Lululemon’s everlux fabric is the last of their major performance fabrics that I hadn’t tried yet. This fabric was designed with high-sweat indoor workouts in mind, like spin class. This fabric serves as a complement to nulux and luxtreme, which can be used in similar contexts, but have different feels and performance properties.
Lululemon’s other main offering in their everlux fabric is the invigorate tights (which replaced the now-discontinued in movement tights). I tried on the invigorates, but unfortunately, the ankles flared out on me instead of falling flush. I hate baggy ankles on tights, so this was a dealbreaker for me. Instead, I went with the wunder trains. Sadly, this means I don’t get any pockets, but instead a pair of all-purpose, up-for-anything, classic leggings.
Here’s what I thought of the everlux wunder trains.
Size-wise, I recommend going with the same size as any other wunder unders. They are true to size relative to other lululemon tights. I’m wearing a size 2, my normal size. The material is moderately compressive and holds you in. At 5’3″, the 21″ crops are a longer crop length that falls at the lower part of my calf muscle. As you can see, there’s a tiny bit of wrinkling around my knees that I couldn’t quite smooth out despite my best efforts, but it’s not bad at all.
Besides fabric, the only design difference in the wunder train tights versus wunder unders is the addition of a drawstring at the waist. Even without tightening the drawstring, the presence of the extra material here makes the waistband slightly tighter at the top, but it’s truly barely noticeable. That said, you’ll notice in the photos that they still designed the rest of the waistband the same as other wunder unders: it’s extra-wide, with no thick seam at the top like some other styles.
So, how do they perform? I’ve done 6-mile runs in these leggings and I am really happy with how they’ve held up. And I do mean literally, they held up: even without tightening the drawstring, they did not slide at all. These aren’t actually marketed as running tights, so I was pleasantly surprised by their performance. I liked the compression for running, and even on warm days I didn’t feel like they were too hot.
This fabric is definitely not as lightweight as nulux or nulu, but it doesn’t feel stifling. It feels comparable to full-on luxtreme in thickness. But instead of feeling slick and cool to the touch like luxtreme, the outside of everlux feels soft and smooth, almost like nulu. But unlike nulu, it has full compression. The compression is not too restricting, so you could very comfortably do yoga in this material or weightlifting exercises that require full mobility. So far, I haven’t had any issues with pilling, either.
Overall, the wunder trains are a rare pair of tights that can do just about anything you throw at it. If you’re a generalist who wants tights that will handle anything you throw at them, add some wunder trains to your repertoire and you will get a ton of mileage out of them. I would wear these for yoga, lifting, CrossFit, aerial dance, hiking, running, casual… I can’t think of anything they wouldn’t work for. Everlux is more sculpting than nulu, less delicate than nulux, more comfy and soft than luxtreme, and less prone to pilling and lint accumulation than luon. It is really the best of all worlds and a true active wardrobe workhorse.
Wunder trains are currently available in 3 inseam lengths: 21″ crops, 25″ full-ish length tights, and 6″ shorts.
Outfit details
Lululemon wunder train high-rise 21″ crops – true navy
Lululemon down for a run vest – forage teal (past season, current style linked)
Tracksmith brighton base layer – plum
Brooks Ravenna 11
I typically wear Luxtreme, but a friend just recommended Everlux. So I was wondering about the differences and then read your post. Thanks for comparing various Lululemon fabrics.
On another note, do you prefer the Tracksmith Harrier Long Sleeve or the Brighton Base Layer? I am seeking merino long sleeves because Icebreaker sizing has gotten huge (XS fits more like M now). I am assuming that you wear XS in both. Sleeve and body length seems fine even for 5′ 3″, which would suit me, too!
Thanks for reading! Funny you should mention it, I have a dedicated post on the Brighton queued to publish on Monday morning, so I wrote much more detailed thoughts (plus more pics) there. I have both tops (3 of the Harriers, in fact), and love them for very different reasons. The Harrier is a much tighter knit, less stretchy, and noticeably warmer. It’s about 90% merino while the Brighton is only about 50%. The Harrier is more all-purpose: great for hiking and camping for example, and I even wear it casually sometimes. It looks and feels a lot like a basic cotton tee, except of course performs much better than cotton. The Brighton is lighter and stretchier. Since it’s thinner, the Brighton is (as the name suggests) superior as a true base layer. Sizing is the same (yes to XS in both), though the Brighton is longer by an inch or maybe two. I hope that helps! :)