The commonplace fact is that our lifestyle and eating habits evolve us into fat miserable creatures.
Many try to cash in on that.
I stumbled upon an ad of Spanx slimming compression T-shirt for men.
The line is called Zoned Perfomance and it claims to offer a quick fix to that flat stomach. I especially liked how they market 92% nylon and 8% elastane, which have been around for like forever, as the latest fabric technologies. Spanx says this fabric has wicking moisture properties that pull moisture away from the body. Well, that’s BS. Anyone who owned a Zippo or atomizer knows that nylon makes very poor wicks. However, microfiber is used for wicking purposes in textiles for more than 20 years now. In high-tech apparel, membrane is formed to transmit vapour from body on top of the shirt, where it turns into liquid sweat with molecules too big to fit into the micro membrane pores and get back on skin. This technology is also nothing new, Goretex has been around for decades.
However, the gem of the advertisement is the passage explaining the Zoned Performance brand name: it smooths over bulges with its specially engineered compression zones on the chest and torso.
Anyone who ever tried putting a wetsuit-tight T-shirt over a moderate belly, knows that in just a few steps the garment pulls upward high above the navel, making you very uncomfortable. Especially, if you, as the ad advises, wear it underneath your normal clothes.