The RW Takeaway: The Kor tank is so soft, one of our editors thought it had been laundered X-amount of times and was from the tester’s bygone racing days. It’s that soft.
- Super-soft sweat-wicking mesh material
- Not too shear
- Unisex sizing; recommended to try on before buying
Price: $55
Sizing: Unisex, XS to L
Us heavy sweaters have a unique relationship with clothing. Running high mileage in cotton shirts through high school and college taught me not to trust a shirt on its initial touch; how it reacts to gradually getting drenched in salty water over the course of 6 to 10 miles tells the real story.
Silk-Like Fabric
When I was first handed the Kor Sportswear Air Tech Muscle Shirt, I was blown away by how soft it was—softer than any other traditional sweat-wicking material I’ve worn. On the fabric family tree, it branches out closer to silk than, say, Dri-Fit. Being a unisex design, I had to check with our female test editors to make sure not all women’s running apparel was this comfortable.
I’d been burned before by so-called soft materials (figuratively and by some resulting rashes), so I was initially hesitant to throw on the Kor tank for an 11-mile training run in the soupy August heat. Even though the local meteorologist had dubbed the day “oppressive,” I found the experience to be anything but.
Pros
- Performance mesh is incredibly soft
- Breathable and wicks away sweat
Cons
- It's available in black or white only
A Unique Feel
The best way to describe the tank is it’s a ShamWow for your chest. The Air Tech mesh fabric allows a Goldilocks-amount of air to keep you cool while still absorbing enough sweat to keep your shorts from getting soaked. At no point during my run did the shirt stick to my chest or back, even when I sported a hydration pack on a three-hour bike ride.
Weighing in at only 3.3 ounces—about the same as a Garmin Fenix watch—the shirt is see-through without being too revealing. It wasn’t thin enough for members of my lunch run group to see the tattoo on my chest. There’s more than enough room under the armpits for airflow, and at no point do your shoulders or arms feel restricted during their natural movements. Stitching, like the rest of the shirt, is barely noticeable, kept to an absolute minimum with only thin rows along the shoulders and down your sides.
Since becoming a video producer for Runner’s World in 2014, Derek has captured such historic moments as Meb Keflezighi and Desiree Linden’s Boston victories and Amy Cragg’s win at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, and Galen Rupp and Shalane Flanagan breaking the tape in Chicago and New York, respectively.
