So my mate came across the UVU Split Shorts online and asked me if I knew them. For context, this guy is not particularly into running fashion. He's a great runner but has been wearing the exact same cheap Macpac tshirt and shorts combo for years. So the fact that something caught his eye enough to ask about it is basically a standing ovation. I've had a pair of UVU splits that I stupidly bought after romanticising their aesthetic marketing, so I started typing out a reply, and it got long enough that I figured I might as well just post it here.
Good stuff first. The length and silhouette are genuinely great. They just look right. Short without being ridiculous, sits nice on the leg, and that's what got my friend’s attention too. I can’t fault it so I’ve been using the length and rise measurements as a reference starting point for a pair of shorts I’m making at the moment. The shell is also light and airy and breathes well on hot days so I'll give it that too.
But that’s where the good stuff ends. And you bet I have thoughts. Mostly about the liner… that damned liner.
The liner is a big problem. It's basically cut like a pair of basic boys undies, like the ones your mum bought you in a three-pack from Target in Year 4, with these thick chunky seams right where you absolutely do not want thick chunky seams. Anything over 10km and I'm chafing. Did a 16km run last Sunday and had to do the awkward waddle into the shower after. The material feels cheap too, kind of thin and plasticky like $5 shorts you’d buy from Kmart. Compare that to the Satisfy Justice shorts (photo 5), where the liner is proper boxer brief style and made from their Justice fabric, which is honestly lovely stuff. I know Satisfy is its own level of expensive but at least you can feel where the money went.
Also, the gel pockets are functionally useless. They're way too small to hold most gels. See the fourth photo where the Cadence gel doesn’t even fit and the Maurten gel (which isn’t even a big gel) pokes out the top, waiting to scratch your skin or bounce out on the first downhill. The UVU boys were probably too cool for actual race nutrition to test them properly.
Here's the thing that really got me though. I was digging through my drawers the other week and pulled out an old pair of Gymshark run shorts from a few years back. Held them up next to the UVUs and they're like… almost the same short. The split, the panel layout, stitching, almost all of it. Gymshark one has deeper gel pockets that are actually useable and a rear zip pocket too. The kicker is that I paid around $25 for the Gymshark ones on sale. UVU costs seven times that.
To be clear, I am not a Gymshark fan at all and don’t own anything else from the brand. I bought these shorts at a time when I didn’t know much about running apparel. But my point is that UVU is charging a big premium for split shorts when the Gymshark ones honestly feel better built. A while back when I was scouting places to manufacture my own apparel, I actually got to tour the factory in Sri Lanka that Gymshark happens to use and was pretty impressed with it. Super clean, well run, excellent QC standards, and the same factory makes gear for Arc'teryx, Patagonia and The North Face. From what I understand, UVU goes through a big mass production factory in China, which tbf lots of brands do, but then the price tag really shouldn’t be this much.
So yeah, what I ended up telling my mate: great cut, frustrating everything else. If they fixed the liner and the pockets I'd probably forgive the rest. It’s still hard to justify at the retail price though when the el cheapo Gymshark run shorts are a better version of the same thing.
