As a blogger, I am occasionally presented with opportunities to review products, and this fall I jumped at the chance to try some workout apparel by c2. The performance tights and half-zip I got were made for cool weather, which is fast approaching here in Richmond. (Okay, some days it doesn’t feel that way. It was 80 degrees last week.)

Still. We know winter is coming. Jon Snow might even say it’s here. And I need to be prepared, especially since I’ve gotten back into running and I don’t want to be forced to run inside all winter.

c2 is a clothing brand developed by a New England native aka the founder knows what cold is. The founder wanted to create and offer clothes that would allow you to exercise outdoors long after the temperatures have dropped. She also has kept all operations local to the U.S. Upon receiving my tights and half-zip, I knew they would keep me warm in the coming December and January winds. That said, it’s sort of hard to try them out in that weather here and Richmond. Anyone have a walk-in freezer I can borrow? Also, I was in Qatar last week (blog post coming soon!), and it was 90 degrees there with high humidity. No, I did not try my winter workout gear there. 

So I will testify to the tights and half-zip’s comfort and style. I am naturally warm-blooded aka I wear tank tops year-round. However, upon slipping into these tights, I found myself lounging around my house in them. I never got too hot. But I'm sure they would keep me warm in the snow. It's more like they regulate body temperature versus just making you impractically hot, which is good, since I have worn some workout gear that keeps me warm for the first two miles and then has me sweating buckets by mile three. No bueno!

The half-zip is also good for pulling over my pajamas on the increasingly cool mornings here in Richmond.

The tights are perfect for my frame. I am 6’2” with a 32” waist (wow, I never knew I’d be sharing my waist measurements with the world wide web) and ordered a medium. The pants fit great – snug, but great. They’re 49% polyester, 38% nylon, and 13% Spandex, and I washed them once and air-dried them with no noticeable shrinkage. My only qualms with the tights is there are no pockets. However, they’re so snug, I think I could put my keys and some cards against my waist and they’d stay. Mine came in black, but apparently they also come in black with some green detailing.

The half-zip is great, too. I treat it more like a pullover, though you could wear it with nothing underneath. The sleeves do run on the short side - I have long arms (see above for my frame) and ordered a medium, which did not reach fully to my wrists. I will say, I found the zip to be a tad itchy without something underneath, but that might just be my skin. It’s 65% polyester and 35% wool. The color options here are “curry” or black. I put the curry in quotations because that’s what the website says, and I guess it is curry, but I would’ve said yellow if I wasn’t comparing it to yellow curry at my local Thai diner. 

The pants and half-zip came with special instructions on washing, including turning the clothes inside out and washing only with other synthetics. Just to be safe, I washed my tights and half-zip alone together and air dried them. They came out fine.

I’m definitely looking forward to wearing these tights and half-zip out on long runs over the holidays. I also am super excited because this weekend is Halloween, and if you haven’t noticed from the pictures, this outfit can also double as a Star Trek costume. Call me Captain Kirk if you will.

If you would like to buy some c2 apparel (or your next Star Trek convention costume), head on over to their shop and pick yourself up a pair of tights or a half-zip. And don’t worry, they offer both men and women’s products. If you use code astold16, you’ll get 20% off orders over $50. Let me know in the comments how you like your new workout gear!