The key feature of the entire Smooth Stride Capsule is flat, bonded seams. If I’m not mistaken, that’s a fancy way of saying that your clothes are glued together. I already showed off (and purchased) the Smooth Stride Tank in a previous Fitting Room post, but I can’t say the tights excited me as much.

Intended to smooth out a garment’s surface and eliminate chafing, bonded seams can also reduce a garment’s overall weight. Not to mention, it’s increasingly common in weatherproof gear. They don’t ruin the smooth feeling of a garment’s surface like traditional seams do, but on some pieces, I just don’t have faith in the glue.

The Fitting Room: Smooth Stride Tight ($118) in blue tied/black

4/6 UPDATE: These tights are now marked down to $89 on WMTM

Unfortunately, I tried on my TTS 10 and wasn’t excited by the result. The solid fullux seemed thinner than usual. Looking closely at the photo on the left, you can see that even though the seams are bonded, they still did a little bit of digging into my sides.

Lululemon hasn’t given up on its mesh panel fetish yet, and these tights are no outlier. Unfortunately, the darker color looked more akin to a black pair of nylons, which seemed a bit out of place.

I would have thought blue tied was dark carbon by eyeballing it in person, so if you’re concerned with the blue twinge, don’t be. I honestly didn’t notice one. While the medium-high rise was a plus, but the lighter blue tied fabric wasn’t kind to my imperfections (read: cellulite).

THE VERDICT: Tread carefully with these. While the bonded seams do their part to smooth out the design, the mesh panel didn’t seem quite right for my style. If you’re on the fence in between sizes, go UP with these.

Happy shopping!