Undershirt Review – CoolClothingUSA – Compression Shirt

Well, I’ve decided that it would be better to review a shirt each day, instead of all of them at once. It will allow me to be more detailed in my comments on each shirt.

Today’s review is on the compression shirt I bought from CoolClothingUSA. Let me start off by saying that instead of receiving a short-sleeve and a long-sleeve compression shirt, I received TWO short-sleeve compression shirts (one white, one black). I emailed and called them to report the issue earlier this morning, but I have not yet heard back from them (7 hours and counting). Once I do, I’ll report back to let you know how they responded.

Update, 5/22/08: Received an email from them (11pm) apologizing for the mix-up. They are sending me the correct shirt (the long-sleeve black compression shirt) with a pre-paid return shipping envelope for me to ship the short-sleeve back to them. Nice job CoolClothingUSA!

While not a typical undershirt, compression shirts are being worn more and more as the occasional undershirt replacement. The primary reason for this is that a compression shirt will help “hold things in” better than wearing a typical undershirt. Also, because of the material (79% polyester/21% spandex), some claim that it will hold up better for people who sweat a lot, since the fabric dries many times faster than regular tees. The other perceived benefit of wearing a compression shirt, is that your shirts will typically lay a little nicer on you because of the smooth, slippery fabric.

To be clear, compression shirts are made for a variety of uses: for men with gynecomastia, for people recovering from liposuction or cosmetic surgery, for people who want to smooth out bulges in their physique, and for athletes who are looking for better performance (compression shirts have been shown to reduce muscle fatigue).

Since I was going to the gym this morning, I decided to wear my white short-sleeve compression shirt. Although I’ve never worn women’s pantyhose or spanx before (or would freely admit to it), my first thoughts after putting this shirt on were that I was wearing a shirt made out of that type of material. Throughout my entire torso, shoulders, waist, everything felt a little bit tighter. To be honest, the shirt seems well made. The material appears to be of good quality and the stitching on the shoulders, sleeves, and along the bottom is well done. Overall, the shirt felt and fit rather well (very tight and form fitting, but moved with me freely).

I got to the gym and started working out. Boy, it really heated me up pretty fast and I started sweating (a lot). Considering I was at the gym and was looking for a good workout, it was ok. But I really can’t see how anyone could wear one of these shirts all day long as an undershirt replacement — I know I wouldn’t. After my workout, my shirt was very wet and I felt a little “cold” for a while immediately following. After about 20-30 minutes the shirt dried up and I felt more comfortable once again. After I got home, I took off the shirt and found that it had some unusual gathering from the top of the ab area down to the bottom. Really not sure what that’s all about, but hopefully it will recover after washing it.

As far as undershirts go, I really can’t see how a compression shirt will ever make a good undershirt replacement for most of us. For folks suffering from gynecomastia, recovering from certain surgeries, or for those who want to look a bit slimmer for a special occasion, I think these shirts would be perfect.

Thankfully, these shirts won’t go to waste. Instead of adding them to my undershirt collection, I’ll be adding them to my workout clothing collection!

I think I’ll try ordering one of these Coolmax undershirts from CoolClothingUSA and see how they perform.