This review was originally posted on the sherdog forums on 16/11/2005

As promised Here is a quick review of the new Yellow Sprawl Shorts

I was first made aware these were on sale when a training partner of mine told me that Sprawl were selling white shorts on their website, I went to have a look only to find that they were, in fact the yellow shorts I’d seen in the UFC recently and it was just a bad picture. Seeing that they were $10 cheaper than usual because of “slight transparency” I ordered a pair ASAP.

The shorts arrived in less than a week – now bearing in mind I live in the UK that’s a fantastic turnaround only rivalled so far by SSF for me (and I am including UK dealers in with that too, although in fairness I usually order from overseas). My first impressions were that they looked good, a lot more vibrant in person than on the pictures online.

These of course use the 06 design from sprawl which was new for me as my other pair are black 05XTs – the largest difference is that the waist now has some give in it which is a good thing. As ever with sprawls I ordered a size up from what I usually wear, These shorts were a little looser than my XTs making me think I possibly could have fit into my usual waist size, however I think that still may have been a little tight and as many of you know, when getting folded up grappling that’s never a good thing. The shorts also feel a little larger and baggier than my 05s but not by much. The other differences include the string used to tie the shorts inside is more centred and also there is no more metal hoop for the string to pass through, which really makes no difference to me and I can’t see why it would to anyone else either.

As for the transparency which caused the knock down in price? Well it’s there, no point in lying about it – when I wore them the other day I could make out my boxers and jockstrap under the shorts – it’s not like you’re wearing cling-film or anything but you are able to see your undergarments if you’re looking for them, so if that’s an issue for you then I would stick to the other colours available – for me though it’s not so visible that I mind with the price reduction.

One other thing worth noting is that these shorts feature the large SPRAWL logo down the leg, personally I like that (a feature that only became avalible to buy after i purchased my first pair of sprawls), but if you don't care for big logos this may put you off too.

Other than that they’re what you’d usually expect from Sprawl well designed and strong – they have the flex panel in the leg from last years XTs which I’m sure most people are aware of (if not go check out my review of the XTs from a while back where I go into more detail about it), you’d be hard pushed to feel restricted in a pair of sprawls so I felt fine in them throughout the entire session.

So to summarise;

Excellent turnaround from the website – sprawl as usual with top notch customer service.

Excellent physical design only let down by the transparency which may or may not bother you, feel great and unrestrictive to wear, and you’d have to try pretty hard to get them to come apart at the waist with sprawls now very famous (and copied) design.

Good price to make up for the slight design flaw.

Final score of 7/10, the only thing stopping it from being a solid 9 is the transparency, which won’t be an issue on the other colour 06s I would think.

Review by Pete Forster