Roga Shorts are beloved. They stretch. They wick. They hold. They cover. They move with you - but have structure and strength. They're made of a phenomenal, unique-to-Oiselle stretch woven fabric. They're magic bottoms with a back story...
FABRIC 101
First some fabric 101. Fabrics generally fall into two categories: knits and wovens (with stretch wovens being a hybrid). Even a cursory understanding of the difference between knits, wovens, and stretch wovens will help you choose your apparel better - especially athletic apparel, where stretch and performance is crucial!
How to tell the difference between knits and wovens: Look for loops or grain. In knit fabric, one continuous yarn is looped repeatedly to create what looks like tiny rows of braids.
Knit fabric: Fancy Stride Shorts
In woven fabric, multiple yarns cross each other at right angles to form the grain, like a basket.
Woven fabric: Distance Shorts
In general, knit fabrics stretch and woven fabrics have little or no stretch. For sport, knits are ideal for tights, capris, bras, base layers, hats, gloves etc. Wovens are ideal for loose shorts, pants, and provide superior wind/water resistance for outerwear (jackets, vests, etc)
The Roga Difference
So what is a stretch woven?
Stretch woven fabrics are woven fabrics with the addition of spandex fibre. Compared to knitted fabrics, stretch wovens tend to be used in more structured garments with the stretch often adding to the comfort of the garment. Our Roga and Embossed Roga Shorts use our Roga stretch woven fabric for structure and drape, but with incredible stretch.
Stretch Woven fabric: all the Roga's! Mac Roga Shorts shown above.
Unique in the market: We have yet to find running shorts from a competitor that has more stretch than the Roga.
Not the Nike Rival Woven Shorts, not the Lululemon shorts with Swift fabric, not the Athleta Ready Set Shorts...we're still looking. If you find a stretch woven with +26% spandex, please let us know!
Roga and Embossed Roga
The Embossed Roga fabric is slightly lighter weight than the Roga. It has a bit less spandex, but wear-testers didn't report a difference. The best part about our Roga and Embossed Roga fabrics is the superior fit for many different body shapes. It's the ideal semi-fitted short that offers structure and stretch at the same time. A rare combo.
Another little known fact about the Roga fabric: the reason it conceals moisture so well is that its heritage is swim and board shorts. It was originally designed to not only "wick water" but to live in water -- and still perform. Which is why you can run through a rain storm, ultra sweating, even peeing your pants - and the Rogas will take it in stride.
And Roga isn't just for shorts! New this season: the Roga Pants, and to be released this summer: a new Roga Skirt. Yep, you read it here first: a skirt from Oiselle.
Spring is coming. Grab your stretch woven and go! Find your perfect Rogas.
