Starter brand Compression gear

[sebbie]

Maybe a dozen years ago Wal Mart marketed a line of athletic gear under the Starter brand name. The manufacturer was originally a separate company supplying Wal mart with discount gear but was purchased by Nike in 2005, as this article makes clear.

https://www.seattlepi.com/business/a...sh-1170955.php

What interested me, of course, was not the starter sneakers, but the line of compression tees and shorts that retailed for about $10 each, far less than the premium brands from the Nike-labeled or UnderArmour stuff. The tees and shorts were of very good quality and quite reasonably priced. I went bonkers and bought lots of both the compression shorts and tees. I really liked the fit and feel and they were perfect for my stationary rowing and biking. And when I was still employed not retired I wore these comprssion tees under my normal work wear.

At some point Nike decided that they no longer wanted to market gear through the big discounters such as Wal mart and sadly, the line was dropped, but by then there were lots of places to buy something similar on line.

I still have a lot of these Starter-branded compression items. Some of them that I wore a lot the fabric has deteriorated, but others, both tees and shorts are still in pristine condition.

This week I decided to try wearing some of my old Starter Compression gear, a black MED Tee I had hardly worn and in like new condition, and a pair of navy blue compression shorts in equally good shape.

All my rowing means that I have been building chest muscles over time, and compression tees have been getting more and more difficult to get into. I used to wear SM at all times but gradually upsized to a larger MED. It takes some doing to get into the compression Tee and it really fits skin tight once I am in. While stretchy, the material does not flex as much as the newer Tesla stuff I buy on Amazon. Still, once I am in I am fine, and oddly, it is less difficult to remove the shirt than it was to get into it. Still, this is the snuggest fitting Tee that I have worn in a long time, and the shorts are equally snug. They look great on me. When working out I like to wear a strap underneath.

Also, in my closet. I think I still have a Starter Tee in size SM that I have only had on once or twice a long time ago. I wonder if I can get myself sucked into that one. The SM size should take this even one step farther.