EDIT 08 July 2026
The shorts as a product need A LOT of improvement but customer service was exceptional (5 stars in itself).
Myka from customer service did a lot of the heavy lifting to raise this review to a three stars. She offered to replace the shorts after my original review and also after reporting that the red dye isn’t colourfast as it bled in the wash and turned my hoisery bags pink even on gentle wash with gentle detergent.
Overall the shorts are still a one star because of the ff:
- Inconsistent sizing: The first red pair was small around the waist and hips. The replacement pair in navy and small was a bigger and roomier fit with more fabric around the hips and thighs.
- Dye not colourfast and bleeds even in gentle wash
- Twill fabric snags easily: After 1.5 hours of drills and sparring focused on sweeps and clinches, the constant contact with velcro pulled and snagged a lot of threads
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Order arrived after just one week, which is great. Other than that the shorts aren’t great. I’m 5’2”, 50kg with less than 18% body fat around my torso/midsection and size small is too small. I am within the waist and hip measurements of the size chart which also claims that the waist is generous (it isn’t). I wear a small in Boon, Yokkao, and Venum so Athena shorts in small should have worked especially based on their own size chart. And while the unstretched waist circumference of Athena shorts are similar to these other brands, the material, construction, and amount of fabric to allow expansion are very different. The Athena elastic bands are heavy and there isn’t enough fabric to allow a forgiving and flattering stretch around the waist, so these shorts are quite tight and give me a muffin top.
Also, the compression shorts inside are too short that they ride up. Finally, for some reason… if you’re wearing regular underwear with seams, they will show through the shorts which is WILD. In any case, the last part I guess isn’t such an issue since I own many pairs or seamless thongs…. But still.
Ironically, men’s Muay Thai shorts from legit Thai brands still work better. And I have relatively wide hips. (64-67 cm waist, 89cm hips)
