Mile Long Legs

I’m back at it again for another Oiselle #straightscoop! The lovely birds over at Oiselle HQ sent me a few pieces of gear to review, today it’s the Embossed Mac Rogas!

Let’s start with a quick rundown of specs for these hot little numbers.  The Embossed Roga fabric is a blend of 84% poly/14% spandex, they have awesome four-way stretch that allows a full range of motion (ie. awesome jump photos), and an inseam of 1.75”.  These bad boys also have the signature Roga yoga-style waist band (that’s super soft), a small back zip pocket, and a technical liner with an integrated pocket and drawstring.

So let’s dive into the review.  It’s no secret that I’m already a Mac Roga lover, in fact, I believe they were one of my original Oiselle purchases a few years ago, although this is my first pair in the embossed style.  As always, I put these babies to the test, I wore them for a long 16 mile run in the rain, a hot and sweaty 18 mile trail run and many other runs in the mix. 

My first impressions: I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the mineral color, to me it was much more beautiful in person that it appeared online, but I wondered if the light color would appear see-through once sweat in or worn in the rain, or if the grey liner would show through, guess what? Not see through at all, in fact, no “I-just-peed-my-pants sweat effect”, and no visibility of the darker-color liner.  I stopped mid run to admire how good they dealt with sweat/rain, I could barely tell where the material was wet vs. where it was dry.

 

Now let’s take a minute to talk about fit.  These short shorts are essentially the perfect shorts for ladies who like short shorts without the clingy spandex factor.  I need to mention that I do size up in these shorts, they are the only Oiselle shorts that I stray from my usual size.  My usual size does “fit”, but because of the short nature of these I size up to keep my muscular trail running booty under wraps and to allow for a more free range of motion for doing big climbs on the trails without restriction. The Mac Roga’s do have an adjustable drawstring, which I tend not to use unless I have my pockets loaded.  I also find the ends of the drawstring tend to feel scratchy and irritate my skin a little bit, I’d love to see those smoothed out in future models. 

Pockets. Okay, so I have some positive things and some negative things to say about the two pockets in the Mac Rogas.  I usually tend to look for shorts that can hold my phone during my run as I like to have it with me for safety.  Upon initial inspection, these shorts don’t have a zippered phone pocket (bummer), but what has

(sort of) worked for me, is putting my phone in the integrated pocket in the liner in the front of the shorts.  I say “sort of” because it does the job, my phone stays in, but it can be a little uncomfortable if you’re running rugged trails and bouncing around a lot as the phone in that location rubs on my hip bone, and while running down steep descents that little pocket when weighted down by a phone can stretch and peek out of the bottom of the short (minor issue) and there’s no zipper on that pocket, so there’s always the chance of it flying out.  There’s also a second small zippered pocket on the back of the shorts that is great for holding a few gels, keys, cards, etc…  I would LOVE to see a zippered phone pocket much like the Distance shorts on the back of these or some sort of pocket to hold a phone, if that happened, these would be the perfect shorts in my opinion.

Why I love these shorts:

-comfort, seriously one of the most comfortable shorts I’ve ever run in, and no chafing

-fit, sassy, short, and feminine fierce flattering shape

-functional, great for trails/road, long distance/short sprints

-versatility, easy to wear casually and on the run

-durability, my original Mac Rogas from years ago have been washed and dried a million times and they are still in perfect condition

Things that needs work:

-Pockets! I’m really, really, REALLY wishing there was a phone pocket on the back of these shorts

-scratchy drawstring ends, they are ok, but I’d love to see less scratchy/irritating string ends

And there you have it, my straight scoop on the Oiselle Embossed Mac Roga shorts, Mac Rogas have been a part of my running wardrobe for quite some time, and are consistently the first shorts I reach for in my collection of many, many shorts.  I’ve raced almost every race I’ve run in these and will be running my first 50 miler this weekend in them too!  If you have any questions about the Mac Rogas, or if you already are a big fan of them like myself, please leave them in the comments section below!

*Gear provided by Oiselle, all thoughts, views, opinions are my own.

Product Details and My Stats:

Oiselle Embossed Mac Roga

Cost: $48, well worth it. I’ve had my originally purchased ones for a number of years and they are still in perfect condition.

Color: Mineral

Size: 4, these are the one style of Oiselle shorts that I size up from my usual 2

And for sizing reference, I’m 5’9”, usual Oiselle bottom size 2/xs

xoxo, MLL