Im usually not a big fan of these new fancy newfangled "Tech" style T-shirts that seem to have become a requirement for every Tom Dick and Harry that wants to go out and jog a lap around the track, lift weights at the gym, or run a marathon. I've purchased one or two, and received quite a few from multiple races and have only found one that I like so far. Although I could complain about alot of issues like price, technology, involvement of child labor, price, and several other things, Ill stick to the 3 below.
My main complaints are:
A) They ALWAYS make my nipples look funny.
B) They very seldom keep me "cooler".
C) The fit is always a little funny.
Well start with the nipple issue since it is my biggest complaint. For my first half marathon, the Austin Livestrong Half Marathon, my wife and I went to the local outlet mall and I tried on probably 30 different tech style shirts from several manufactures and every single one of them made me look like I had some type of crazy deformed nipples. I cant really explain how they made my nipples look, I guess that if you imagined a pancake hanging down off a mans chest that's petty close. I feel that I should now clarify that I do not in fact have funny shaped nipples. This is a good example of why this is a problem, now everyone reading this, or seeing me in a tech shirt will think that I have deformed flap jack nips. Really, no other type of shirt I've ever worn has had this type of effect, whats so different about tech shirts that I must look like a circus attraction?
Then I ran "The Gusher" half marathon in my hometown and got a tech shirt that looked more like a normal cotton T-shirt than a tech shirt. So that night I tried the shirt on and looked in the mirror. My jaw dropped! I had normal looking nipples!!!!! I quickly ran out of the bathroom in a burst of excitement and started frantically showing my wife that my nipples looked normal! We've been married for 5 years now, and together for almost 11, so shes used to me by now... I hope... I think she was actually impressed by the lack of nipple attention the shirt caused. So now I have a tech shirt that I can wear even when Im not running in a moonless night down a unlit and untraveled road. Awesome!
Another complaint I have regarding these tech shirts is that of the few that I own, they dont really regulate my temperature. Some keep me really cold, but in order to do that they just hold sweat and the sweat cools off if there's a strong enough breeze to cool it off. But for the most part they just stay soaked and the sun heats up the sweat and they do the opposite of keep me cool. The other end of the spectrum is that they just smother me, which isn't nice in the summer or the winter. It was impossible for me to find something that did what a tech shirt should have been doing. Once I tried the tech shirt from the Gusher race I was blown away. Now granted I have only worn it on hot summer days, but its done very well. It doesn't hold sweat like the other tech shirts do, it doesn't weigh me down with 5 extra pounds of captured sweat, it does breathe very well. Another very important feature I've noticed is the lack of stench. I have worn this shirt more than any other tech shirt I own and its got less of a smell than all the rest. They all get washed the exact same way, at the same frequencies, with the same detergents, but the Wickify shirt doesn't hold onto the sweaty man smell that I exhume from my funny shaped nipples. Wait... I mean my perfectly shaped, normal nipples... Damnit...
My final complaint is the fit of a normal tech shirt. Unless you have the body of an Olympic God then these shirts are going to look funny on you. Mine always look funny in areas other than my nipples too, namely around my love handles. Which is odd because I'm not that big of a guy, but they always seem to squeeze on my gut and love handles and then have plenty of room in the biceps / triceps area, so I just look like a fat weakling. This isn't all to bad as I kind of fit that bill to a T, but damnit I want to look decent!!! At least my cotton shirts could do that much for me for a fraction of the price. By not emphasizing anything, they gave everything a good look! This Wickify shirt fits like a good quality cotton shirt should fit and is very comfortable and light throughout an entire long run (I've ran 2 13 mile runs in it) and is even comfortable for daily wear. I often wear this shirt to do my morning run where it gets drenched in sweat, then throw my nomex on top of it and work all day where it stays drenched all day, then wear it for an evening run as well and its comfortable the whole time.
All said and done, I find the "Wickify" tech shirt to be my favorite running shirt in my personal arsenal of running shirts. Unfortunately, by looking at the company's website it doesn't seem like its possible to order a single shirt, but more for race directors to order massive quantities of shirts. That's too bad as I wouldn't mind adding a few more of them to my closet.
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