Skins Travel and Recovery Compression Tights
Posted Mar. 24, 2008
Chillin' in the Skins
I’m writing this review of Skins travel and recovery compression tights from seat 13A of United Flight 1612 from Denver to Florida. Thirteen-A is a window seat in economy class—and not in an exit row. My elbows are pinned between my neighbor on one side and a hard plastic armrest on the other. The not-so-courteous traveler in front of me has lowered his seat back to the space between my knees and my chin. Throw my laptop into the mix and there is so little room, I may as well be duct-taped to the chair. I’m sure you know the feeling.
Thankfully, I’ll be able to salvage this uncomfortable situation by putting the Skins travel and recovery compression tights to the test.
A little background on the tights … Skins claims they have a gradient of about 10mmHg (depending on the wearer), which is a measure of how much the tights actually compress the user’s legs and thereby improve circulation. So according to Skins, the tights work. And the company ensures the tights’ effectiveness for almost anyone by offering them in an incredible 13 different sizes.
This leaves me to critique comfort and practicality.
First of all, the tights like to stretch vertically but not horizontally. This translates to effective compression of the leg muscles without constraining knee and hip movement. As a result, the tights should be equally comfortable whether you’re walking around the house, lying on the couch or sitting in the window seat of an airplane. The feet stirrups do have the annoying tendency to bunch up under my feet when worn with socks and shoes, however.
Despite Skins’ claims that the tights have almost no insulating effect, wearing them under jeans, I notice my legs are definitely warmer than with no tights. And if I’m going to wear these things in public, it will certainly be under a pair of pants. I can’t quite bring myself to wear leggings with neon blue stitching to work—and I work in a bike shop.
When I finally arrive at my destination, eight hours after leaving my apartment, my legs feel surprisingly fresh. Maybe I’m imagining it, but my legs feel much better than after any previous eight-hour travel days.
All in all, I’d say the Skins travel and recovery compression tights are an equally comfortable and effective way to recover from a hard effort or survive a long period of inactivity, but they’re limited to at-home use or underneath a pair of pants.
RATING (out of 10)
Effectiveness: 9 - I can feel the difference that Skins claims its tights make. Plus, the range of 13 sizes is fantastic.
Comfort: 7 - Tights are innately uncomfortable, but these ones aren’t so bad. Definitely worth a try given the freshness they promote in the legs.
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Aaron Hersh is the Technical Liaison at Colorado Multisport in Boulder, Colorado. He has been competing in endurance sports for the last seven years. Hersh has a B.A. in Integrative Physiology from the University of Colorado, focusing on biomechanics.
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