I got the Hayabusa Carbon Mechanix Board Shorts and zip-up hoodie from hayabusafightwear.com, a small side note that I found funny was that the shorts were $49.99 US and $59.99 Canadian and the hoodie was $54.99 US and $59.99 Canadian. So they use different conversion rates for different products I guess? Or I saved $5 on the hoodie due to their mistake, I'm not sure. The service from the site was good, I ordered on a Friday and got my order the following Wednesday (keep in mind that it's being shipped within the country for me because I live in Canada)
I know it's been said before but these shorts look freaking awesome, the pictures really don't do it justice.
As a lot of people know Hayabusa's shorts run small, I'm a very comfortable 32 in Sprawls and 34 in the Hayabusa shorts fits almost perfect. The only problem I have is the shorts ride up a little bit but not so much that it's uncomfortable. The shorts are made of many materials such as Mechanix Polyester and Carbon Polyester, it came with a "patent pending" sticker in the package that I found a little funny. The shorts come in black and the flex panels can be white, red or blue. I personally think white looks the best.
Now when I first got these shorts I had to trim some loose threads, make that A LOT of loose threads. I was actually counting how many until the number climbed past 20 at which point I stopped counting (and cursed a little). Also, they didn't trim the paper off the embroidery on the inside of the pants, I don't know what the deal with that is? It is a fairly expensive pair of shorts so I figure they should go the extra mile with the little things like that.
The shorts do look sharp, but I think they had style more in mind then functionality because the flex panels taper at the crotch on the inside and at the leg on the outside, that's where I think people would need the most flex. With that being said I've used the shorts for muay thai and I had no issue at all, actually the shorts felt great when kicking.
I was also extremely disappointed to see that the left flex panel is ALREADY starting to pill, which is not cool at all!
Overall: The shorts look really nice, and feel really good but considering this is the first version of the shorts I'm sure that next generations will be improved. If you are dying for a pair of these shorts I wouldn't talk you out of it unless you do a lot of rolling. I don't regret the purchase but I have to admit it leaves me feeling a little unsettled when I compare the cost of these shorts to Sprawls which are cheaper and don't have some of the problems these shorts have. But these are good shorts, being compared to Sprawl is a tall task for any company, let alone a company releasing the first generation of a pair of shorts.
I also got a zip-up hoodie from Hayabusa (Have to justify those shipping costs!). Hoodie aesthetics seem to be pretty subjective, outside of the universally loved sprawl and inspirit hoodies opinions on hoodies tend to vary. That being said I think this hoodie looks awesome.
Hayabusa's largest size in this hoodie is a large. So they are not keeping the big guys out there in mind at all! I ordered a large and it fits me very well. But I'm only 6 feet tall, 195 lbs. So I imagine that this would not fit anyone who is much taller and it does have kind of a slim fit (which I like) but if I were a heavier guy I don't think it would look good. You can't see it very well from the picture but there is a front pocket on each side of the zipper (like most non-zipper hoodies have), sometimes zip-up hoodies ditch the front pocket, I like that Hayabusa kept it.
The hoodie is pretty thin and doesn't do all that much in the way of keeping you warm. The inside of the hoodie is really soft and comfortable which is cool. The zipper is plastic and seems very durable, and I guess using plastic keeps the hoodie light (as it is already a thin hoodie). Well I've rambled on for long enough now, I would buy from Hayabusa again, but not the shorts, not until they fix a few of those minor problems.
