by Kerstyn
Welcome to review number 4 of our athletic leggings reviews, the Thick Thighs Project: Feed Me Fight Me.
Some quick biometric data about myself I’ll put in every review to help you take what you need and leave the rest: my natural waist (above my bellybutton) is about 29″ and my usual “pants height waist” fluctuates from 30-33″ depending on bloat, lunar position, and food. My hip measurement is 39″ but I typically try to order for 40-41″ to allow for movement and thigh size. I can wear 28-30″ inseams depending on how the pants are cut. In street clothes I wear anything from 8-14 in women’s sizing (LOL) or a 32/33 by 30 in men’s sized pants. Also: a reminder that this post is not sponsored, I spent my own money, any links are not affiliates and this review is entirely my own honest opinion.
This week we’re talking about Feed Me Fight Me which is a regular visitor to my Instagram ads.
What I Ordered + Size Selection
Full disclosure here: I bought these on Poshmark (a mostly resale site/app) in the interest of saving some coins and getting the exact imagery I wanted and have never snagged while in-stock. I actually had a post up looking for some sort of Beast Worx x FMFM crossover leggings (they had a skull donut design used by FMFM, but were listed by Beast Worx) and found the same pattern but on a blue background and produced by FMFM.
***As an aside, if anyone has any insider industry info on how these two companies interrelate, I’m nosy and would love to hear it. They seem to share designs and maybe garment patterns.***
Anyway, I inspected the seams and fabric for signs of wear and didn’t find any so I trust my seller’s allegation they were only worn a couple of times.
I bought a Large based on the 30″ waistband measurement given (their size guide is limited to waist and inseam).
The FMFM site doesn’t currently have the Donut Skull Leggings in stock but it appears these Donut Sprinkle leggings are the same garment pattern and likely the same fabric type.
Initial Impressions
I actually own a couple of pairs of FMFM shorts, so when my leggings came in I dug out a pair to compare them. I would say these leggings are made of a slightly thinner but much more stretchy material. They feel like the quintessential “performance” fabric: high stretch, pretty soft, a little bit slippery.
Unfortunately when I pulled them on I discovered they also have the quintessential issues many workout leggings (and skinny jeans) have on me: they hold fast around my apparently large calves and thighs, which leads to bunching at the knees and sagging through the crotch because there’s so much tension pulling them downward. They stay up well despite this, so the issue isn’t that they’re all falling down; the high stretchability of the fabric allows for some weird and uncomfortable distortion in the fit. They’re cute though.
Stretching
I had to shuffle and readjust the pants a few times, mostly to try to distribute the aforementioned knee bunching and keep them from becoming harem pants. They do have great stretch without feeling restrictive at all, and I like the lack of an outer side seam. (Although this does come at the expense of no pockets – the sacrifices I make for donut skulls.) Nothing remarkable here, good or bad.
Running
I am normally 200% ready to cut a run short, even when everything is going great. This time these leggings definitely helped me say “oh well I don’t need to go that far today….”
The harem pant crotch was the most prominent problem; I felt like I was constantly pulling up my pants. I ran indoors for this test but outside this is an extra issue as I tend to run with a belt, so I’d be working harder to readjust the leggings. They wicked sweat at a decent enough rate and didn’t immediately show sweat despite being a light color which was cool, but I think it would have to be beyond laundry day for me to put these on for a run again.
Lifting
Not a lot to add here from the Stretching section – they needed a few readjustments but it isn’t as distracting for lifting as it was for running. I didn’t notice any gapping at the waist.
Overall Thoughts + Grade
In addition to the fit and movement issues above, I currently sit in the next-to-largest size offered in women’s leggings per the Feed Me Fight Me site size guide. About half of the offerings have pockets and these seem to have a different seam and garment pattern than the ones I tried, so they may have different attributes. The gusset on mine exists but seems to sit far back and still give some unflattering shapes to the body. Unfortunately, these had a lot of attributes I find standard in clothing that led me to want to do this entire project: a nice website and aspirational social media presence, heavy focus on cute snack imagery and strong/well muscled models, etc. – but the product design seems to come last in the list of development tasks.
All in all, despite being very cute, these score a grade of D.
-Sandbag K
Kerstyn is a remote member of the Smash fam, residing in sunny vegetarian-friendly California. When not pumping iron she works in computer security and also enjoys martial arts and trying new sports. She met Lis Smash in 2018 at the CrossFit South Cobb powerlifting camp that Lis coached. And then she moved across the country like a jerk. Follow her on Insta at @thescullyeffect.
