Best Nike Tank Tops Reviewed & Rated for Quality

In a Hurry? Editors choice:
 Dri-Fit Running
Test Winner: Dri-Fit Running
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If there is any name more ubiquitous with excellent sportswear than Nike, we haven’t found them yet. For many athletes, no other brand compares to them, whether it’s because of their comfort, their breathability, or just how good it feels to put one on and wear it. Nike has been the top dogs of sportswear for a good reason. With that said, it’s time to look at one of their most varied offerings: their tank tops.

Standout Picks

 Pro Cool
Kicking off this list, we have the Nike Women’s Pro Cool Training Tank Top. With other clothes, you’ll find that both men and women can wear them and be just fine. But with clothes like certain types of shirts, including tank tops, they’re built differently to better accommodate the forms of either gender. So, with that out of the way, let’s see what this one does to earn its #1 spot.
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 Ace Logo
Coming in second place, we have the Men’s Ace Logo Tank Top. This is what most people think of when they hear the term Nike tank top, and the design most people think of when they hear the term tank top in general. While Nike didn’t invent this style, as you will see, they did get it the most right.
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 Dri-Fit Running
Finishing up our top three segment, we have the Nike Dri-Fit Running Tank Top. When it’s particularly hot that day, and you want to stay cool while running, but don’t feel like going almost completely shirtless, this is about as perfect a middle ground as you can find between those two scenarios. So, let’s see how they pull this off.
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 Dry Balance
Coming in at #4, we have the Nike Women’s Dry Balance Tank. This is the kind of tank top that’s great for wearing around the house as well as around the gym. While not really meant for the kind of heavy-duty workouts that other tank tops are for, you’ll find this tank top reliable to a fault nonetheless.
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 Pro
For our #5 spot, we chose the Nike Women’s Pro Tank. This is basically the previous entry, but with some choice tweaks added in that makes it more suited for higher impact situations. So what are these tweaks and how do they change the shirt? Let’s find out.
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 Dry Miler
Coming in at #6, we have the Nike Women’s Dry Miler Tank. One of the more interesting designs on the list, this one is a middle ground between the previous two entries, resulting in a tank top that is both slim and fitting, but also loose and easy to move around in. However, that isn’t the only interesting thing about it.
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 Elastika Training
For the #7 spot, we chose the Nike Elastika Women’s Training Tank. Flexibility is one of the key ingredients to making a great tank top. And while the other entries on this list definitely understand this, this tank top runs circles around them.
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 Racer Running
Kicking off our final three entries, we have the Nike Women’s Racer Running Tank Top. Looking at this may not give you the impression of an all that impressive top, but this is Nike, and they never do things halfway. Rest assured that this top has a few tricks up its sleeve.
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 Flex Swoosh
In our second to final entry, we have the Nike Women’s Flex Swoosh Training Tank. This is a tank top meant exclusively for running. While you can use it for other purposes, this shirt will benefit you the most when you’re running at top speed, feeling the wind in your face. So, what makes it so suited for that? Let’s look and find out.
Amazon Link
 Dry Training
For the final entry of this list, we have the Nike Women’s Dry Training Tank Top. If what you need is flexibility and looseness in your tank top, we can’t think of a better tank top than this one. But don’t take our word for it, let’s take a closer look and find out more about this last entry on this list of greats.
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Criteria Used for Evaluation

Style

Criteria Used in Choosing the Best Nike Tank Tops

Nike tank tops are a cut above the rest in just about every way. Sure, some brands do certain aspects of it better than Nike, but no one does it all around better than the undisputed kings of sportswear themselves. There is a lot that goes into making a tank top work, despite the fact that they seem to be as basic a shirt as it gets. After all, it’s basically a potato sack you throw over your head with both sides open and call it a shirt. Well, like with anything, there are numerous ways to refine and reshape that formula, and Nike has always been at the forefront of making sure that their tank tops are the best in the business. Other brands may do other things better than them, but nobody has Nike beat in tank tops. And if you need proof of that, look no further than this list of tank tops, all of which are more than worth the money on their price tags. All of them offer the best in speed, breathability, and just flat out comfort that you can find in a tank top. So, if you’re in the market for a new tank top, then you need to find yourself a Nike. Pick one of the above that interests you and feel the difference.

Assembling a list of criteria for this list was really not all that hard. All we had to do was ask ourselves what it was that we would want our tank top to do for us, and it was easy to form what we needed to use from there. This segment is meant to show the factors we took into account when judging what got onto the list, and once on the list, how far up it got. With that said, let’s get started.

Comfort

This was the most essential criteria by which we judged each entry. Above all else, we looked at how comfortable each entry was reported to be when worn by customers. Fortunately, comfort is something that Nike always has down pat, as their tank tops are specially made to be as comfortable and snug as possible. This is done through multiple methods, including flattening the seams, so they move more smoothly against the skin, making the top more fitting to your general form or looser so it doesn’t impede your movements, among many others. The key here was to make sure that none of the shirts we looked at were reported to be too tight or that they rode up when being used, as that was an immediate disqualifier.

Quality/Durability

When you talk about running clothing, comfort is only one half of the coin. The other half is the quality and durability of the shirt itself. A running tank top is a tank top that you are knowingly exposing to potentially hot conditions: sweltering heat, pouring rain, snow, and whatever else you encounter while out there running. So, you need to make sure that you’re going out there in a tank top that can take whatever mother nature has to throw at you. So of course, the most commonly used material for tank tops is polyester and cotton. Polyester is strong and flexible, but also lightweight and resistant to moisture, making it ideal for use in making an athletic shirt.

But quality goes beyond being able to take punishment, there are also a lot of other factors involved.

Moisture wicking

You’re going to sweat. You are going to sweat a lot when you’re out there. And that’s good, sweating out toxins from your body is a healthy, good thing. But man, does being covered in your own body fluids burn away your endurance like the African rainforest in Smokey the Bear’s deepest nightmares. For this reason, sports clothing has strived to implement one countermeasure to this completely across the board with their sportswear, including Nike. And that is moisture wicking. This is simple, it’s basically the process in which your shirt wicks away sweat and any other fluids that would otherwise stay on your skin and keeps your skin dry and fresh. Wicking is especially important because otherwise the sweat gets absorbed into the shirt, and do you want to know what’s worse than being covered in sweat? Wearing a soggy, sopping wet tank top that’s wet from your bodily fluids.

Support

You’ll notice that we had a lot of women’s tank tops on this list, and when we realized that that was how the bones were going to fall for this one, we knew we had to put this in as one of the main criteria. While men certainly need support in their shirts as well, women definitely need it more. This means both keeping the bust in place, so they aren’t accidentally drawing unwanted attention to themselves, while also not doing so much so that you feel uncomfortable yourself. Despite this, however, there’s no replacing a good sports bra, and in fact, a good Nike tank top will actually help the effect of a good sports bra. This will, in turn, reduce unnecessary back strain while working out, allowing you to focus on your exercise without any worry.

Design

Design goes beyond just looking good, it’s also about making sure that the thing works efficiently because none of what we just discussed matters at all if the tank top isn’t designed to actually be worn by actual humans. This encompasses everything from the straps, to the length of the hem, to how far down the neckline plunges. Every aspect of a shirt’s design play into making everything else in this segment work. It’s like the computer effects in a blockbuster movie, there should be no moment when you go “oh, that’s the design” because the key is to never notice that it’s doing its job correctly unless your job is explicitly to review the design of a tank top and pay close attention. Because when you do notice it, it’s usually a problem. Whether it’s because the hem is too short for someone your size, or the straps are designed in a way you don’t like, or the neckline plunges far further down than you’re okay with, if something in the design is bugging you, it will not take you long to figure out what it is.

Price

The final criteria we judged was the price of each entry. Now, you likely find it rather ludicrous to spend so much money on a single tank top but remember that these are not ordinary tank tops. These tank tops are intended to be used for athletic sporting events or for intense personal exercises. They are not the kinds of clothes intended to be worn around the house (though of course, you can totally do that) so they cost a lot more because they expect to be bought by trained professionals who need the best equipment, and of course, have the money to spend. But even so, the prices for these can still be rather high, so we chose to judge each entry by what they did and gave us to justify the prices they were asking for. Once we did that, finding the right place for each entry was easy from there.

Top 10 Picks

1. Pro Cool

Where to buy
Amazon Link
 Pro Cool
Amazon Link

Kicking off this list, we have the Nike Women’s Pro Cool Training Tank Top. With other clothes, you’ll find that both men and women can wear them and be just fine. But with clothes like certain types of shirts, including tank tops, they’re built differently to better accommodate the forms of either gender. So, with that out of the way, let’s see what this one does to earn its #1 spot.

Dri-Fit Technology

The best part about this shirt is the Dri-Fit technology. It’s basically exactly what it says it is, it’s a design flourish that lets a shirt absorb more sweat and other moisture without becoming uncomfortable on the wearer. It keeps you completely dry, even at your otherwise sweatiest, while also keeping you completely comfortable.

Great for layering

People love to jog during cold fall or even winter days but getting there is nothing but a tank top isn’t exactly comfortable, since you don’t have the pumping blood to keep you warm and are mostly just freezing. This is where layering comes in, where you put on a normal shirt over the tank top, to be taken off once the workout begins. As such, it’s important that this tank top is as form fitting as it is so that layering is made easier.

Cost and Value

Shirts are far from a one size fits all kind of clothing, so they’re pretty much always broken up into different sizes. And the price range for this shirt is a wide gap, to say the very least.

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Where to buy
Amazon Link
 Ace Logo
Amazon Link

Coming in second place, we have the Men’s Ace Logo Tank Top. This is what most people think of when they hear the term Nike tank top, and the design most people think of when they hear the term tank top in general. While Nike didn’t invent this style, as you will see, they did get it the most right.

Great design

The reason the tank top has become such a staple of the American wardrobe is that, simply put, it’s such a great design. An open ended, full movement-allowing, workout shirt with a comfortable, rounded neckline that doesn’t sag too much but lets you move around freely all the same. Top that off with contrast ringer bindings that brilliantly offset the logo in the center, and you have one killer design.

Comfortable feel

Considering the kinds of situations that this shirt often finds itself a part of, the most important part of any tank top is how it feels when you wear it. And with this shirt being made of a blend of cotton and polyester, this shirt is both comfortable to wear as well as durable when working out.

Cost and Value

This shirt is both pricier and cheaper than the previous entry, let us explain. While the smallest price is much more expensive than the previous entry, the largest size has a much more merciful fee. On top of that, the price range is much tighter than before, which is an added plus.

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3. Dri-Fit Running

Where to buy
Amazon Link
 Dri-Fit Running
Amazon Link

Finishing up our top three segment, we have the Nike Dri-Fit Running Tank Top. When it’s particularly hot that day, and you want to stay cool while running, but don’t feel like going almost completely shirtless, this is about as perfect a middle ground as you can find between those two scenarios. So, let’s see how they pull this off.

Super thin

This shirt is made 100% out of polyester, which is good, considering how thin it is and how easy to tear it would be otherwise. The biggest upside to this shirt being almost see through depending on what color you buy it in (colors like reflective silver are much harder to see through) is that few shirts breathe as this one does. You will always have that cool, refreshing breeze on your torso, which will do wonders for your endurance on those draining hot days.

Dri-Fit technology

Like the first entry, this shirt is also made with Dri-Fit technology, that helps wick away moisture while also keeping the shirt from getting sopping wet and gross to feel wearing. Making this also one of the comfiest to wear shirts on the entire list as well.

Cost and Value

The price of this shirt is another matter. It may seem ludicrous pricing a shirt whose main gimmick is being super thin as much as this one does, but thankfully, this shirt more than pays for itself once you’re actually out in the field.

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4. Dry Balance

Where to buy
Amazon Link
 Dry Balance
Amazon Link

Coming in at #4, we have the Nike Women’s Dry Balance Tank. This is the kind of tank top that’s great for wearing around the house as well as around the gym. While not really meant for the kind of heavy-duty workouts that other tank tops are for, you’ll find this tank top reliable to a fault nonetheless.

Racerback design

There are many different ways to design a shirt, but when it comes to shirts you’re primarily meant to work out while wearing, the racerback design is the most popular. And for a very good reason, the racerback design is slim, it’s stylish, and it gives your arms, neck, and torso complete, unimpeded movement. All of which are things you want in a shirt when working out.

Scoop neck design

All tank tops have a slightly plunging neckline, that’s just how the clothes are designed by default, but it’s important to make sure they don’t go down too far, for reasons we feel are obvious. Which is why this shirt goes for a scoop neck design, which rounds out just far enough down the neck to be comfortable and give you full movement, without being distracting.

Cost and Value

This tank top has a very average price range for a tank top available in all commercial sizes, with a low price on the small end, and a kind of high price on the large. Nothing too bad, so if you just want a good tank top for a decent price, this will do you fine.

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5. Pro

Where to buy
Amazon Link
 Pro
Amazon Link

For our #5 spot, we chose the Nike Women’s Pro Tank. This is basically the previous entry, but with some choice tweaks added in that makes it more suited for higher impact situations. So what are these tweaks and how do they change the shirt? Let’s find out.

Air sole unit

When working out in higher impact activities, you need a tank top that will provide you with the cushioning and support that deserves. This is where the pro Tank’s air sole unit comes in. it’s a modification made to the tank top that provides it with the cushioning and comfort that you need to focus on the workout or sport at hand without feeling restricted by the shirt you’re wearing.

Low hanging back

There are few things as annoying when you’re trying to work out, but the tank top you’re using keeps riding up in the back whenever you so much as bend over to grab a quarter. Luckily, Nike’s got you covered, literally. This tank top comes with a low hanging back, which keeps the entire shirt from riding up when bending, letting you focus on what you’re doing with zero self-consciousness getting in the way.

Cost and Value

The main problem with this shirt is the price. The price range for this one is extremely expensive, with the high end of the price range being higher than any of the previous entries, and the low end not being much better.

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6. Dry Miler

Where to buy
Amazon Link
 Dry Miler
Amazon Link

Coming in at #6, we have the Nike Women’s Dry Miler Tank. One of the more interesting designs on the list, this one is a middle ground between the previous two entries, resulting in a tank top that is both slim and fitting, but also loose and easy to move around in. However, that isn’t the only interesting thing about it.

Mesh side panels

When trying to improve the breathability of a shirt, the first instinct is to go for the front or back ends of the shirt. However, this tank goes a different route, having dual mesh panels on the side instead. This ends up catching the wind that’s blowing past or around you as you run, making the mesh just as effective without making the two most important sides of the shirt thinner.

Flat seams

One of the biggest sources for discomfort when wearing a tank top are the seams of the shirt, which can feel like they’re digging into you over time. Which is why most Nike shirts go for flat seams, which move very smoothly against the skin, no matter how wildly it’s moving around.

Cost and Value

Thankfully we’re back to a much fairer price range for this shirt, which stands at a wide, but ultimately merciful price range. If your size is small to mid, then this shouldn’t be a deal breaker for you.

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7. Elastika Training

Where to buy
Amazon Link
 Elastika Training
Amazon Link

For the #7 spot, we chose the Nike Elastika Women’s Training Tank. Flexibility is one of the key ingredients to making a great tank top. And while the other entries on this list definitely understand this, this tank top runs circles around them.

Elasticated straps

No, we didn’t make up that word, hush. Elasticated basically means that the fabric used for the straps of this tank top was made slightly more elastic to allow for easier movement while wearing it. This makes this shirt a breeze to wear while you’re lifting weights or playing tennis, or other activities where a non-elastic strap can get annoying fast.

Lightweight

A small thing to bring up, but yeah, a lightweight tank top is the tank top you should always go with, regardless of what your other options may have in their favor. And this is one of the lightest tank tops on this entire list, easily. This shirt will give you little to no resistance whatsoever when using it.

Cost and Value

While both ends of this price range are a bit pricey, at least the range itself is very tight, so you won’t be spending hundreds of dollars for a single shirt just because you’re a bit bigger than everyone else.

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8. Racer Running

Where to buy
Amazon Link
 Racer Running
Amazon Link

Kicking off our final three entries, we have the Nike Women’s Racer Running Tank Top. Looking at this may not give you the impression of an all that impressive top, but this is Nike, and they never do things halfway. Rest assured that this top has a few tricks up its sleeve.

Runs long

It can be hard trying to find great exercise gear when you’re the tallest girl in the room. Anything that’s in your size tears your wallet’s throat out, and that’s assuming you find something in your size, to begin with. Fortunately, this tank top runs long by default, meaning finding a tank top in your size is incredibly easy.

Great for when you’re sweating

When you expect to be sweating up a storm by the end of your workout, you need a tank top that is just thin enough to not become a sopping wet mess when it comes into contact with all of that sweat, but just thick enough to be functional and not embarrassing. Not only is this shirt exactly that, but it also dries remarkably fast.

Cost and Value

The best part about this shirt is the price range. This is easily the best price range on the entire list, no question about it. Not only are both ends very affordable, but the price range itself is almost airtight, with both sides within spitting distance of each other.

Amazon Link

9. Flex Swoosh

Where to buy
Amazon Link
 Flex Swoosh
Amazon Link

In our second to final entry, we have the Nike Women’s Flex Swoosh Training Tank. This is a tank top meant exclusively for running. While you can use it for other purposes, this shirt will benefit you the most when you’re running at top speed, feeling the wind in your face. So, what makes it so suited for that? Let’s look and find out.

Built in bra

Bras, on average, are not built to run in at top speed, which is why sports bras are a thing. But on the other hand, if you don’t have one on you, no need to worry. This tank top comes equipped with a built-in bra that provides excellent support, shaping, and coverage to your bust while you jog.

Dri-Fit Technology

Like the other running tank tops on this list, this one is also equipped with Dri-Fit technology, which helps to keep you nice and dry while also maintaining a fit, comfortable feeling around you, even while running at top speeds. So, you don’t need to worry about overly sweating and ruining your concentration as a result.

Cost and Value

Unlike the other entries on this list, this tank top has a set price regardless of its actual size. And in terms of that price, it’s not the cheapest, but it isn’t the most expensive thing we’ve seen on this list, so we think it all evens out.

Amazon Link

10. Dry Training

Where to buy
Amazon Link
 Dry Training
Amazon Link

For the final entry of this list, we have the Nike Women’s Dry Training Tank Top. If what you need is flexibility and looseness in your tank top, we can’t think of a better tank top than this one. But don’t take our word for it, let’s take a closer look and find out more about this last entry on this list of greats.

Natural movement

The main appeal of a tank top has always been how much freedom you have when moving around wearing it, so how naturally you can move around while wearing this tank top is incredibly important. And with this top’s loose fit, elastic racerback straps, and small running size, you’ll barely even notice that you’re wearing it half the time.

Sweat wicking

You will always stay high and dry when wearing this tank top, as its Dri-Fit technology and sweat wicking fabric will keep all sweat and moisture off of your skin, while also staying dry and comfortable itself, so you don’t feel all muggy from wearing a sopping wet tank top.

Cost and Value

We’re back to a price range for this entry, and it’s a rather average price range for a tank top like this. It isn’t the tightest in the world, and one could argue it could be cheaper, but for what it’s offering, this is actually a pretty good deal.

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