Hi my lovelies!
I’ve been a bit off with my blogging schedule this past week, due to fourth of July and just considering the direction that I want my blog to take! So far, I’ve only done dupes lists, to help spread information about what dupes you can find and where, but I’ve been leaning towards also doing reviews as of late, and so, I decided, what would be more fun than doing a classic: Lululemon align vs. lululemon align dupes. There are so many align dupes out there (if you check out my spreadsheet - you’ll find plenty), but as of late, a new contender for the queen of Align of dupes has come along: Hawthorn Athletics.
Hawthorn Athletic is a seller off of Amazon, and they’ve recently become more and more popular, although as of writing, they only have 83 ratings, within some dupe-finding communities, they’ve really blown up!
They have dupes for the 25 inch, 28 inch, 31 inch Lululemon align leggings, and in 9, 8 and 2 colors, respectively. I decided to recently give them a try and order them off of Amazon to do a comparison review. Originally, I had only been planning on reviewing the Hawthorn Athletic leggings vs. Lululemon aligns, but then, I received a package from Shinbene, which has also become popular as a producer of lululemon align dupes, with the ColorValue 2.0 leggings, which can be found by a variety of sellers on AliExpress.
Being as obsessed with numbers as I am, I decided to do a data-driven review report, to find out exactly how close are the two dupes compared to the real thing. I have four categories: Inseam, Waistband, Fabric and Price/Convenience and will have a winner for each category. The first two categories are to help with figuring how the leggings will fit in comparison to the Aligns, and the second to-last is to help compare how they will feel compared to the aligns. So, without any further ado, lets get started!
Inseam:
I bought the 25” inseam Hawthorn Athletic leggings in a size XS, which are advertised as 7/8ths length, as well the ColorValue 2.0 leggings in a size S, which they advertise as an ankle length pant. I pulled out the grey sage color of my Lululemon Aligns in size 4 to match with the greens of the other leggings, which are also 25” inseam aligns
Lululemon 25" Align Inseam
ColorValue 2.0 Inseam
Hawthorn Athletic Inseam
Winner: Hawthorn Athletics
Both the Hawthorn Athletics and Lululemon aligns were true to their reporting, and came in at an inseam of 25 inches. The ColorValue 2.0 leggings came in with a 23.5 inch inseam.
Waistband:
A classic feature of the Lululemon align is the V back seam that draws attention and helps contour your booty. All three pairs of leggings do have the V contouring, but are all waistbands the same? Not quite. There are several things to consider, such as how wide the waistband is, as well as how long the waistband is. Also, with the V contouring, how deep is the drop between the normal waistband and the tip of the V? All of these things will impact how the leggings sit on your body, as well as how much it will contour your booty.
Hawthorn Athletic
The Hawthorn Athletic leggings had a 10.5” tapered waistband at the top, which expanded to 12” at the hips. The width of the waistband was roughly 5” normally, and then 6” at the tip of the V.
ColorValue 2.0
The ColorValue 2.0’s similarly had a 10.5” tapered waistband at the top, and then 12 inches at the hips, but had more of a 4.75” waistband width normally, and then 6” at the tip of the V.
Lululemon Aligns
The Lululemon Aligns had the most tapered waist out of all the leggings, with a 10” waistband at the top, and 12 inches once again at the hips. It had a 5” waistband width, which grew to 6” at the tip of the V. The extra tapering effect of the waist makes the waistband appear to be longer, although in actuality, the Aligns and the Hawthorn athletics leggings have the same waistband width.
Winner: Hawthorn Athletics
The Hawthorn Athletic legging has a more similar tapered V to the Lululemon Aligns, but both the Hawthorn Athletics don't have as much of an overall tapered waistband as the Aligns.
Fabric:
The fabric composition of the three leggings are as follows:
Hawthorn Athletics: 30% Spandex, 70% Nylon
ColorValue 2.0: 20% Spandex, 80% Nylon
Lululemon Aligns: 19% Lycra/Elastane, 81% Nylon
In terms of how they feel, the Lululemon Aligns are, as always, a brushed, buttery-soft fabric. The ColorValue 2.0’s on the other hand are extremely slick feeling, more like a Lululemon Luxtreme feel than the brushed feeling of the aligns.
The Hawthorn Athletics, while not as soft as the Lululemon aligns are much more brushed and similar-feeling to the aligns. However, the Hawthorn Athletic leggings do have more compression than the Lululemon aligns, and they do have a bit more slickness compared to the aligns, and the fabric overall seems to be a tad thicker.
Winner: Hawthorn Athletics
Price/Convenience:
The pricing for Lululemon Aligns is anywhere from $98 for most of their patterns, to $118 for their diamond dye patterns. Naturally, both of these dupes are well under the Lululemon pricing.
Hawthorn Athletic:
Hawthorn Athletic's leggings are sold on Amazon starting from $24.99, and if you have Amazon Prime, you can get them delivered in 2 days or less! Not much to be said there about how convenient it is. Additionally, they accept returns for free, courtesy of Amazon being absolutely fantastic, as always!
ColorValue 2.0:
The ColorValue 2.0 leggings are actually available from a variety of sellers from AliExpress, one of the most popular sellers is Shinbene, which sells the leggings for $22.79 (as of writing, but often has 10% off or $2 off coupons) - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dUH9lSx
However, you can also find it from other sellers on AliExpress for even less, such as the cfcschp store, for only $18.72 - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dUYLSxv
The natural inconvenience of AliExpress is that shipping can range from 2 to 10 weeks (especially in this COVID-19 climate). However, AliExpress does give you guarantees for refunds if shipping takes too long, and if you live in coastal areas, such as the East or West coast, shipping tends to be faster.
But!!
It is actually possible to get the ColorValue 2.0 Leggings on Amazon!! You heard that right, you can get these on Amazon. The seller Lavento on Amazon sells them: https://amzn.to/2OhM58g for $23.99, with all the same perks as any Amazon seller: free shipping for prime members, and free returns. In fact, right now, they have an extra 5% off! The downside is that they don't always have all the colors and sizes in stock, so you will have to keep checking back to hunt for a particular color/size you may want.
Winner: Tie
To me, there isn't really a winner here, since you technically can get both the ColorValue 2.0's and Hawthorn Athletic from Amazon for greater convenience, or the ColorValue 2.0's from AliExpress at a lower price for less convenience. It all depends on your preference and whether you want to check back to Amazon for the ColorValue 2.0's if you really like them. Buttt... you could say the Hawthorn Athletics have a bit of an edge up since they are always reliably on Amazon.
Overall:
Across the three categories, the Hawthorn Athletics have prevailed to be more similar to Lululemon Aligns in terms of fabric and overall fit than the ColorValue 2.0 leggings. However, if you are someone who sweats a lot, and prefers a more performance, slick fabric, while still wanting the contouring of the Lululemon aligns, I still highly recommend the ColorValue 2.0s!
What I dislike about the Hawthorn Leggings is the color of thread that they have used for the seams. I find that the darker color seams contrast too much with the color of the leggings, which is overall unappealing to me. However, some of their other colors, like the Camo pattern, don't have this same problem.
They are both great pairs of leggings, with different features and depending on the type of workouts you do, they will meet different needs!
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Happy Hunting! Happy Shopping! Happy Saving!
Caly Out!
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