Virus BioCeramic Tech Shorts Review

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Brand

VIRUS Performance are a brand who focus on sports clothing with the aim of helping improve performance amongst athletes. They particularly excel when it comes to compression wear, with it being a huge focus of theirs, but also produce a range of items. As well as designing clothing for weightlifters, fitness enthusiasts, competitive motorcyclists and more, they also focus on MMA, with martial artists Cub Swanson, Daniel Strauss, Ian McCall and Dan Hardy amongst their team and ambassadors.

About the item

This pair of shorts is part of Virus’ compression clothing collection, also utilising their Bioceramic™ Fabric. They’re available in either black or white, matching the BioCeramic X-Form Compression V-Neck we’ve already reviewed. They’re also available as full length compression pants if that’s what you prefer.

Sizes range from XS to XXL – As with all compression wear, sizing is key in order to get the most of the recovery benefits, but Virus offer a complete size guide on their website to make it a bit easier.

Visuals

Unlike rashguards and grappling spats, compression clothing usually doesn’t focus on fancy designs, and these are a prime example. They do use Virus’s style and visuals pretty nicely though, with the main focus being the large crop of the Virus logo on the left leg in metallic gold.

Running down just behind that is a series of icons displaying some of the features of the shorts. This is something commonly seen on Virus gear, and I’m personally a big fan of it. It adds a subtle extra amount of detail.

Running down the left leg is the full Virus logo and wordmark, again in gold. And above that are two glossy black diagonal stripes, with ‘VIRUS // PERFORMANCE’ just above. The black print makes for a much more discreet addition, but catches the light beautifully.

Materials and Craftsmanship

VIRUS have done a great job on the craftsmanship on this, everything is double stitched, and so far it’s been through some pretty tough training sessions – including sparring – without showing any signs of wear. The mateials for these is Bioceramic™ Fabric. VIRUS explain on their website that this basically means the fabric emits Far-Infared into the skin. For the average person like me, this means basically nothing, but I did a little digging to find out if this was a real thing or just a marketing ploy, and it seems that this is actually legitimate and has been proven to improve blood circulation and energy levels, as well as being used in some cases as a treatment method for Arthritis and similar conditions.

Whether or not wearing this for an hour or two during a training session will have any real effect, I can’t say, but the material is comfortable and well-fitting enough either way.

Comfort/use

As far as compression gear goes, it’s all about getting the right fit. Once worn, these should have a nice snug fit, and I found them to have a great amount of stretch and movement to them. They shouldn’t prevent your movement at all, and squats and high kicks feel easy and natural.

The drawstrings in the waist band seem to have a slight rubber-like texture to them which helps loads with grip, however can leave a slight lump when knotted together which isn’t always the most comfortable.

I also found that these can sometimes be a little restrictive in terms of – ahem – groin space. Perhaps some people will be more affected than others, however I definitely found it can ride up a little at times. Usually it’s a case of a quick adjustment and you’re good for the rest of the session, however that’s easier said than done once you’re gloved up and in the middle of a round.

Other than that I’ve really enjoyed wearing these. They feel great on the skin and are overall pretty nice to wear, as well as bringing a variety of benefits to blood flow and recovery thanks to the compression and materials used.

Cost

The standard retail price seems to be around $56 which is pretty steep for compression clothing, however the health benefits are good especially if you plan on wearing this as a base layer for longer periods of time. If you don’t want these features though, there are cheaper alternatives available from Virus or even other brands.

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