Engage Higher Lion Compression Pants Legging Review

Engage Higher Lion Compression Pants Legging Review

Brand

Engage is an Australian Fight Wear, Fight Gear, Activewear and Apparel brand. Engage has a high focus on visuals, with their equipment often featuring bold colours, designs and styles not frequently seen in the fight gear industry.

About the Item

The Higher Lion Compression Leggings are one of Engage’s fightwear choices, coming in two colour options in sizes XS to 2XL. These could easily be worn as a base layer, or your only layer, for running, gym work or even fight training. They’re tight fitting and super light, allowing freedom of movement and full range of motion whilst providing some of the benefits of compression clothing.

These are available as either compression leggings or compression shorts, with matching rash guards and MMA shorts available.

Engage sent us a white pair of these to test out and give our thoughts on.

Visuals

Unlike a lot of compression wear, Engage have chosen to opt for a highly colourful artistic design. The leggings are available in two colours – black or white – with the lion design printed down one leg.

When these turned up on my doorstep I was pleased to see that they really are as vibrant as the photos make them look. The design on the side is bursting with colour, and should stay like that for a while as they’re sublimated into the fabric rather than just printed on.

The colourful design might put off those with more traditional tastes, but what I personally like about the design is that it’s asymmetrical, with the right leg featuring the main design with a small ‘Premium Fightwear’ badge printed on the ankle, while the left side features the same badge at the top of the thigh, with a yellow block around the ankle with an Engage ‘E’ logo.

Materials/Craftsmanship

While these are referred to as Compression leggings, they don’t rely on just a tight fit to stay in place, like some other brands do. These seem to have a lot of stretch to them, so fit really well without feeling overly restrictive.

What really helps to keep these in place is the waistband. The waistband feels noticeably wide on these, which means there’s plenty of elastication and that in theory it should hold up slightly better over time. Inside the waistband are 3 lines of silicon, which are there to improve grip – a feature becoming slightly more popular across the market. I’ve used fight shorts which use similar methods before, but as the Engage Compression Leggings are more of a base layer I actually find it works much better.

It’s clear these are designed with grappling in mind, as all of the important stitching is done with reinforced flat seams, to hold up against friction and tension, without rubbing or irritating. Between the legs is a mesh panel, which obviously allows for a bit more breathability in an important area, but also helps add a bit more flex.

Comfort/use

I already mentioned in the last section that these don’t feel tight. I can only attribute this to the fact that these compression leggings feel noticeably light – especially to some of the other alternatives we’ve recently reviewed.

Having tested these in a cold, English climate I can say these probably won’t keep you warm if you’re looking for a base layer for running, but I don’t feel that’s really the purpose of these. On the flip side, if you’re training in a pretty hot environment like Australia, Engage’s home country, then you’ll probably appreciate it much more.

I’ve been wearing these for a mixture of cardio and striking training, and they’ve been a great base layer for both, feeling comfortable for squats and high kicks alike. I haven’t personally tried these for grappling, but can tell that the gripped fit and flexibility should definitely be an advantage. The outer texture of these is also really smooth, meaning they aren’t going to add any friction or get caught and twisted when rolling.

Cost

The base price for the Engage Higher Lion Compression Legging comes to AUS$99.95 AUD, which currently works out to roughly $70 USD or £53 GBP. That is a little on the expensive side compared to most compression leggings, but isn’t too far off of the price of some high-end No-gi spats. At the time of writing, these are actually reduced by a fair amount, so if you’re able to grab a good deal these would be a great all-round base layer.