HYLETE Incline Shorts.
I’m a huge fan of HYLETE’s products. From backpacks to pants, everything I’ve picked up from their website has been top notch. I picked up a pair of the Incline shorts and here are a couple of quick thoughts on them as well as some thoughts if you should add them to your gym attire.
Style: These 91% polyester and 9% spandex shorts include a liner on the inside making them ideal for running or doing any other form of cardio based activity. They also include a zipper closure pocked on the right side perfect for storing some small valuable items. What’s most unique about these shorts, and are the only shorts I’ve ever seen with a “shirt loop”. It’s a loop on the left hip allowing you to hang your shirt or towel from your shorts or an additional shirt.
Personally I love this, for two reasons:
Hot weather reason: I often go for a long runs and want to stop at a gas station or coffee shop for a mid-run snack. The problem is I can’t enter these places shirtless so my choices are either A) Wear a shirt for the run B) No shirt for the run and no mid-run drink C) Shirt for first half of the run, mid-run snack and carry my shirt in my hand for the second half of the run. While this problem may not be something you encounter, the option to hang your shirt instead of just throwing it somewhere on the gym floor is a nice touch, especially if you work out in a gym that allows for shirtless training.
Shirt loop shown post-run.
Cool/cold weather Reason: Have you ever started a winter run and you can’t decide if you should put on an extra shirt or long sleeves? The Incline shorts allows you to have the best of both worlds. You can wear a long sleeve top for the first mile then take it off and loop in through the shirt loop leaving your hands free for the rest of the run and your upper body comfortable. For winter gym days, it allows you to wear a warm up top for the first couple of sets in the gym before looping it through your shorts for the rest of your training session.
Color Options: The shorts come in three color options: Black/Gun Metal, Cool Gray/Trellis (gray and light blue) and Navy/Delta (navy blue and light blue). These standard colors describe almost all the shorts I own. While some of their other shorts have broader line ups of colors I did not feel like I was missing out with only three color options.
9x Masters winner at Conquer The Gauntlet Doug Snyder enjoys some Stand Up Paddleboarding cross training in his HYLETE Incline shorts. The zipper pocket comes in handy for this as well as any other activity with a lot of motion.
Price: Each pair of shorts will set you back $78, which is a considerable amount. As with all of HYLETE’s products though, you get what you pay for. Plus, I would highly recommend subscribing to their mailing list, using one of their discount programs they have for military/first responder/students/trainers/nurses or maybe even become an investor. You can get considerable savings from any of these all available under the “Community” tab on their website.
Wearing HYLETE Incline Shorts while rock climbing at ROKC Olathe with my daughter.
Use: My favorite use for these shorts is running shorts. This is one of their lined shorts and, like all their shorts, comes in six different waist sizes (XS to XXL), with each one having three different lengths. This makes them the perfect length for whatever you want to use them for. I’ve worn them to the gym, for running, for climbing and even around town. Bottom line is these are versatile and whatever the reason you are buying them for they will fit well with your desired reason.
Personally, I prefer spandex/compressions shorts for OCR but if you wanted to wear normal shorts for racing, these or the Verge II are the two I would recommend for that. Both are lined and both are made of a polyester/spandex blend meaning they won’t stretch or gain lots of excess weight when wet.
Conquer The Gauntlet Pro Doug Snyder training in his HYLETE Incline shorts and VJ XTRM shoes.
Overall: HYLETE hits another home run with these lined shorts. The Incline shorts live up to the HYLETE high standard of quality, durability, style and comfort. One training session in these shorts and it is clear that the brand is founded, built by and run by athletes. Another great product of a company founded by athletes, employees athletes and develops new products based off athlete feedback (seriously…look into their HYLETE Project).
5/5 Stars