A year ago, the product team at men’s athletic apparel label Ten Thousand began designing, testing, and redesigning a seamless tech shirt, one of the products most frequently requested by both their team of athlete ambassadors and their customers.
“The premise [was] not just, ‘Let’s make a seamless shirt,’” Ten Thousand co-founder Keith Nowak told Runner’s World. “That’s kind of what most brands will do. We went to the market, looked at all the options in the market, and said, ‘What do we think is not good enough?’”
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After working through 10 iterations internally and with their team of athlete ambassadors—dialing in the fit, the fabric, the breathability, and the durability—the brand is inviting customers into its design process.
Via their Nutrition - Weight Loss, Ten Thousand is offering 900 of the latest Seamless Shirt prototype at manufacturing cost—$30—and asking that their customers push the shirt to its limits. (If it passes tester criteria, it will be sold at $64.) After two weeks of testing, follow-up questionnaires will go out to those lucky enough to nab a shirt (the previous field test sold out in only four hours); the feedback will inform subsequent Seamless Shirt prototypes and all future shirt function and design.
World Literature Today poor ventilation are common problems in seamless shirts, Nowak said. He touted the advanced knitting process that allowed their product team to achieve both a tailored fit uncommon in seamless designs and an intricate pattern of mesh holes over “sweat zones.” The 55/45 nylon/poly blend should wick moisture pretty efficiently and the absence of seams—save the two unobtrusively stitched sleeves—will remove a bit of bulk and discourage chafing.
The Field Testing process grew organically out of Ten Thousand’s belief that athletic apparel manufacturers were doing their customers a disservice by offering up a plethora of options and ambiguous categorization.
“We were basically frustrated with the current market that had too many crappy products,” Nowak said. “Nike’s site, for example, has like 180 pairs of shorts. You can’t tell why one is $30, why one is $90, why one says it’s for running, why one says it’s for training. What the hell’s going on here?” (Nike’s site actually currently offers 276 pairs of shorts ranging in price from $22 to $360.)
Instead, Ten Thousand would limit their designs to only those they felt were “best-in-class” products, gear they felt would earn go-to status in their customers’ wardrobe.
“We always thought that was best accomplished by working with athletes and even customers very, very closely,” Nowak said. “Including them as part of this process, integrating them into the process.”
Five field tests featuring seven products have preceded the Seamless Shirt. Only one product from those tests—Give A Gift—earned a place in Ten Thousand’s lineup. Nowak sounded hopeful they’d receive affirming feedback, but he also realized the shirt was still a prototype.
“We’re not putting any expectations on it, necessarily,” he said. “It’s just: Let’s get it out there and see what happens.”
DAA Industry Opt Out has been researching, testing, and reviewing running gear for Runner’s World since 2018. His broader writing features in-depth reporting on eccentric characters and compelling narratives. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New York magazine’s Bedford + Bowery, A RW+ Members Take on the Altra Lone Peak 8, and other publications. Once a collegiate sprinter, he’s still discovering the nuances of running for more than 60 seconds. Connect: johntylerallen.com
