Review: SOLOW Side Zip Running Pant

I've seen a lot of pieces from SOLOW that I liked but have never tried this brand before. When the Side Zip Running Pant popped up on Revolve's Black Friday sale, I thought I'd give them a try. I'm not a huge fan of colorblocking, but I really loved the color and the look of the front zippered pockets. Originally $92, I got them for $44.80.

Note: The sun was setting when I took  pics, and few came out. These are bad and were the best ones!

I couldn't find any fit reviews on SOLOW tights, but a note on Revolve said that they run small, so I ordered a size medium.

The fabric is very thin, slick, and shiny--all things that I didn't really like. It's a little hard to compare to Lululemon's Luxtreme fabric since there are so many different varieties of Luxtreme, but it seems the SOLOW fabric was flimsier. The compression was very, very light, and the waistband was pretty loose. This is always my challenge with tights and why I tend to size down; waistbands usually fall down on me in bigger sizes. With no drawstring in the waistband, I'm 100% certain these would slide right down the minute I started running.

Also, I found the stitching to be fairly sloppy. If you look closely in these pics, you can see the lines aren't straight and clean.

Taken with flash

When I put these on, I realized why I don't like colorblocking--it breaks up the leg in a way that is the opposite of slimming, so definitely not for me. They'd look fantastic on thin-legged women, though.

There are three pockets, all with issues. I didn't take a picture of it, but there is a long, open pocket on the inside of the back of the waistband that I thought was pretty weird. It wouldn't be very easy to reach down into the back of your pants for things, and such a high-sweat area would surely soak things like tissues. Because the waistband was loose on me, there's no way I'd trust things not to fall out of that pocket.

There are two zippered pockets on the front that are my biggest gripe with these tights. These have to be the cheapest zippers SOLOW could possibly buy. They don't just look cheap; they're so flimsy that they just flop all around. They're not stiff and stay back like every other zipper in athletic clothes. They just flop, flop, flop every time I moved. I was irritated just having them on for a few minutes, and there is no way I could run in them. The pockets themselves are not very deep at all and couldn't fit a phone or really anything besides lip balm and tissues.
Craptastic zippers

These tights are so not for running that I question whether they're actually for running even though "running" is in the name. In summary, not only is there absolutely no way I could run in these tights, but I just felt that the fabric and zipper materials were incredibly cheap and flimsy, so I questioned the durability. Returned these!

You know, I do wonder if people think I buy a lot of Lululemon because of the name and brand. The truth is that I want quality, functional, cute, durable workout gear, and I don't care what company it comes from. For run tights, there's no competition between Lulu and SOLOW. I tried a new brand, but in the end I'll keep buying run tights from Lulu.

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