Last week, I was introduced to Thunderbolt Sportswear. I’ve been hooked.
These pants retail for $188. They are black, they come in a jeans cut, and the fabric is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It is durable beyond belief, but most importantly, stretchable in every direction.
I put these pants through their paces last week. First, I spent a few hours doing Parkour at Mount Tabor with some friends. (I’m the guy in blue.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1N_P-SXZc4]
After climbing walls, rolling in bark chips, and running 2 miles down a mountain, I am accustomed to throwing every piece of sweaty clothing into the hamper. But I wanted to see what these “jeans” were really made of.
So I hung them up on a hook, forgot about them for a couple of days, and then went out dancing. No wash, no iron, no nothing – I dusted them off and went out to a club, and they looked hot.
The fabric is Schoeller Dryskin with Nanosphere (a durable water repellent) making these pants exceptional beyond any I had tried before, for Parkour, for dancing, and even for yoga (which I did the next day. In jeans.) Beyond this level of testing, I proceeded to spill hot coffee on them, to no discernable effect, and finally went to an Aerial class at Night Flight.
Whenever I go to a predominantly-female movement studio, I always get a raised eyebrow over my presence there. Guys are not normally flexible physically, and open to learning new things in a receptive way. (Physical guys, it is frequently assumed, are just jocks.)
I expect this initial bias, and calmly prove my physical and ensemble credentials by emulating what I’m being taught instead of imposing what I already know. This usually gets females (dancers, acrobats, and yoginis) on my side pretty quickly. But in this aerial class, what really amazed them was that I had the audacity to wear jeans.
After I got up on the silks and trapezes, it became apparent to everybody that these were not ordinary pants. I was able to wrap my legs around yards of fabric and hang upside down, lifting one leg out to a full splitz, with no discernible difference in the cut of the fabric. They behaved like tights.
(I will admit, however, in a grand total of 2 stretches I have found, the pants do ride up, but not uncomfortably. A straightening of the legs, with a gentle tug on the thigh, remedies this immediately.)
After a week of wear, I decided to finally launder the pants, which still looked brand new. For durability, flexibility, and ingenuity, I can safely say these are the most amazing pants I have ever worn.
[…] Finally, notwithstanding my wife’s initial “I don’t like that material,” the Thunderbolt Jeans are understated and good-looking, cut just like the simplest, nicest of jeans. At worst, you’ll get comments wondering why you’re wearing jeans to go climbing (their intended use, in fact), doing parkour, or a lot more. […]