Men of the 80s, sweat pants or long johns in the cold

Started running seriously in 1971. Upper Midwest ran every day, sometimes twice a day.

Wore the cotton (or cotton/polyester) sweats as that was all I could afford or that was available.

Part of the toughness of running twice a day when I was 14 or so was putting on wet and cold clothes (that you wore that morning) again before running in the afternoon Some of the stuff would not dry out hanging in the basement, and my mom would not do laundry every day.

Sometimes my running clothes would still be wet the next day.

Double knit nylon track suit was better. Adidas or other brands, purchased via mail order. Sometimes wore 2 layers, especially on top, many times under a nylon windbreakder type shell.

Nylon wind shell pants were a revelation, especially on cold snowy days with dangerous wind chills. Otherwise running hard into a bad headwind might result in penal frostbite.

The wicking synthetic base layer was also a revelation. Especially once I realized that the cheap nylon or polyester shirts you could buy at discount stores was about the same as polypro underwear.

Tights in the early 80's were also big. Before that some runners (men) wore panty hose. (often as the first layer under the track suit).

Inclement weather was never an excuse for not running. And it still is not.

Northern Pike wrote:

Top seven on my HS XC team got nylon Sub4 suits-- everyone else was issued sweats...

I worked at a foot locker type store in HS and we got a 30 % discount on gear, When the Gore Tex suits came out in the late 80's and after a sale I picked one up for about 85 bucks. It was great and I wore the thing for years. Best buy ever. Thing retailed for 230.00 at the time

High school, issued cotton sweats. Freshman got the worse of them for sure. Holes in the crotch needing repair, ripped hoods etc... Stocking hat & Gloves were standard. Always good to be an upper classman and get the new stuff. We only ran once a day during the track season and once on the weekend so plenty of time for drying out.

Watching the running gear/shoe evolution during the early to mid 80's was a fun time. I was poor but saved my newspaper money to buy a nice New Balance Windbreaker set that I wore going into college. Still wore the cotton sweats underneath when needed. After a year of college training and wearing about 7 layers at 6am & 3pm practices, I needed something better. Got my first Moss Brown Gore Tex suit. Another guy on the team had a yellow pair but I got the navy blue. Best investment I ever made in running gear up to that time. I didn't feel like the younger brother anymore in that Christmas movie "a tick about to explode".

I didn't buy a pair of tights until my Olympic Champion teammate showed up to practice in a pair. I thought the girls looked pretty good in them but I wasn't going to be seen wearing them. But if he could do it then it was ok for me. I didn't realize what I was missing out on. Today, Sporthill Nomad training pants for cool weather. Tights under Pearl Izumi sub zero pants on the raw days. I still like the cotton shirt covered with thermal shirt, jacket and fleece if needed. I don't move that fast anymore so I'm more concerned with being comfortable and not falling down on the ice. IF I do, I've got plenty of padding.

Sweats (nylon or cotton), but tights came out in the mid 1980's and we wore those too.

In NC it can get gold but we never wore anything but shorts. All warm stuff covered the upper body. Lol, wore striped socks for gloves, two pair if really cold. Wore a nfl logoed toboggan. That was it, didn't cost much....

Ron Hill tracksters which were already out by the mid-eightees

A lot more comfortable and warm than compression tights and all the embarassing gear people wear nowadays.