On Monday at the gym I noticed that the shirt I packed looked like it wasn’t washed right. But upon closer look, the Lycra on it is starting to disintegrate. In the end I shouldn’t feel bad for getting 15 years out of a shirt.
While this shirt is not the start of my spandex fetish but it does mark a one of the transformations in my life. I bought this shirt after doing a tough arm, chest, and back workout and I was really sore the next day. I already knew from cycling that a bit of compression made my legs feel good, so why not try these new fanged compression shirts that started appearing everywhere at the time in 2001 or 2002. This was the around the first time in my life that I dropped a lot of weight.
In the end, this shirt got often used for lifting, recovery, and to add a bit of a minor base layer on cool days. I have been scraped up and cut while wearing it, yet somehow it never tore the shirt. They really don’t make them as they used to. The only hole in this shirt after 15 years is from when I had a stripped bolt head and I needed something to make the hex key a fit while on the side of the road.
I have yet to have any other Under Armour gear hold up as well – there was something about the real early stuff they sold that just lasted forever.
But I am not content with just throwing it away – given how much literal sweat and blood this shirt has absorbed in that time. While fidgeting with it, I noticed it could make a good gag. I tried it out, and it sure did. Not it will get nicely tied up so that it is ready to use and hang it next to the rope in the bedroom.
