Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Sparkle Skirts: First Hand

Find Sparkle Skirts at their Website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.



Before arriving to the Fit For A Princess Expo I was unaware of what Sparkle Skirts were. Ali (who can be found on her own blog here) had mentioned then, but I kind of disregarded any idea of buying one. Once I talked to a few people and saw the product in person, I was interested.

Sparkle Skirts were one of the vendors on Ali's infamous list of people to see at Expo, up until this point I was planning on tackling the 10k in a Under Armour shirt and some compression pants and calling it a day. Upon entering the Sparkle Skirts area of Expo we were greeted by some of the most friendly staff I have ever encountered, seriously, they were genuine and took the time to explain everything that I had questions about in regards to their skirts. Our of the corner of my eye I saw this beautiful specimen staring at me, and I knew that despite my attempts on being frugal in Disney, I was going to have to try it on. 

Grotto Sparkle Skirt
I'm a natural redhead who decided to enhance my red a bit in order to portray Merida for the half marathon. Ariel has always been one of my favorite princesses sine she too had ginger locks, and there aren't that many of us. The skirt that caught my eye was the Grotto Skirt, I eagerly asked the girl if they were true to size and the response that I got was that though they typically are, she wanted me to try on my usual size, and one up and one down, just to be sure. The next part made me giggle: "Now, when you try this on, don't be afraid to jump up and down, run in place, shake it, or do whatever to make sure it isn't going anywhere!". I took the advice to heart and shook my groove thing in the little fitting room area. For me, it was true to size, in Victoria's Secret yoga pants I'm typically a large, along with FILA running shorts and pants, the same went for this sparkle skirt. 

The best thing about Sparkle Skirts? Unlike some running skirts that you have to throw compression skirts under, the SparkleTech skirt that I ended up with had them built in. No muss, no fuss. 



The thing that sold me on the skirt was the pockets. There are three in all and they are all on the large side:

The first pocket is in the waist band, it is 12" in length and zippers shut. With Sparkle Skirts they are designed to be worn with the zipper pocket either in the front or back, whichever is more comfortable for the runner. Even though I am typically a pocket in the back kind of girl, I went for the front approach for the Enchanted 10k. During the run I hid away a couple of necessities in my front pocket, drivers license, cash, and hotel room key. They stayed secured in there the whole trip, safe, sound, protected. 


Each side of the compression shorts house a 4"x5" open pocket. The whole race I ran with my cell in one of the side pant pocket. I didn't want to have to worry about possibly having my license or room key fall out when trying to get to my phone for whatever reason during the race, so even though I was a skeptic, I put the phone in a side pocket. 

Throughout the race my phone stayed put, right in the bottom of my side pocket, and didn't move one bit. It was snug, it was secure, it was stationary. 

After the race I was hooked, even though at first I was a little unsure of my new investment, I quickly became a fan. The SparkleTech Skirts have an inseam that range from 6" Inches for the Extra Small up to 7.75" for the 3XL, yes you read right, 3XL. That is the other thing that I love about SparkleSkirts, they cater to all sizes of women, because it doesn't matter your size, if you are working out you should be able to look good and feel good doing it. 

In Conclusion
I absolutely LOVED running in a Sparkle Skirt, and even though the pattern I chose is clearly themed towards a Disney/Mermaid theme, I have run in it since returning back to Delaware. I intend on expanding my collection of Sparkle Skirts, as they are worth the investment. To care for my specific Sparkle Skirt the directions state to machine wash cold and line dry. Easy enough!

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