Give Half Tights a Chance

Fear of Skin Tight Clothing

For most of my life, I was deathly afraid of skin tight apparel. Honestly, on the upper half of my body, I still am (hurdles to overcome, I suppose). Baggy clothes were the name of the game, for hanging out and for athletic endeavors. This fear was mainly born of a desire for others to not see the details of my body, probably out of embarrassment or shame, since I’ve always been overweight or obese. To be clear, I’m not saying this was justified or should be how anyone feels, just explaining my reality. If your preference is to still avoid skin tight clothing, there is nothing wrong with that — you do you. But I hope I might convince you to give half tights a try. I’m a convert.

My Journey Pre Half Tights

When I started running, I started with typical running shorts. I don’t remember the first pairs I bought, but I’m pretty sure they were a standard pair from one of the big running brands (Brooks, Saucony, Asics) and they definitely had a built in brief liner. These worked for the duration of runs I started with, but relatively quickly I discovered the dreaded thigh chafing. For my particular anatomy, I suspect this stemmed from the brief liner combined with the rise of the shorts — there was just a little too much exposed skin above the inseam, but below the liner.

Around this time, Path Projects started promoting their “system,” which basically amounted to a separate boxer brief liner and running short (wow, what an invention). Given my problems, I was an easy sell on the marketing, and bought multiple pairs of each. These worked mostly great for me (and honestly still do), as I’ll describe in a review post at some point. They had great capacity and were comfortable, but still relatively baggy, and with a long inseam (depending on which style you buy)! What they weren’t was perfect — chafing still happened, though much less frequently. In addition, likely due to the nature of multiple layers, I would often find the liners totally saturated with sweat on long, humid runs (common in Omaha summers). Kind of gross. No favors for chafing.

Enter the Half Tight in my Life

The marketing may have just hit me at the right time, or perhaps I was just consuming more running-related subreddit content, but at some point I became convinced that half tights were the holy grail for runners — more comfortable, no chafing, perfect sweat management. It wasn’t far off…

The first pair of half tights I bought were the Nike Aeroswift (review on these coming at some point). They were far from perfect, but they were enough to convince me to… Use them on the treadmill only.

The timing of trying out half tights largely coincided with a long stretch of treadmill running for me. At the time, due to either weather or kids activities plus work, it was just the most consistent way to guarantee I got my miles in. This helped ease the one big reservation with half tights, which was showing off my figure. As I used them more on the treadmill, I realized the advantages, and started buying additional pairs to try out. Before I knew it, I was reaching for the half tights eagerly, with the baggy shorts shunned to the back of my drawer.

Then a less chaotic schedule and nicer weather came…

Finding My Way Outdoors

This is actually not a significant part of the story. I had spent so much time running in half tights on the treadmill, discovering all the benefits, that I just didn’t want to go back to baggy shorts. When conditions changed that allow me to run outside, I just ran outside… In my half tights… And didn’t care what anyone thought. Maybe there was a little hesitation and nervousness that first day, but sure enough, no one cared, least of all me.

These days, the baggy shorts basically only come out of the drawers when the half tights are all dirty. Otherwise, the half tights are always the first grab and live at the front of the drawer.

I hope my story of conversion to the way of the half tights gives you the motivation to at least try a pair out. I think you may be surprised by the benefits.

Benefits in a Nutshell

Here are the benefits I’ve found with half tights, all summed up, easy to read:

• Usually zero chafing (once you find the right pair and fit)
• Sweat evaporates more readily
• Generally more breathable than baggy shorts with a liner
• Pockets, if present, hold items tightly with less bounce
• Pockets, if present, are usually more abundant than baggy running shorts
• Stay in place better than just shorts or liner with shorts
• Maximum comfort — there’s just something about contouring fabric
• My wife digs the glutes

Still Not Comfortable with Short-Shorts

Just adding this disclaimer here that I still am not comfortable enough to try out short-shorts. We’re talking the one to four inchers, the split legs, letting it all air out shorts. I have full belief that they are… Liberating? You probably get incredible airflow and feel totally free. That being said, they are not yet for me. First of all, I feel like I would probably get skin on skin contact below the shorts, which would no doubt lead to chafing. Second, it is just a lot more skin than I am comfortable showing. Maybe someday. Today is not that day.