[sebbie]

Old fashioned Compression shorts

What makes me so fond of the look, fit and feel of compression gear that I am delighted to be able to wear it practically every day, and how did I get so hooked on doing this? I guess others might say that as adult males go, I am remarkably free of vices—I don’t smoke, drink, take drugs or have sex with a partner of either sex. Yet despite all of this I seem almost amazingly and remarkably cheerful and upbeat.

Still, I do have things I like to do, mainly things I really enjoy doing to, with and by myself. And many of these things are directly related to the gear I own. I have a massive collection of compression gear, that is alongside my equally massive collections of swim briefs, thong, straps and skinny jeans. But how did I get to where I am anyway?

Yesterday I was digging around in my dresser drawers and found what I believe to be the first pair of compression shorts I ever purchased, also from the board in the athletic equipment section at Walmart, but predating the Star ones I was wearing and telling you about the other day. These shorts were made by a company called Bollinger. The whole design I think was based on the idea that guys were going to wear these for compression and support under a looser-fitting pair of cotton shorts. They came only in two colors, black or white, and I course I had to have one of each. The white pair is around here somewhere but I have not located that yet.

I have been telling you about some of the recent compression shorts I have gotten and my fondness for the TSLA brand of gear, shorts, shirts and tights. More recently I have talked about the STAR brand of shorts that I bought a long time ago from Walmart and how neat they fit and look on me.

But the Bollingers are in a different category from any of these. The first issue I had was that the cloth kept its snug stretch over the years but the seams ripped in various laces and a few years back I had to do some work on the sewing machine to close some of the open seams… This restitch work can be seen as I used a white not black thread but the repairs do not detract from the overall look.

As you know, Lycra polyester swim briefs gradually disintegrate as the Lycra stretch comes apart due to contact with chemicals in the water and simply by age, and few stretch swim briefs that are 25 years old would even be wearable and be completely stretched out if not totally falling apart.

Not the Bollingers. They are made of what still is a heavy duty stretch-fabric, a fabric that does not fall apart as the shorts age. This is a very different fabric from the currently available compression gear—a fabric that to this day compresses more than anything I can buy nowadays. Fresh out of the package, no doubt I pulled these on and said “WOW” I LIKE these a lot.
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I was a smaller guy when I bought these—no 9000 miles on a bike under my belt nor thousands of hours on my stationary rowers. And of course I had to buy size SM---way back when I was always very fond of a snug fit.

Another interesting part about this is that these have a shorter inseam than current compression shorts. My thighs are bigger but my waist if anything is smaller. Can I even get into these? The answer of course is YES and they look great and feel great. That super heavy duty compression fabric feels great on my body.

The inseam is maybe 6 ½ inches as opposed to 9 or 10 inches that is commonplace nowadays. The whole look was to see maybe 3 inches at mid thigh dangling below your loose fitting and even shorter cotton shorts. But keep in mind that the loose fitting shorts like the NBA players wear were much shorter in those days, and it used to be that basketball players wore shorts with maybe only a 3-inch inseam, so in athletic activity everyone knew who had compression gear on and who did not. Wearing compression gear was purportedly tied to athletic performance and a reduction in pulled and strained muscles and other injuries. I also expect that Bollinger figured most guys would want to wear an old school jock under these with or without a cup, for multiple layers of protection.

So I pulled these on this morning and they look and feel great. They are quite a bit shorter than my other compression shorts but what the heck. As I tugged them into place I got to thinking that when I got these might have been my first experience in wearing compression shorts and I immediately was hooked on the look, the fit and the feel. When I did this I probably already had been rowing for some time and lifting weights too, and it suddenly dawned on me that these shorts were perfect for that activity, also recognizing that keeping myself feeling horny was also the key to making my workouts from being burdensome.

All in all a great experiment on my part and I understand even more of the story as to why my collection of compression gear has grown so large, After all, compared with most guys, I live a very conservative life and never get myself into a dangerous situation at all.

In the intervening years, wearing compression gear and engaging in athletics of various kinds and the combination of the two have become extremely popular with guys everywhere. In introducing young aspiring athletes to the wonders of compression gear early on, the Bollinger company was an early leader in all of this, and in so doing, these shorts were quite a start. I was hooked on them, just like that!