When it comes to MMA events, MMA shorts are extremely important for players. They are an important tool for players to ensure their maximum movement and safety. There are many types of shorts that meet MMA event standards. If you want to choose the best MMA shorts for your project, I will introduce the five main types of MMA shorts.
What are MMA shorts?
MMA shorts are the core equipment specially designed for MMA events. They originated from the traditional cycling and surfing shorts in the United States and Brazil. Currently, they are designed to fit the kicking, wrestling, and ground grappling movements in MMA, so the shorts emphasize durability, abrasion resistance, and high elasticity.
Types of MMA shorts
Board Shorts
Board shorts are the oldest and most basic shorts for beginners, and they are also the most popular shorts among players.
Basic styles
Board shorts feature a clean, straight-leg design that fits the body’s lines without being too tight. Moreover, straight-leg design suits different body types, whether your customer has a muscular build or a slim build.
Fabric Materials
We often use a blend of 10% to 20% polyester and spandex fabric, along with tear-resistant fabric, to ensure the shorts’ flexibility. By using these flexible and durable fabrics, your players can successfully complete the kicking movement and resist the friction between the body and the ground. Moisture-wicking fabrics are also helpful for players to stay dry and comfortable during their competitions.
Application Scenes
As a basic pair of shorts, it is suitable for a variety of scenes, including MMA training, kickboxing workouts, and daily wear. There are also various styles you can choose according to your activity locations, like solid color basic styles, printed patterns, or simple racing styles.
High-Spilt Shorts
High-spilt shorts are also known as Muay Thai pants or slit shorts, which are specially designed for the movement of large leg raises. Therefore, it is the first choice for stand-up striking athletes.
Basic styles
It features a three-dimensional triangular cut to provide maximum freedom of movement for the thighs. And the length of high-spilt shorts is usually 10 to 15 centimeters below the hips, with a side slit extending up to the root of the thighs. The three-dimensional triangular cut ensures that athletes can even lift their legs at a 180-degree angle.
Fabric Materials
When choosing the fabric for the high-split shorts, you should first consider highly elastic and lightweight fabrics like polyester, as high-split shorts require very little fabric and use fabrics with a weight of less than 180 g/m². What’s more, using elastic fabrics helps athletes remove the sweat from their bodies quickly.
Application Scenes
As high-spilt shorts emphasize the kicking efficiency, they are more suited for Muay Thai, kickboxing, and HIT training. Besides, movements such as high kicks, neck clinches, and knee strikes are completely unrestricted with a high-spilt design for Muay Thai fighters and MMA stand-up players.
Hybrid Shorts
Hybrid shorts are multifunctional shorts that combine flexibility and comfort, and It was designed by combining the advantages of high-slit shorts and board shorts.
Basic styles
Hybrid shorts feature a slightly loose fit, with a medium length and a medium slit height. Its overall cut is more fitted to the leg lines, unlike the classic style, which is too loose. Hybrid shorts use less fabric, so they won’t be stuck or roll up when making kicking movements. And it’s more like modern fighting shorts, clean and sharp.
Fabric Materials
It is mostly made of a blend of 85% polyester fabric and 10%–15% spandex fabric, and uses four-way stretch fabrics, which can be stretched in four directions, giving it strong elasticity. Furthermore, it uses a fabric weighing 180–200 g/m², ensuring it is neither too soft nor too thin.
Application Scenes
Compared with high-spilt shorts, the hybrid shorts are more suitable for daily exercise and everyday outfits. It is the most versatile shorts because it emphasizes practicality and comfort, and has no restrictions on body type or gender.
Vale Tudo Shorts
Vale tudo shorts originated from Brazilian Vale Tudo, the name comes from Portuguese and literally means “anything goes.” And they are also known as compression shorts. The shorts are core equipment that are especially designed for ground grappling and submission techniques.
Basic styles
Unlike board shorts and high-spilt shorts, the vale tudo shorts totally adopt a slim fit that closely cling to the thighs and buttocks, ensuring the muscles remain tight and do not wobble. Vale tudo shorts have no split and use the elasticity of the fabric to provide space for movement. This highly elastic, form-fitting design is more suitable for tight-fitting combat training.
Fabric Materials
Vale tudo shorts are mainly made from elastic and smooth fabrics, like spandex and polyester. Soft and smooth fabrics are used to reduce the friction between the skin of the thighs and the shorts. The elastic and compressive fabrics provide the compression for muscles while reducing excess wrinkles, thus decreasing the possibility of an opponent grabbing the shorts during grappling.
Application Scenes
Vale tudo shorts are professional-grade shorts, which are especially designed for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA ground skills. Moreover, it can also be worn as a base layer under sportswear. The styles of vale tudo shorts are commonly simple and clean, and the tight fit is not very suitable for people who like loose-fitting.
Skort Shorts
The term Skort is derived from the combination of Skirt and Shorts, and Skort shorts originated from women’s sports such as golf and badminton. Generally, with the global popularity of MMA, shorts consisting of an outer skirt and an inner tight-fitting shorts were developed to address safety concerns for women during MMA.
Basic styles
The most distinctive feature of these shorts is their double-layer structure: an outer skirt and an inner tight-fitting shorts. The outer skirt features a structured silhouette and offers versatile styling options, but its main function is to prevent wardrobe malfunctions. The construction of the inner shorts is similar to vale tudo shorts, and they all act as a protector of the skin.
Fabric Materials
The inner and outer layers use different fabrics to produce. For example, the fabrics of inner shorts are compressive and smooth, enhancing the compression of muscles and reducing the friction between skin and ground.
The outer skirts are made from durable and opaque fabrics like ripstop nylon to ensure durability and prevent wardrobe malfunctions.
Application Scenes
Considering the skort shorts are specially designed for women, there are a variety of scenes and styles in which shorts fit in. Skort shorts are suitable for daily combat and exercise, not just MMA, so they have many styles, including solid colors, color-blocked designs, delicate floral patterns, and competitive sports aesthetics.
How to Choose the Right Size for MMA Shorts?
Board Shorts & High-Split Shorts: Best Suited For a Loose Fit
For these two styles of loose-fitting shorts, sizing is determined based on waist circumference. You should recommend that your customers buy a size slightly larger than their actual size, or between the two sizes of their waist circumference, for a more comfortable fit. And these two types of shorts have no restrictions on body shape.
Vale Tudo Shorts: Best Suited for a Tight Fit
When you choose the size of vale tudo shorts for your project, you first should know that these tight-fit shorts are more suitable for ground grappling and similar sports. Then you should learn that the size of vale tudo shorts is determined based on people’s hip circumference, and you need to tell your customers that they must choose the correct size, not one size too big or too small.
Hybrid Shorts & Skort Shorts: Best Suited for a Medium Fit
Choosing the right size of hybrid and skort shorts requires referencing both your waist and hip measurements. You can advise your customers to choose the shorts based on average measurements, and that is the right size if they feel comfortable.
FAQ
What Are the Precautions When Washing MMA Shorts?
The ideal water temperature for washing MMA shorts is 68–77°F, and please remember, do not use hot water to wash shorts. It is also advisable to wash them by hand to avoid damaging the fabric or causing wrinkles when machine-washed.
Can You Wear MMA Shorts Directly Against the skin?
Yes. Most MMA shorts can be worn directly against the skin. Besides the vale tudo short is must be worn against the skin directly because they originally feature compressive construction.
Is It True that “The Tighter The MMA Shorts, The Better”?
No, shorts that are too tight may constrict the thighs and abdomen, hindering blood circulation and placing additional stress on the body during exercise. When choosing shorts for your project, you should consider the styles of shorts. For example, the board shorts are more suitable for a looser fit while the vale tudo shorts are more suitable for a fitted style.
Is It Weird to Wear MMA Shorts Every Day?
Absolutely not. There are various styles of MMA shorts you can choose for your project. If your brand wants to produce fashionable MMA shorts, you can choose a casual everyday style, which is similar to normal shorts with comfort.
Should Women Who Train MMA Wear Skorts or Fitted Shorts?
Choosing skorts or fitted shorts absolutely depends on your type of training and your personal habits. If you focus on your safety, you should choose skorts because they can prevent wardrobe malfunctions. When you want to challenge yourself with high-intensity sports like ground grappling, you should choose fitted shorts.
Final Thoughts
These five main types of MMA shorts each have their own characteristics under different circumstances. Thus, it is important for you to choose the best one for your project. If you want to learn more about MMA shorts, Goal Sportswear will be your best partner. We have a very professional team, which can provide 200 styles of MMA shorts for you. Please feel free to contact us to request fabric samples, inquire about custom services, or discuss bulk supply solutions.
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