PRODUCT REVIEW

Born Tough contacted me and asked if I would have interest in reviewing one of their products. I talk a lot about many facets of fitness, yet had not covered workout attire so far. I obliged, and they kindly sent me the product that appealed to me the most, their Air Pro™ Men’s Shorts With Legging Liner in Military Green, which is from their much wider category of men’s workout shorts.

Here is my full review. I do not have an affiliate relationship with Born Tough, so there is no incentive in this for me to be unnecessarily glowing. This is as objective as I could be.

About the images… I had a lot of images taken at my gym while training in this gear, but gym management asked that I stop taking pictures and not use any of the photos. I obeyed. Except, I asked if I could show one photo where no other gym patrons were in the photo and they agreed. So the images are what they are. Not ideal, but you will see what an everyday guy looks like in them.

First Impressions:

• Delivered in a no-frills shipping bag. No insert of marketing materials. Just the bag and the shorts. Simple. To the point. I took it as a reinforcement of the Born Tough brand.
• In-hand, the shorts w/leggings are great quality. I immediately knew the material would be enjoyable to work out in because it felt sturdy in my hands, yet very breathable.

The Fit

I am a lean man; 6’1” tall at around 175 lbs and try to stay between 13-20% body fat year-round.

Clothes are always difficult for me because most of the body fat I have is above my hips.

My legs are suuuuuuper lean. Think: “skinny” soccer player. As in, if my legs are outstretched, and my little kids come and wrestle me and hop on my legs, it hurts like hell because there’s no fat to buffer the blows.

So the shorts with leggings product was one I wanted to try because this combo is always a challenge for my body.

I am happy to report that the fit of the Born Tough Air Pro™ Shorts w/Legging Liner was flawless.

And I mean flawless.

Even though I am lean and slender, the Born Tough sizing chart told me I needed their version of a Large. I’m glad I did because a Medium would have not fit as well.

Specifically, I am very impressed by the shorts. I thought about this, and can say that I have never wore shorts that fit as well as these. And because they fit so well, they looked good.

The leggings are the specific material and type I prefer. They are just shy of being compression leggings, but not so thin that they are basically yoga pants. I own 3 other pair of this type of leggings and train in them daily. So I was quite happy to get a fourth.

Performance

I wore these, unwashed, the day after receiving them because it was appropriate: Leg Day.

As anyone who knows me or the Body Shepherd brand will guess, my Leg Day incorporates High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) because I love that stuff.

Here in my mid-40s, my workouts are all about getting me to be as strong and as lean as possible.

I use a lot of plyometrics – like squat jumps, mountain climbers, burpees, etc. – mixed in with lifts that blend isolated and compound movements. My workouts are anything but simple. They are intentionally complex so I need to wear gear that can keep up. I’m not out to be big, as I was in my 30s. I want to move, sweat, and lift.

The Born Tough shorts and leggings were the perfect compliment to this Leg Day. I never had to adjust where they sat on my body, no atomic wedgies, no riding up my junk, no extra sweat.

Maybe the highest compliment I can say is this: These shorts + leggings performed as gear that aided my workout. I don’t think there’s a higher compliment than that.

One Gripe

I do have one gripe and it is hyper specific to my particular time at my particular gym. I doubt this will be an issue for most of you.

If the leggings could be removed, I would go out and buy a dozen pair of these today.

Yet I’m not going to do that because the leggings are stitched in place, and can’t be removed.

See, when I’m done with my workout, I like to sit in my gym’s dry sauna and I strip down to just my shorts, as do 99% of the guys there.

But when I was done with my workout, I had an “oh crap” moment when I realized I couldn’t strip down to just shorts, and that if I stripped down to the shorts/leggings, I looked pretty ridiculous.

The post-workout time is a time to enjoy the work you just did. I avoid anything and everything that will ruin that buzz, so having to go in the sauna fully-dressed was irritating to me.

So, I would probably just buy the shorts from Born Tough and get less expensive leggings from Walmart or Amazon that can be removed before post-workout sauna time.

Bottom Line

Born Tough sent me these shorts and leggings to review for free, but told me to give an honest, no-holds review, and that is what I have done.

I am a StichFix customer because — as my wife can tell you — I am a super picky shopper of clothes. So much so that I loathe and dread shopping for clothes. Almost nothing fits me the way I like it, and I’ve only found StichFix enjoyable because I can ruthlessly dismiss the clothes they send me and send it back. I end up buying maybe 2-3 items per Fix.

All that to say, for Born Tough to send me clothing that I enjoyed this much was extremely rare.

I believe the designers of this apparel are people who workout intensely because the fit and finish of what I experience is as Marc Lobliner likes to say: “Quality knows quality.”

ONWARD.