It is great to be a female runner at this day and age. Not only are women well represented and respected in the elite levels of the sport, they have a higher participation at races, and spend more money in the retail world of running. For those of you who don’t live in the world of retail, like us at the Salt Lake Running Company, how does women’s participation and dollars spent really relate to the female runner? Well, now more than ever women are being catered to. Instead of wearing 2 or 3 sports bras, there are bras on the market that are proven to be supportive. The shoes are more stylish and come in colors besides just pink. Most importantly to me, since I love clothes, are the recent product developments in running apparel. Just like a woman can express her individual style in her everyday clothes, she can also find her style of athletic wear. Furthermore, a lot of the active wear can cross over into everyday wear, while making a woman look sporty, rather than slovenly.
One of the latest developments in running wear that crosses over to casual wear is the running skirt. You may or may not have seen some ladies running around in these chic bottoms, but they are gaining a large following. From my experience in helping women, not all of them are totally stoked on the idea of running around in a skirt. I think they imagine that they will have to skip down the street rather than run. Yet when they try it on they realize it does look very sporty, and provides a lot of coverage without being baggy and unflattering. Many are hesitant to the idea because it seems like it will have a lot more fabric than a pair of running shorts will. In fact it is virtually the same amount of fabric and generally has less seams and fabric gathering on the inner thighs. Pretty much all the skirts have some sort of pocket system, either built into the back part of the waistband or on the outer thigh, sewn onto the shorts liner. Of course they come in varying lengths, so if you want to show off some leg that is still an option.
Best of all, is the option to wear the skirt around after a workout. They are like magic; when running these skirts are super functional, comfortable, and sporty looking, but around town they just look like a skirt. Right now we have skirts from Nike, Brooks, Skirt Sports, The North Face, Lole, and Arc’Teryx. I am not saying skirts are for everyone, but they are definitely here to stay and for a lot of good reasons. Don’t hesitate to try one on; you’re not too slow, or too fast, or lacking in “femininity”, or whatever other label you have to try to define yourself. We should all enjoy the many options we have as female runners, because we are strong and we are many and we can run the running world if we want to.
I love running in running skirts and made the swtich 6 years ago. I won’t run in shorts. I’ve found that the running skirt covers more of me, it doesn’t ride up my hiney like I’ve seen shorts do on women in many races (most unflattering!), they’re cooler during warm temps and the colors are endless. I think the running skirt also gives women more confidence to run-they feel good because, well,they look great!
I do wish that SLRC would carry runningskirts. I’d rather shop at your store than have to wait for my order to arrive from the skirt fairy via USPS. Something to think about, no?
Amanda, This is Heather that ran the track workout with you guys last night. Appropriate timing for this post given our discussion of skirts/apparel last night!
I have to tell you, I was pretty anti-skirt for awhile until my friend, who is very PRO skirt convinced me to buy one before the Surf City Half Marathon that we were running together. Since running in that one, I do actually prefer it over my shorts. I’m a pretty basic girl (again … back to our conversation last night about not everyone is into bold prints) and just bought a plain black one. The comfort of it (over the color/print options) is what sold me. I haven’t tried running in other brands but to build on the previous comment mine happens to be a runningskirt brand one also. Anyway, great to meet you and great post!
Heather, funny to see you posting on here! Heather got me into the running skirts. I don’t want to run in anything but a running skirt anymore. They are very comfortable and cute!! I was curious as well, to why SLRC has not started carrying them.