CW-X Men’s Pro Tights-Final Review

A few weeks back, we published our initial review on the CW-X Men’s Pro Tights. We hoped to finish our final review about a week ago, but we’ve had a false spring lately and couldn’t get our final testing in.  Unfortunately, our weather has returned to normal for this time of year, but the good news is that the review is complete.

A bit of review: These tights are not insulated, so they provide some protection from the cold, but not enough for a cold New England winter.  They are available in Small, Medium, Large, and XL and come in two colors; solid black, and black and blue.  These are generally available for around $100, but Amazon has them for less than $80 right now.  Here’s a handy link for the Amazon listing.

Background on CW-X:

CW-X products are manufactured by Japan’s Wacoal Corporation, worlds largest manufacturer of intimate apparel.  Wacoal entered the performance apparel market in Japan in 1991 and has recently launched the brand in the US.  CW-X claims their products are anatomically-engineered to increase performance and cite studies from Kyoto, Japan and France that showed increased VO2 uptake and reduced loygen usage, compared to standard tights and shorts.

Final Impressions on the CW-X Men’s Pro Tights:

Since our initial review, we’ve worn the tights about 10 additional times, on runs ranging from 3 to 7 miles.  Other than our recent warmer weather when we didn’t test the tights, all testing was done in weather under 50 degrees.

Since our first run, we have gotten better at making sure the tights are in place before leaving. Instructions say to place the fabric X just below the knee.  This is essential to a proper fit.  It’s also important to pull the bottom of the legs up a bit, so they don’t pull down and move the fabric X from just below your knee.  If you don’t do this, the tights can pull down a bit during a longer run.

In spite of not being insulated, these tights provide a good deal of protection against the weather.  We were caught out in a small storm during one run and the tights helped keep us from getting bone-chilling-ly cold.  This happened in about 40 degree weather and the tights provided enough warmth so we could finish our run without issue.  In colder weather, we’re not sure these tights would provide enough protection.

We did notice that the Kinesio-style Support Web seemed to provide a bit of support.  We have used Kinesiotape before and believe in the science and usefulness of this, so it’s no surprise that we were pleased with this added feature.  Now, the Support Web isn’t a miracle feature, but it does provide a bit of support; we noticed this most after 5 or 6 days running.

We have worn these tights at least 15 times and washed them after every use.  We have not noticed any fraying, fading, or wear.

Our final opinion is that these tights are reasonably priced, perform well, are durable, and make a good addition to your running wardrobe.  They are not made for extreme cold weather, but as long as you’re not running in blizzards or sub-25 degree weather, you’re going to be fine.  They fit as advertised, don’t ride up, and provide a good deal of protection against cold weather.