The gear from Y Athletics was one of our first Kickstarter of the Week posts on our old housing site. Below are excerpts from that post, followed by a simple review of a shirt that I just recently received.I stink.
That’s about as simple as I can label myself and my working out ways. Since I get in at least 1 workout per day my laundry piles up quickly. While I feel good about myself for crushing through multiple workouts, my wife is less than thrilled about not only the piles of dirty clothes I produce each week, but the stench in which each pile achieves.If you are anything like me, you stink too. Maybe not to my level, but a long run does not exactly yield itself to smells of a crisp spring morning – unless you are spending that morning at the local dump. There is just not getting around the fact that workout gear takes the brunt of our stench. It isn’t so much the day-to-day sweat and smelling that gets me- that’s just part of the territory. The real bummer is when some of my shirts become no longer wearable due to the fact that they carry a faint, foul smell, irregardless of if they are recently laundered. Some workout shirts are worse than others in this way, but I have needed to throw away or box up numerous tops as a result of this.
Company: Y Athletics is a young company who is aiming to keep things simple. They desire to design clothing with a combination of quality, functionality, and style using the most cutting edge technologies. And in keeping with the theme of elegant simplicity, the company strives to decrease “compromise” on variety in favor of perfecting a few essentials. They state they will be producing just one amazing product per category so the consumer is not overwhelmed by too many.Gear: When I stumbled upon the SilverAir Odorless Athletic Shirt by Y Athletics, I was intrigued. These unique shirts are made of actual silver! While the shirt won’t stop me from smelling (if someone designs that product, let me know ASAP), it is said to maintain its clean and fresh smelling ways despite my body’s best effort to funk it up. The shirt is moisture-wicking and the silver in the shirts fights the bacteria that accumulates. There is some actual science behind this (something about Eccrine and Appocrine), but that is probably best left to smarter people to describe.
Salmon Red V-neck sample SilverAir shirt by Y Athletics.
Their Kickstarter campaign blew by their set goal of $35,000 for manufacturing and ended up receiving over $250,000! The shirts were able to be backed for $34 or 2 for $64. Right now, you can order on their website in Crew or V-neck for $38 and long-sleeved for $44. I have been lucky enough to receive a sample product prior to the general release to backers.
First and foremost, the shirt is beautiful. The Salmon Red V-neck shirt is subtly colorful and looks about as classy as an athletic shirt can. It would definitely be a shirt that could fulfill a few spots in your wardrobe – both workout and casual.
Great stiching and fabric.
The construction of the shirt also appears to be top-notch. The stitching and fabric are well put together and the entire shirt is amazingly soft to the touch.
As far as the premier feature of the shirt – its silver construction with odor killing properties, I believe that it is still too early to tell. Due to the way the shirt is made, it is said that the shirt will avoid the musty sweat-made funk that workout shirts can give off over time. I bet most of us have a box of shirts that can’t really be worn anymore because they stink too much. I know that when I pull my workout shirts on, sometimes I am hit with a stale smell of previous workouts embedded deep within its fibers.
While I can’t be sure, I have every reason to believe that the SilverAir would outlast my collection of simple race tech-shirts.
Overall, I would definitely want to have one of each of the 4 colors in my closet. I don’t think you can go wrong.
