First Look: Arc'Teryx Accelero Men's Tight

Published June 1, 2018 10:00PM

Upon first inspection, I realized the Accelero tights have a bunch of subtle features that are very much appreciated but not overtly advertised on their site. First, let’s address fit and feel. There are quite a few seams on these tights and I was worried that they would rub and prove irritating. Luckily, this wasn’t the case. For a two-hour run, rubbing from the stitching was never an issue. The material is confidence-inspiring, especially if you find yourself thrashing through bramble. The 18% elastane means range of motion is completely unrestricted. The tights fit slightly baggy up top on the quad and tighter down on the calf, which earned points for this reviewer, but might not be ideal for all runners, depending on preference. These definitely fall in the category of lightweight tights—great for early mornings and surprise rainstorms, though I would feel confident running in them down to single-digit temperatures.

As for cool features, the Accelero tights have open pockets on the back of each hip that are stretchy yet secure. In one pocket, I put a gel and never felt it move, and in the other pocket of the same size, I was able to fit an entire Houdini jacket with little effort. After removing the jacket, I didn’t notice any stretch or tired material. The zippered back pocket is smartly constructed to deal with the inexplicable growth of phones over the past few years. It’s low profile, although for this reviewer it did take some adjusting of the phone to find the sweet spot. The kicker? On the skin-side of the zippered back pocket, Arc’teryx has put a hole that conveniently fits the headphone cord so it doesn’t stick out of the zippered opening. The designers also considered the extra length that the headphone plug adds to the phone. This means that if you do choose to run on the trail with conventional headphones, you no longer have to sacrifice the zipper or your phone’s safety to jam out. One feature lacking from these tights is a calf-zipper; hopefully this pops up in future iterations of the Accelero tight.

—Tim Nooney runs 60 miles per week, typically with a new piece of gear that Trail Runner makes him take along and review.