Best running shirts for men 2024 | Tested and reviewed

Meet the winner of 2024's Trail Running Gear of the Year Awards. To be our favourite tee, you need to nail the finest details, and the Ridge Flow Shirt from Patagonia impressed both our male and female testers with its high quality cut and anti-odour tech.

The material, which is light and soft in equal measures, has been given both an anti-odour treatment and a moisture-wicking finish. This is where our experience of reviewing dozens of running shirts comes in handy – of all the tees our tester Milo has worn to various races and tennis tournaments, the Ridge Flow Shirt produced the smallest number of horrified glares and nose-peg deployments from nearby competitors. The side vents also have a tangible effect, and the non-restrictive fit allowed for plenty of comfort during arm-flailing mountain downhills.

The shirt, true to a lot of Patagonia's gear, also has fantastic sustainability credentials. The fabric used in the Ridge Flow Shirt is 100% recycled polyester, and the threads come together in a sophisticated jacquard knit which maximises breathability and minimises extra weight. Thumbs up from the authorities here – the Ridge Flow is Fair Trade Certified sewn, and the HeiQ anti-odour treatment is bluesign approved.

There are a couple of clever touches too, such as the reflective logo. And thanks to the patterns, it doesn’t look too ‘sporty’ and can therefore be worn as a casual summer t-shirt too, which increases its versatility and value even more.

Alpkit is very good at producing excellent and sustainable outdoor gear at a very agreeable price. The Koulin Trail Tee is a hard-to-ignore member of their trail running collection, since it goes for about half as much as most other options. This value, as with the Patagonia shirt, is also enhanced by a fairly relaxed fit and decent selection of colours, allowing the Koulin tee to be an everyday wardrobe piece.

As you’d expect from a running t-shirt, the Koulin Trail Tee feels very lightweight and breathable, and is also remarkably soft to the touch. We like the body-mapped construction, which features mesh underarm panels to improve breathability further, and we were particularly impressed with the Polygiene anti-odour treatment. Our tester wore the Koulin on a multi-day ultralight backpacking trip, and the tee managed to remain un-stinky across dozens of sunlit hours, saving water and effort!

Although this wins the Best Value award, you can still have a clean conscience while wearing the Koulin Trail Tee on a run. Alpkit is a certified B-Corp (since 2020) and the Koulin Trail Tee is made from 100% recycled polyester. The brand also offer plenty of repair services as well as end-of-life kit donations to ensure their production is a circular as possible.

This shirt has a slim, athletic fit with a soft feel, which is good for comfort, but our tester did find his usual size a bit more snug fitting than other options on this list, especially around the chest. However, the Dart Nano Zip offers the ideal solution – and it's in the name! The key feature, a quarter-length YKK zip, adds a welcome dimension of adjustability to the fit, plus works as an option for temperature regulation.

The Dart Nano Zip feels extremely technical from the moment you don it. Montane clearly put a lot of effort into engineering precise articulation around the sleeves for maximal movement on such a sleek fitting garment. We can also see it working great as a cycling top and as a technical base layer in a larger system.

The jewel in the Dart Nano's crown is its weight. At a mere 75g, the shirt massively outclasses its competition from Patagonia and Alpkit, and yet the quality of the construction means it doesn't feel flimsy or easily ripped. The flatlock seams are excellent, and we like the internal cover for the zip.

Made with recycled polyester and treated with the familiar Polygiene anti-odour tech, the Dart Nano Zip competes head-to-head with other top choices in this list, with a nifty extra feature and maximal close-to-skin contact.

Most running shirts don't aim to be, like, top level performance in every aspect. Brands tend to strike a balance of good value with good performance, arriving at a garment that is comfy, light, and sustainably produced at a reasonable price point. But sometimes, a brand like The North Face will just go the whole hog and make a ridiculously performance focused shirt for twice the price of the INOV8 option.

The Summit High is designed specifically for fast and technical alpine trail running, and we had the pleasure of testing it in some french mountains alongside ultra runner Elsey Davis, to really get the full picture. On mountain trails, movement restriction is public enemy #1, and every aspect of this shirt's design is in service of providing a full range of motion.

You'll find darted seams near the shoulders and waistline ensure that the Tee contours smoothly to your body in motion, while the split hem at either side allow for extra rotation and flex in the fabric. The material itself is also impressively stretchy – the elasticated mesh can bend and stretch into any position.

It's also worth noting that the material, which is a recycled polyester mesh knit, weighs just 99g per square meter. The North Face uses their own proprietary FlashDry-Pro™ materials which actively wick sweat from the body and keep you light and airy on your run. The Tee is abrasion resistant and, after putting it through plenty of abuse on rocky trails, we can confirm that the Summit High is tough and mountain ready.

You know that unholy feeling when you finish a hot summer day’s run and have to peel off a sweaty top that is clinging to your skin like Gorilla Tape? Not with this top, you don’t. Take one look at the Fujitrail and you’ll understand why: that massive central zip, running right down from your neckline to the bottom of your breastplate.

Unzip that at the end of your adventure and you can cast off the now-heinous garment without a care. It might sound odd to start this review by talking about how much we enjoy taking this product off, but it’s such a benefit of the Fujitrail that we couldn’t resist. Plus, the rest of the review is quite boring because all we can say is how good this top is at just being a top.

It’s made with Actibreeze technology for improved breathability; not a lot of detail on what that entails but it is exceedingly breathable on the go, partly thanks to its thousands of tiny perforations; up close it looks kind of like a teabag. (It’s only when you stop that the sweat really clings, but that’s common to any running top, and that’s where the zip comes in).

Flat seams help to reduce chafing and there are reflective details to help keep you visible in low light. We should also mention that the big zip is two-way, so if you want to ventilate your throbbing chest without unzipping from the top and revealing more than you’d like to, you can grab the lower zip and pull it upwards to create a more discreet ventilation gap. In short, this is one of the cleverest and most user-friendly summer running tops we’ve ever tried; as much a joy to wear as to take off.

First things first - this tee has the coolest graphics and it is not close. Sorry Acid Running, you win on shorts, but Adidas Terrex has produced a lethal piece in the Agravic Trail tee. Just… maybe not in that colour. Or on that person.

The big highlight in the materials here is that 50% of the yarn used is Parley Ocean Plastic, which is a specialised brand of high end materials made from intercepted and upcycled marine plastic debris. In this instance, polyester. The shirt certainly feels very soft and high quality, though the thinness of the material makes for a double edged sword. While it’s nice and breathable, we’d think twice before navigating through any brambles in this bad boy.

The back panel is a particularly thin mesh which provides good ventilation, and we found that the Agravic Trail managed to efficiently wick away moisture and didn't end up as clingy as other shirts can. That said, the fit is a bit tighter than we've seen from Adidas before, so we'd recommend sizing up if you're looking for more airflow. Of course, if you prefer a sleek, technical fit, this shirt will make an ideal choice.

The Performance shirt from Lake District based brand INOV8 is yet another entry under the “slim technical cut” category of running shirts. What sets it apart from others is the highly stretchy fabric which allows for great freedom of movement and counteracts any potentially restrictive spots. The brand refer to this cut as a “streamlined silhouette”.

In our testing, we found the fit almost perfect around the torso, but a bit pinchy around the shoulders. INOV8's style is suited to the typical slim runners body, so our beefy-shouldered tester was a tad restricted.

That aside, the materials (96% recycled polyester – so close!) are soft and we experienced absolutely 0 chafing despite the close cut, so points there. Decent moisture wicking, and the shirt's been anti-microbial treatment provided solid odour resistance. You can still feel mildly fresh and unstinky after a Sunday long run. In all, this shirt is about halfway between a regular tee and a full-on technical sports garment. It's more geared for moisture wicking than the Terrex or Alpkit shirts, but not as light and agile feeling as the North Face option.

Born Bound are an American brand, and boy do they feel like it. A relatively simple design concept that is executed with engineering in places we've never even considered. The first feature that stood out to us was the pleats from sleeve to shoulder – the shirt is stitched in a way that allows the shoulder to open up and expand as you move, and also to contract back down, ensuring constant even pressure across your body.

It's a nice touch which contributes to the athletic fit and feel of the Rekord tee. Another subtle but noticeable feature is the heat welded finish on the cuffs, waist him, and especially the neck. We hadn't considered the typical crew neck collar to be a nuisance until testing this shirt and realising you can simply have a smooth, thin, and ultralight neckline. Great for hot days where you really want to create a flowing breeze.

Acid Running have a peculiar fixation on running-as-pain. Nowhere is that better articulated than on this rather ridiculous tee, which is emblazoned with slogans that probably don’t quite chime with our reasons for running. ‘Pursuit of suffering’, it says on the front. And on the back: ‘A runner’s fate is to suffer’ and ‘No clear beginning. No end in sight.’

Call us hopeless cock-eyed optimists, but we had a crazy idea that running is actually, kind of fun. Yes, we’re all perfectly capable of thinking ‘why do I do this to myself?’ at the 4km mark of a Parkrun or mile 19 of a marathon, but we don’t generally need our clothing to say it for us.

The good news is, once you get past these weird statements of philosophy, this tee is really excellent. Smooth, neatly cut, breathable; an absolute joy to wear. The blend is 81% recycled polyester, 14% cotton (which is where that lovely smoothness comes from) and 5% elastane, which means it is far softer and gentler to wear than the average all-synthetic tee.

It hasn’t stretched, faded or frayed after a good few miles and washes. (We have to confess, though, that we mainly wear it on runs where we don’t think anyone will see us, in case people think we agree with what it’s saying.)

Best news of all? If you fancy the comfort but not the slogans, there is a plainer-print version which makes all of our griping irrelevant. But then, maybe we’re wrong and you genuinely are seeking a T-shirt which broadcasts your opinion that running is misery. If so, Acid Running is totally your jam; go and enjoy.

A little-known hack if you're really in the market for breathability is to sack off the tees altogether and invest in a tank top. (Here in the UK, we call 'em vests, but this presents a problem when trail running vests are already a different thing. So, tank it is.)

The Sense Aero from Salomon feels extremely high quality right from the jump. We immediately spotted that the seems were all glued, rather than stitched, which provides a really smooth feel to the whole garment. That's in keeping with the whole approach of a vest - minimal features, clean lines, and most importantly - low grams.

This tank top weighs in at just 68g. Salomon use two textures of knit and prioritise lightness above all else. The material does feel very airy and soft, and so far we've had no problems with durability or pilling – though we'd worry if this ended up in with the wrong load of laundry! The coup de grâce for Salomon is that their material is "embedded with Ionic+® Botanical antimicrobial fabric tech", or in English, it has a decent anti-odour treatment.

Editor's note: Annoyingly, the graphic version pictured above is mostly sold out, but Salomon have just released a new deep black colour which is just as slick.

Tanks may divide opinion – elites tend to love them for speed and airiness, others find they promote self-consciousness and (in summer) an increased risk of sunburn. Also they don’t work especially well with a running vest/pack, because the straps can chafe your exposed neck and shoulders.

But there’s no denying they are the lightest and breeziest option if you’re determined to run as free and unencumbered as possible. And if you’re going to wear one, it might as well be this one, because it’s light yet deceptively robust, beautifully ventilated and breathable, and not too skimpy.

The shell is made with 100% recycled polyester. Scott also say it has ‘shifted the shoulder seams to avoid pressure points when using a backpack’. It’s true to say we haven’t experienced any chafing when wearing the tank by itself, but we still wouldn’t wholeheartedly recommend wearing a vest/pack over the top.

It’s quick-drying, and the mesh backer really does seem to offset some of the heat and sweat of a hot run. We also like reflective details – although on this black/green version, the little L-shaped reflective markings get a bit distracting because we keep looking down and thinking we’re covered in aphids.

That aside, we think there’s enough style and innovation in this top to make even the most committed tank naysayer think it might be worth a go.

Popular opinion dictates merino wool is only for wearing when it’s cold. In fact, merino wool is temperature regulating rather than purely insulating. This means it’ll help keep your body at a comfortable temperature. Don’t believe it? You underestimate the power of evolution. 

Smartwool has employed this clever natural fibre and paired it with breathable Lyocell (a semi-synthetic fibre produced from wood pulp) to create this excellent running tank top. 

During our testing, it was much softer to wear than polyester tank tops, while also benefitting from a natural anti-odour treatment possessed by merino. 

Not only is the Smartwool Active Ultralite Tank good for running, we also found it serves as a brilliant base layer for your hiking layering system too.