A pair of tights is four decisions in a trench coat: the fabric, the waistband, the pockets and the hem. We got two of them wrong first.
The fabric weight
We started at 240gsm because it felt reassuring in the hand. On a summer long run it was a sauna. We went to 210 with a tighter knit, which holds shape without the weight, and stops looking thin the moment you bend down.
The waistband, four times
Sample one rolled at kilometre eight. Sample two fixed the roll and dug in. Sample three fixed the digging and slid. Sample four is a wider band with a bonded inner edge and no drawcord, because a drawcord is a bump under a race belt.
Pockets that hold a phone
The pockets sit lower than most, on the outside of the thigh rather than the front. It looks less tidy on a flat lay and it stops a phone slapping your hip for an hour. We chose the run over the photograph.
Cut and sewn in small runs
Each colour is cut in a few hundred pairs at a time, which costs more per unit and means a size can sell out. It also means we can change the next run when fifty people tell us the same thing.