Review: A UK brand with a Special Forces pedigree, tested on a big mountain day and in the gym

This ThruDark review covers three pieces from a UK brand that doesn’t have much shelf presence in the US yet, but isn’t a startup guessing at what “technical” means. The brand was founded by Anthony “Staz” Stazicker and Louis Tinsley, two former UK Special Forces operators with a combined 27 years in the British military between them, 18 of those in Special Forces. Louis left the service in 2017 and started developing the brand from scratch. Staz joined full-time a year later once his own service ended.

Their first product wasn’t a t-shirt. It was a technical summit suit, and they used it to back up the design with results: the fastest ascent of all fourteen of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks, and the first winter ascent of K2. That’s the foundation the rest of the range grew out of. Worth knowing going in, because it changes what you’re actually testing here. This is gear built by people who had to trust their kit with their lives before they ever sold a piece of it.

I put three pieces from the range through real use: the Oryon Trousers and Oryon 72hr Merino Tee on a big mountain day, and the Force Motion Shorts G3 in training.

Oryon Trousers and Oryon 72hr Merino Tee: Golden Bear Peak to Hagar Mountain

The real test came on a traverse up and over Golden Bear Peak to Hagar Mountain, 8 miles and 2,300 feet of gain. The day started alpine cold, and I spent the first several hours in the shade before the ridgeline put me straight into full sun. That’s a big swing in a short window, cold and shadowed to exposed and hot, and it’s exactly the kind of day that exposes a piece of clothing that’s only tuned for one condition.

The merino tee didn’t care which condition I was in. My temperature stayed locked in through the whole shift, no point where I felt like I was overheating in the sun or losing warmth in the shade, which is the actual promise of merino and not always the reality of it. The fit is athletic rather than boxy, which matters when you’re layering and moving, not just standing around in it.

The Oryon trousers earned their keep on the scrambling sections. Getting a leg up and over big rock slabs is where most hiking pants either bind at the knee or ride up at the ankle, and these didn’t do either. The articulation is built into the pattern, not just marketed on the tag, and it showed up exactly where I needed it: high step-ups and full leg extension over rock, not just walking on flat trail.

Force Motion Shorts G3: Training and Running

I’ve used the Force Motion Shorts G3 for a mix of shorter training runs in the heat and general gym work, and they’ve turned into a good all-around short rather than a single-purpose running short. The standout, and the thing that actually matters during a run, is that they do not move. No mid-run adjustments, no re-settling the waistband, no fighting with them the way you sometimes have to with training shorts that look fine on the rack and shift the second you’re moving.

No major complaints, but two real ones: I’d want a second pocket, since the single back zip pocket runs out of room fast if you’re carrying more than keys, and an internal liner option would make these a cleaner one-stop short instead of something you layer under.

Who Should Buy ThruDark

This range is built for people who move through real temperature swings, not people shopping for a look. Although the look does go hard! If your days involve shaded alpine starts that turn into full sun on a ridge, or training sessions where you don’t want to think about your kit at all, the Oryon and Force Motion lines earn their price.

If you’re mostly on flat, temperate trail runs or casual day hikes, you won’t stress-test what makes this gear good, and a cheaper technical layer will get the job done. The DarkMatr™ fabric, the graphene treatment, the merino construction, all of it is solving for conditions most closets never see. That’s the honest read on who this is for.

ThruDark Review: Bottom Line

ThruDark’s pedigree isn’t just a good story, it shows up in the product. The Oryon trousers and merino tee both did real work managing a genuinely large temperature swing on a technical mountain day, and the trousers’ articulation held up exactly where scrambling demands it. The Force Motion Shorts G3 are a smaller ask, a solid all-around training short with one real fit win (they stay put) and one real gap (no liner, one pocket). None of these are perfect, but none of them asked me to squint to see what they claim to deliver.

Quick Specs

Oryon Trousers (G2, Obsidian Black)  $220 https://www.thrudark.com/

Oryon 72hr Merino T-Shirt (Black)  $130

https://www.thrudark.com/

Force Motion Shorts G3 (Forest Green)  $94

https://www.thrudark.com/