Simply Sweet

I’ll admit it. What I wear on a run makes a big difference to my enjoyment of it. I care far too much about the gear I’m in than is necessary. It’s got to be the comfiest trainers, the coolest running pants, the least sweaty top I can find; I want a combination of cool and comfy in my running wear, and I’m prepared to admit that less than that impairs my enjoyment of a good jog.

Which is why when I stumbled across Simply Sweat, an online fitness and sportswear shop specialising in Active Wear, I smiled a little smile and danced a little dance of joy. Simply Sweat is unpretentious, broad enough to cover all the major (and many less well-known) brands, and manages – in keeping with its name – to keep it simple. How many of us have travailed for hours trawling internet sites looking for a decent comparison between brands and prices? How many of us have wished we could combine all the specialist shops into one big, useful, emporium of fitness gear? So far the best I’ve found is NoBalls, but that only provides gear for non-ball sports, and besides, it’s hard to take any shop with a name like that seriously (c’mon, tell me it didn’t make you giggle).

Simply Sweat is incredibly simple. They specify men’s, women’s, pilates, yoga, tennis, training and footwear categories and even include a nifty ‘Outlet’ section, containing all the end-of-line clearance items for you to pick up a bargain – and there’s a handy little button that lets you view all items at once when you’re browsing, so you can skim easily over the stuff you don’t want without having to flick over pages every thirty seconds. The payment section is straightforward, with a box on the side letting you ‘edit your order’ whenever you want during the check-out stage (which, as I’m constantly changing my mind, clicking ‘back’ in the browser and messing up the order, was a huge relief to me). They don’t force you to sign up in order to purchase, which I found subtly pleasurable as rare as it is these days (take note Asos).

There’s even a Paypal button at the checkout, which would have added to the sense of security and made things lightning quick, but every time I tried to use it, it bailed on me. Eventually I gave up and just handed in my card details, but it would have been quicker and felt better to just hit Paypal. At least the thought was there. Even more amazingly, some of the products actually had reviews - a feature even half the Amazon books I buy can’t boast of.

I got myself a couple of pairs of decent new training pants to hit the gym with, which put another smile on my face. Summer workout sessions here we come. What are you waiting for? I suggest you grab yourself some decent Active Wear, jam on a blasting summer workout album (try Zest Summer Bikini Body on for size) and go burn some calories!