Faux Leather Fleece Leggings: Tummy Control Review
The SPANX SPANXshape Faux Leather Fleece Lined Leggings sat on my desk like a dare — sleek, black, and somehow both “Sunday farmers market” and “I dead-lift 200 pounds” at the same time.
It was a Thursday in late October, the kind where the temperature drops fifteen degrees by noon and your usual training tights suddenly feel like wearing a wet paper towel. I pulled these on at 6 a.m., half-expecting the faux leather exterior to crinkle with every squat and give me away as someone trying too hard. Instead, the brushed fleece lining settled against my skin like a warm hand, and the contoured power waistband locked in without negotiating. I wore them for six hours straight that day, from an early lifting session to a post-workout coffee run to picking up my kids, and precisely nobody asked me why I looked like I had somewhere important to be.
The First Time I Wore It
I came across these while deep in the kind of late-night scroll that usually ends with a cart full of things I don’t need. The thumbnail stopped me, which almost never happens with leggings, because the silhouette looked different. Not shiny-costume different. More like the matte finish of a leather jacket that’s been broken in over years. I clicked, read the fabric breakdown, noted the fleece lining, and decided this was either a genuinely interesting piece of cold-weather athleisure or a very expensive disappointment waiting to happen.
I landed somewhere firmly in the first camp. But it took a few sessions to get there, so let me walk you through it properly.
How It Actually Fits in Training
The contoured power waistband is doing serious structural work here. It sits high on the waist without folding over mid-rep, which, if you’ve ever had a waistband accordion its way down during a Romanian deadlift, you know is not a small thing. The tummy control compression is present but not punishing. It holds without squeezing. The full-length inseam hits right at the ankle, which means no awkward mid-calf gap when you’re moving through a lunge sequence or stepping off a box jump.
“The fleece lining makes you feel like you’re wearing something luxurious, but the compression reminds you this is still a piece of training gear.”
That said, the faux leather exterior is not infinitely forgiving in terms of airflow. On a heavy lifting day where the gym was running warm, I noticed some heat retention by the 45-minute mark. It’s not suffocating, but if you’re a naturally warm runner or someone who tends to sweat through every layer, these faux leather athleisure leggings are better suited to cooler environments and lower-intensity sessions than to a full sprint interval block. The Self guide to best workout clothes by activity makes the same point about structured fabrics: ventilation is the trade-off for structure, and here that trade-off is real.
The Sessions I Actually Wore It For
Session 1: Squat-Heavy Lifting Day, Tuesday Morning
I wore them with a cropped ribbed half-zip, white New Balance 1080s, and a minimal gold necklace I keep telling myself is a sports look. The squat-proof faux leather exterior held up through every angle, including a particularly aggressive depth check in the mirror that I will not elaborate on further. No transparency, no shifting, no embarrassing revelations. The waistband stayed anchored through goblet squats, sumo variations, and a finisher round of walking lunges. By the end I felt, honestly, a little chic about the whole thing.
Session 2: Brisk Outdoor Walk, Saturday Afternoon
This is where the fleece lining earns its place in the product name. The temperature was hovering in the low 40s, and I left my apartment in just these and a fitted puffer vest, no base layer underneath, which I would never have done in regular training tights. The brushed fleece-lined interior kept my legs genuinely warm from the first block to the last. I walked four miles along a waterfront path, and the leggings moved cleanly through every stride with no chafing at the inner thigh, which is always my first concern with structured fabrics. They looked good enough that two different people asked where I’d gotten them.
Session 3: Low-Impact Barre and Stretch Session, Wednesday Evening
I was skeptical here. Barre demands a certain amount of drape, a fabric that moves with small, precise movements rather than large athletic ones. These surprised me. The compression layer has enough give that pliés and the slower, smaller range-of-motion work didn’t feel restricted. The tummy control panel sits flat through every standing balance sequence, no bunching, no migration. I’d call this a solid option for lower-impact studio work in the colder months, particularly if you’re commuting to class and want to wear the same piece the whole day.
What Other People Are Saying
With close to 100 reviews averaging a solid 4.0 rating, the pattern that emerges is consistent: reviewers love the warmth and the silhouette, and a smaller subset flags the heat retention issue during high-intensity cardio, which tracks exactly with my own experience.
What the rating consensus really tells me is that most people buying this know what they want. They’re not treating it as a running tight. They’re treating it as a cold-weather athleisure piece that can handle light to moderate training, and in that context, it delivers reliably.
Who Should Skip It
If your primary training modality is running, specifically anything above a 30-minute easy jog, these are not your leggings. The faux leather exterior traps heat in a way that will become uncomfortable by mile two for most runners. Similarly, if you run hot in general or train in a gym that skips the air conditioning from November through March, you’ll find the insulation more frustrating than functional. Petite frames may also find that the full-length inseam pools slightly at the ankle, which affects the clean silhouette the design depends on. For those training needs, you’d be better served looking at a performance athleisure jogger with a technical knit rather than a coated face fabric.
What It Replaces in My Kit Bag
I had a pair of plain high-waist compression leggings in rotation for fall and winter, reliable but completely unremarkable, the kind of thing I wore to the gym and immediately forgot about. These replace that pair without hesitation for any session that isn’t cardio-heavy. More specifically, they replace the habit of changing out of gym clothes before running errands, because these actually look intentional enough to keep on. That sounds like a small thing. It’s not. When your training gear works for the two hours before and after the session, the whole day feels more organized. For gift-giving season, they also land squarely in the category of activewear gift ideas that feel considered rather than generic, particularly for someone who trains in the colder months.
FAQ
How does the waistband hold up during strength training movements?
Very well. The contoured power waistband stays anchored through squats, deadlifts, and lunges without rolling down or folding over. It’s one of the stronger points of the design.
Is the fleece lining warm enough to replace a base layer in cold weather?
For temperatures in the 35-to-50-degree range, yes, the brushed fleece interior functions as its own insulating layer for low to moderate activity. Below that, a light thermal base layer underneath is worth considering for outdoor use.
Can I wear these beyond the gym, or are they strictly training leggings?
The matte faux leather finish and minimal aesthetic make these genuinely versatile. They work well with an oversized knit, ankle boots, or a longline coat for everyday wear, which is most of the reason people seem to love them.
Does the build quality hold up over repeated wears and washes?
Based on extended wear testing, the power waistband retains its structure, the fleece lining doesn’t pill significantly, and the faux leather face fabric maintains its matte finish rather than developing the shiny stress marks that cheaper coated fabrics show after a few wash cycles. Given the level of finish across every panel seam and waistband construction, the value reads above what you’d expect at this tier.
How does the sizing run, and what should I know before ordering?
SPANX sizing tends to run true to size in the waist but can feel snug in the thigh for those with more muscular legs. If you’re between sizes, sizing up will preserve the silhouette without compromising the compression function.
The Verdict
I see myself reaching for these every time the temperature drops and I want a session that doesn’t require me to plan a second outfit for the rest of the day. The SPANX SPANXshape Faux Leather Fleece Lined Leggings occupy a specific and genuinely useful niche: cold-weather training gear that looks polished enough to carry you through a full day, without the fleece lining feeling bulky or the faux leather finish feeling costumey. They’re not a substitute for a technical running tight or a high-ventilation HIIT pant, and they’re not trying to be. What they are is a smartly engineered piece for lifting sessions, low-impact studio work, and the long walks and daily life that bookend both. For those exploring the full range of what structured athleisure can do, the Women’s Health fitness gear coverage is worth browsing alongside, as is our own athleisure training category for how these fit into a broader cold-weather kit. And if you’re building out a complete fall and winter training wardrobe, our editor’s top activewear picks give these leggings proper context alongside the best athleisure hoodies to layer over them. For a considered look at how performance fabrics continue to evolve, the history of activewear construction is a surprisingly interesting rabbit hole. The deeper I got into testing these, the more I appreciated that someone made a decision about what these leggings were for and built accordingly. Buy them for the cold months, wear them everywhere, skip them for anything faster than a walk-jog.
Every Angle
The piece as photographed for Amazon — front, side, back, detail.
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