Compression apparel
Evidence: weak
Worn compression garments do not improve running performance: the controlled evidence is a consistent null on race time, economy and oxygen cost. For recovery the effect is small and clusters in how sore and tired the legs feel rather than in functional measures, with a likely placebo component. Harmless and maybe mildly comforting after hard sessions; no case for buying them to run faster.
This page is about garments you run in, socks, calf sleeves and tights, not the pneumatic compression boots used afterwards.
No performance benefit
The performance case does not stand up. A meta-analysis of 22 trials found no meaningful effect of compression garments on race time, time to exhaustion, submaximal oxygen cost or running economy; the only thing that reliably changed was reduced soft-tissue vibration (Wang et al. 2025), echoing an earlier review that found no significant effect on running performance (Engel et al. 2016). The garments do measurably damp muscle oscillation and even reduce muscle activation while running, yet that mechanism does not convert into any economy gain (Broatch et al. 2019).
The marketed mechanism, improved venous return, is the weakest part. Benefits, where they appear, bear no relation to the pressure applied, turning up at both low and high pressures, which points away from a circulatory effect and toward comfort, proprioception or placebo (Beliard et al. 2015).
Recovery is the better, modest case
The more defensible use is recovery, and even there the effect is small. Across exercise types, worn compression gives a small overall recovery benefit, strongest after resistance exercise and weakest for running, and concentrated in perceived soreness and fatigue rather than functional recovery markers (Brown et al. 2017). Because a visible garment cannot be blinded, some of even that perceptual benefit is likely expectation. As a recovery aid, compression sits with the gadgets that may help how you feel without moving the needle on adaptation.
The honest summary: comfortable, possibly a little reassuring after a hard session, and fine to wear if you like them. The performance claims are unsupported and the recovery effect is small and partly in the head.