Best running shirts for men 2024 | Tested and reviewed

Meet the winner of 2024's Trail Running Gear of the Year Awards. To be our favourite tee, you need to nail the finest details, and the Ridge Flow Shirt from Patagonia impressed both our male and female testers with its high quality cut and anti-odour tech.

The material, which is light and soft in equal measures, has been given both an anti-odour treatment and a moisture-wicking finish. This is where our experience of reviewing dozens of running shirts comes in handy – of all the tees our tester Milo has worn to various races and tennis tournaments, the Ridge Flow Shirt produced the smallest number of horrified glares and nose-peg deployments from nearby competitors. The side vents also have a tangible effect, and the non-restrictive fit allowed for plenty of comfort during arm-flailing mountain downhills.

The shirt, true to a lot of Patagonia's gear, also has fantastic sustainability credentials. The fabric used in the Ridge Flow Shirt is 100% recycled polyester, and the threads come together in a sophisticated jacquard knit which maximises breathability and minimises extra weight. Thumbs up from the authorities here – the Ridge Flow is Fair Trade Certified sewn, and the HeiQ anti-odour treatment is bluesign approved.

There are a couple of clever touches too, such as the reflective logo. And thanks to the patterns, it doesn’t look too ‘sporty’ and can therefore be worn as a casual summer t-shirt too, which increases its versatility and value even more.

Alpkit is very good at producing excellent and sustainable outdoor gear at a very agreeable price. The Koulin Trail Tee is a hard-to-ignore member of their trail running collection, since it goes for about half as much as most other options. This value, as with the Patagonia shirt, is also enhanced by a fairly relaxed fit and decent selection of colours, allowing the Koulin tee to be an everyday wardrobe piece.

As you’d expect from a running t-shirt, the Koulin Trail Tee feels very lightweight and breathable, and is also remarkably soft to the touch. We like the body-mapped construction, which features mesh underarm panels to improve breathability further, and we were particularly impressed with the Polygiene anti-odour treatment. Our tester wore the Koulin on a multi-day ultralight backpacking trip, and the tee managed to remain un-stinky across dozens of sunlit hours, saving water and effort!

Although this wins the Best Value award, you can still have a clean conscience while wearing the Koulin Trail Tee on a run. Alpkit is a certified B-Corp (since 2020) and the Koulin Trail Tee is made from 100% recycled polyester. The brand also offer plenty of repair services as well as end-of-life kit donations to ensure their production is a circular as possible.

This shirt has a slim, athletic fit with a soft feel, which is good for comfort, but our tester did find his usual size a bit more snug fitting than other options on this list, especially around the chest. However, the Dart Nano Zip offers the ideal solution – and it's in the name! The key feature, a quarter-length YKK zip, adds a welcome dimension of adjustability to the fit, plus works as an option for temperature regulation.

The Dart Nano Zip feels extremely technical from the moment you don it. Montane clearly put a lot of effort into engineering precise articulation around the sleeves for maximal movement on such a sleek fitting garment. We can also see it working great as a cycling top and as a technical base layer in a larger system.

The jewel in the Dart Nano's crown is its weight. At a mere 75g, the shirt massively outclasses its competition from Patagonia and Alpkit, and yet the quality of the construction means it doesn't feel flimsy or easily ripped. The flatlock seams are excellent, and we like the internal cover for the zip.

Made with recycled polyester and treated with the familiar Polygiene anti-odour tech, the Dart Nano Zip competes head-to-head with other top choices in this list, with a nifty extra feature and maximal close-to-skin contact.

You know that unholy feeling when you finish a hot summer day’s run and have to peel off a sweaty top that is clinging to your skin like Gorilla Tape? Not with this top, you don’t. Take one look at the Fujitrail and you’ll understand why: that massive central zip, running right down from your neckline to the bottom of your breastplate.

Unzip that at the end of your adventure and you can cast off the now-heinous garment without a care. It might sound odd to start this review by talking about how much we enjoy taking this product off, but it’s such a benefit of the Fujitrail that we couldn’t resist. Plus, the rest of the review is quite boring because all we can say is how good this top is at just being a top.

It’s made with Actibreeze technology for improved breathability; not a lot of detail on what that entails but it is exceedingly breathable on the go, partly thanks to its thousands of tiny perforations; up close it looks kind of like a teabag. (It’s only when you stop that the sweat really clings, but that’s common to any running top, and that’s where the zip comes in).

Flat seams help to reduce chafing and there are reflective details to help keep you visible in low light. We should also mention that the big zip is two-way, so if you want to ventilate your throbbing chest without unzipping from the top and revealing more than you’d like to, you can grab the lower zip and pull it upwards to create a more discreet ventilation gap. In short, this is one of the cleverest and most user-friendly summer running tops we’ve ever tried; as much a joy to wear as to take off.

Going all natural doesn’t mean you have to go au naturel. Some brands such as Smartwool specialise in high-performance clothing made from natural fibres. In this case, merino.

The Smartwool Active Ultralite Short Sleeve is made from an almost equal blend of merino and Tencel (the semi-synthetic fibre derived from wood pulp). It’s a very soft fabric and impressively lightweight against the skin – size M weighs just 120g. Smartwool calls the fit ‘athletic’, but it’s slightly looser than the other options here.

If you're thinking that wool isn’t suitable for running, then the Active Ultralite Short Sleeve proves that’s an outdated concern. In addition to being soft and light, this is very breathable, and the natural properties of merino come into play too. It’s naturally anti-odour and also temperature regulating, even if it gets damp.

If you want the best in breathability, a tank top is the way to go. And the best currently on offer fo running is The North Face’s Summit High Trail Run Tank.

It’s a slim and very lightweight design, made from a recycled polyester mesh. It's great for intense training and races alike.

There are a couple of touches beyond breathability and comfort that make this a champion. One is the split hem and the bottom, which helps with freedom of movement. The other are the reflective logos on the chest and shoulder.