itself as doing three. The cowl hood, worn up, kept my body temperature pleasantly toasty, and the considered piping and fabric detail fit in well with the Milan-based brand’s thoughtful and conceptual body of work.
GNUHR
Lots of push-ups and a kettlebell swing in this outfit, ironic since the Gnuhr gear was the least traditionally gym-y clothing I tested out over the week. Founded by Nur Abbas, a designer who did stints at Maison Margiela and YEEZY, the Portland-based brand’s selects were more willowy and delicate than anything else I’ve worn — or seen worn — at the gym. Take the Shag hoodie, nearly translucent and made from Polartec fleece.
Would it stand up to a workout? Well, why wouldn’t it? It kept me warm and unfettered as I hit a full range of motions doing pull-ups and cleans. Outfits like these hint at a wide-open future for gym-adjacent clothing and, indeed, for working out. Could gear this avant-garde push individuals who’ve never stepped foot into a gym to break a sweat? It might — which would be great.
Bandit
Bandit? In a voice that rustled. This all-black set from the New York-based running upcomers was decidedly the most New York of the bunch: minimal, unassuming, and low-key high tech. While I only did some light stretches and plyometrics in these, what jumped out to me here was the tailoring — not exactly a thing one associates with clothes made for running or the gym.
The proportions were nails here: The seams sat at the right places while the shirts' sleeves and shorts’ inseams fell exactly to where my analog gear always lands. Most pleasing, though, were the materials. The shorts had a wale on them — like corduroy might, but closer to Issey Miyake’s pleat-processed Plissé. Really. I would absolutely do all my home workouts in these.
SOAR
At first glance, the biggest stretch for me came from the new collection from Soar, a London-based running brand. Then I tried on the clothes. Lots of colors, with a couple of rainbow pieces, and scant materials made for a true desert marathoning outfit: a Race Vest and Marathon shorts (and a fishing hat) expressly drawn up for longer runs, ideally in sweltering weather.
While the three-inch inseam took some getting used to, there was no drop-off in performance. I felt a little quicker than normal doing some footwork drills and burpees in these. But ultimately this is a summer kit for individuals who enjoy longer runs.
LA SPORTIVA
One happy feature found in technical workout gear that otherwise tends to be sequestered to proper suiting is a perfect, deep, seam to skin fit. And just as a well-tailored suit doesn’t need to be tight to line up with the shoulder correctly, a well-structured piece of workout gear—well, maybe just a shirt—does this on good days, and when that happens, well, the good vibes carry over into the left.
So it went with the La Sportiva top. The shirt fit snug, but was invisible and easy, and let me, during my kettlebell row workout, bust out a couple of extra sets.
VUORI
Vuori is a San Diego-based upstart recently valued at $5 billion — if it isn’t already on your radar, it’s only because you haven’t noticed it yet. Which might be understandable, as much of the gear is as unassuming as this chalky set that I wore to bang out some reps of supinated flies with gallon jugs of raw milk. The fitted jacket — light, simple — allowed for full range of motion.
As for the raw dairy prop: I recently took heat for “platforming” this particular grocery. To be sure, while raw milk is fully retail legal in a number of states, I certainly don’t suggest that anyone who’s apprehensive about the stuff try it. But I will say that drinking it probably did as much for my health as anything I’ve done at the gym.
ON x POST ARCHIVE FACTION
For my final look, I tried a wind-down technical tracksuit, part of the refined collaboration between the Swiss footwear giant On and POST ARCHIVE FACTION, the LVMH prize-shortlisted label from South Korea. As I did farmer carries in the kit — walking the kettlebells a couple hundred meters — and some scaffolding pull-ups, I thought of a line that director Ben Solomon said in a recent interview on the Throwing Fits podcast.
He described how regulation army cargos, when sized correctly — that is, to the waist — fit neither baggy nor slim, but standard, the Mendoza Line of fit. And these pants, perfectly, took that silhouette. Who knew? That such distilled, centimeter-correct details appear now in workout clothing is the sign of a beautiful new age.
