Lululemon Commission Shirt Review
The high end leisure brand is branching out into every day and travel friendly clothing after the huge success of their ABC Commission Pants. Are the shirts in the same league?
Lululemon Commission Shirt Review Introduction
Lululemon - a name well entrenched in the activewear space. But, when did they enter the traveling space? Technically, they haven’t pushed into it too much. But, they sort of did. Let me explain.
Their clothes by their very nature are technical fabrics. They are meant to move with you, breathe, and perform well on the go. Since they started making clothing that looks more like regular clothes but are still technical, that immediately puts the brand into the conversation for travel friendly clothing. Following?
Enter their Commission lineup. They’ve had their Commission ABC pants for years, and recently did a re-launch (I have a pair I’m working on reviewing). But the Commission shirts are an update to the lineup. They promise comfortable, technical, and even odor resistant fabrics in a shirt. But how is the final product?
This is my Lululemon Commission Shirt review. For my testing I’ve been wearing this long sleeve around NYC, and have taken it on three different trips - an NYC to Arizona and NYC to DC, and for a longish weekend in Lisbon. I also wore it to the office, and for a full day or two while WFH just to push the “multiple wear” part of it.
As always for full transparency, I purchased this with my own money. I do use affiliate links which help to support the site if you decide to use them to make a purchase, but you’re under no obligation to do so and there’s no additional cost to you. Thanks for stopping by!
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Lululemon Commission Shirt Overview
There’s no need to go into exhaustive detail here - the product is pretty straightforward in terms of its purpose. Lulu set out to make a men’s shirt, off the wrack, that accomplished many things at once. They’ve designed the shirt to be really comfortable, be a tech fabric, travel friendly, and just an all around nice-casual shirt that you can wear in most situations without feeling over or under dressed.
Material stats from the site:
55% Cotton
45% Elastomultiester
4-Way Stretch
It retails for $118 USD as of Nov 2023 and comes in a variety of color options. Mine is the “blue linen/white”.
Commission Shirt Features
It’s just a shirt overall, but it does of course have a few features to discuss. Mostly, things designed around comfort and practicality. Things that make it the reason we’re looking at it for travel.
For one, the fabric is definitely a feature. It's a blend that lends to breathability, moisture wicking, and stretch. We’re looking at 4 way stretch on this shirt, and it’s very easily felt when you have it on. The shirt is soft to the touch. Not quite jersey soft, but trying to go in that direction. It feels less like a classic button down and more like a jersey polo but doesn’t quite get there, let’s say that. Additionally, this shirt is treated with an anti-odor treatment. It uses their No Stink Zinc topical treatment rather than something like silver threads woven in. This is a similar method to a lot of brands that use Polygiene or other post manufacture treatments.
In terms of how this is made, there are under-arm gussets that are worth noting as a feature. These are here to help with range of motion and movement. More on those later. Two vent holes, too. Odd on a button up shirt, but they are there.
Lastly, there’s an extra feature in the chest pocket - a zipper. This pocket is fully close-able with the zipper. This is a good feature for travel.
The Fit of the Lululemon Commission Shirt
I want to cover off on the fit of this shirt before I get into the Good and the Bad. Then I can break down the experience of wearing it and the fit in those sections.
See the top button and shoulders.
I wore a X-Small, am 5’6”, and I would say I’m not “climber slim” and have wider shoulders for my height. I typically wear a GAP XS in Oxfords for reference, but SM in most other brands. They call this their Classic fit. I would say this leans a little slim-cut, if I’m honest. Whether that’s good or bad is up to you, your fit-likes, and your body type. I’m just describing it for you.
On me personally, the sleeve length is kind of perfect and how it fits from about ¾ on down is great. This is what I would want in a men’s x-small. The chest and shoulders I found to be pretty narrow though, something I wasn’t expecting. If you look closely, you can see that the top button is experiencing some “pulling” - which is a tell-tale sign the shirt is a little too tight in the chest. But what’s mostly causing it is that the pattern cut for this shirt actually has pretty narrow shoulders. You can see this pretty clearly on me, actually. The “corners” of the shoulders are not really in the right places, my shoulders stretch the figure out. I’m more used to XS shirts being smaller in the waist and down through the body, but there you go. Just reporting how I see it!
Through the body I think most people of avg or slimmer than avg build are going to like the fit. It’s closer fitting but not TOO tight - skipping the boxy look of a lot of American button downs. Because of this though, I could often feel it against my body and that did make me a little more conscious of it than I normally would be. This is more of a me problem, however. Again, totally depends on your build.
Generally speaking, I think a lot of people will be happy with the fit profile, but it’s a bit of a mixed bag on the specifics. The only thing you can do is try it out, really.
I may try and size up - but if I’m honest based on this one: I think I might be a dreaded “tweener” in their sizing. If I ever give the Sm a try, I’ll update this review!
The Look
OK one more thing I wanted to note is the look of the shirt itself and what kind of scenarios I think it’s going to be appropriate for. Really, I think it’s going to be pretty good for most casual to casual business (I purposefully did not say “business casual” here) scenarios. That includes tech company offices, casual dinners, bars, etc. I would not really consider it “business casual” in the traditional sense. If you want to golf in a long-sleeve shirt, I think you could in this if you wanted.
What this shirt is NOT is a replacement for a dress shirt. It just isn’t. The fabric isn’t right for that, the buttons are too casual, and honestly there are too many seams on it for that. It looks too sporty. An individual might disagree with me and that’s OK, but stylistically it’s just not that kind of shirt. The underarm gussets and vents play into this and because of these gussets the sleeves can look a little frumpy.
But with that said - this shirt is going to work for LOADS of other scenarios where you just want to up your look a little but still look like you’re casual. It’s awesome for that. Works well with jeans, casual chinos, sneakers, etc. It’s really a pretty strong daily/around town button up, too.
The Good
Fabric Macro.
I really felt like the shirt was comfortable here. The stretch is very noticeable and the fabric is soft. That means that while you’re wearing it the movement is good and it’s quite comfy. I had no complaints in terms of how comfortable it was. Looks-wise it’s pretty good. I think they picked a solid profile for an off-the-rack shirt. I wore it while walking around town, to work (tech office), etc. and it felt great in all those scenarios for the most part.
Lots of color options to choose from, so you can choose what’s best for your style.
The zipper pocket is great. In fact, I didn’t even notice it until I put my hotel room key there. So I’m glad I did that or I’d have missed it altogether for this review. It lays nice and flat so you’d really never see it.
For the bottom ¾ of the sleeves, I loved the fit. Not a lot of loose fabric so there’s no pirate sleeves here for us short guys, and the length was amazing. Good job on that, Lulu (that would be a shortened name for the brand and not, in fact, a reference to my lovely wife).
While the odor treatment is not going to compete with Merino (I mean, nothing can in that department) it will in fact help with multi-wear for travel. Especially if you break up your wear for only dinners/bars at night. Assuming you’re not some wild sweater or something. Nothing is going to fight that other than washing the shirt. If you’re wearing this shirt all day (which I did to test) at work, let’s say 8-10 hours including a commute (A commute is defined as moving from your home to your place of work and was common prior to the year 2020; This concludes today’s sarcastic remark section). In that case, you may or may not be able to wear it a second time. That will depend on your own chemical makeup and also your deodorant. Remember unscented is best because when thinking about multi-wear for travel, the scent of your product can interfere as much as your sweat itself. But overall in the odor-prevention department, I’d say this shirt performed “pretty darn good”. Similar to other treated products. You can for sure wear this for a few hours a day and be able to do that more than once if you want - like while flying/at the airport and you don’t want to dress like a college student in sweatpants (No offense guys, that’s just not something I can get behind any more).
While testing in Lisbon - I wore this shirt while walking around town for about 3 hours, then also out to dinner. Then, I also wore it for another FULL day that included train rides, 30 minute walk up hills in a humid morning, etc. Had it on from about 915am to 5pm when we got back to our hotel. Giving it the old smell test the next morning, I’d say it was still acceptable to wear. I’d probably wash it by that point, but you COULD stretch it longer. Again, this depends on you, and your scented deodorant. I used a combination of Thai Crystal (protects fabrics) and the new Mando Unscented (from the folks at Lume).
The Bad
For the bad, I think really it’s just the inconsistency on some of the fit details. The shoulder points were a pretty big surprise for me, as I’ve never experienced that in a button up shirt before. And while my shoulders are a little broader for my height, I’m not a coat hanger so it shouldn’t have been that big of a deal. I think over all the shoulders and chest on this shirt are a little too narrow. This also caused the back of the fabric to push up a bit when I moved my shoulders. And while I appreciate looking like Trapasaurus Rex, it wasn’t really for me. But to be fair, sizing up might fix this.
On the gussets under the arms, while they do help with movement, it causes that part of the arm in the shirt to not fit as well. This was something I really noticed when I was sitting down. It’s extra fabric, so it bunches a bit. I’m being a bit picky, but this is part of the thing that means it’s not a replacement for a dress shirt (Whereas I think the Limitless shirt from Western Rise comes closer to that, even if I still wouldn’t wear it under a blazer).
More on that - I would remove some of the sporty seams on this shirt. The sheer comfort and fabric will make it so people will love wearing it in casual situations, but you’re limiting the wear on the higher end with those. It’s just not the look you want in a slightly more formal scenario. Obviously this is up to the wearer and how much they “don’t care what anyone else thinks”. But in terms of general stylistic convention and viewpoints, doing this would help. This was a MAJOR complaint on the Commission pants and Lululemon fixed it (they had that awful seam/line in the back of the knee), so I know they are hearing this feedback and can fix it.
Final Thoughts On My Lululemon Commission Shirt Review
So, in terms of a travel shirt did Lululemon succeed with their Commission long sleeve shirt? Yes…..and no. Let me explain.
They succeeded in making a high quality shirt that’s great for a lot of different situations and I think that’s very important as a baseline for any travel friendly shirt. Check.
It’s comfortable, moves with you, and is well made. Check.
It’s got an odor treatment and a hidden zippered pocket on the chest. These are fantastic for a travel shirt. Check.
Where it falls short for me is ultimately on the fit profile. And not even because I’m being really picky. I think it’s just a little too narrow in the shoulders and chest, and I think a lot of guys will notice this.
The many seams and the quality of the buttons also make it fall a little short in terms of dressing it up. Now, this is going to be very situational to the traveler and it might not be an issue at all. I think subjectivity points like that are the kind of things I’d rather see than things like bad workmanship, bad comfort, etc. So I can deal with that stuff and you can think critically about how you travel and where you go and what kind of style you might need. I personally love me a fancy restaurant when I travel so this one has a ceiling in terms of where I can wear it. As I like to say, that’s a “me problem”. This will cover most bases for a LOT of people.
What I do think might be a bigger issue is the upper body fit. IF you’ve got broader shoulders for your height or you like to get swoll, that might be a problem for you. While I will keep the shirt, it’s probably going to prevent me from making it my go-to, simply because once I’ve seen the shoulders like that, I can’t unsee them. I can size up, but that might ruin the sleeves and length for me.
But overall, it's a really well made shirt that’s comfortable to wear in many, many scenarios (for instance I was wearing it while walking all over DC and Lisbon for the day and it was solid). It’s got some great travel-friendly qualities that make it worth checking out to see if it works for your travel capsule. You should be able to get multiple wears before washing, activities depending. So, for sure see if it fits you the way you like.
Lastly, if you’re a Lulu fiend like I know a lot of people are these days due to the ABC Commission pants - why not look to your fav brand to see if the shirt also works? It’s priced on the higher end, but it’s in line with the brands I’d consider to be the Commission’s competitors (Western Rise, Rhone, Ministry of Supply, etc.).
As always with most brands, I’d suggest buying directly through their website for best service. With Lululemon especially, this also ensures authenticity.
Wander more - and wander smarter everyone.
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