I Tried Temu Running Products — Here Is What Happened

You’ve seen the ads. Some absurdly cheap running product, four-point-something stars, thousands of reviews, looks too good to be true. I’ve wondered about them for a while. So I ordered 10 Temu running products, put them through actual training, and rated each one by what I’d actually be willing to pay for it. Total came out to $197 after tax and shipping. Here’s how every single one went.

The 10 Products

Before the reviews, a quick note on how I picked these. I wanted a mix of basic and strange, some obvious running essentials, some things that seemed like they might actually work, and a few that I was pretty sure were going to be disasters. Here’s what I ordered and what I paid:

• Running shoes — $12 (61% off, 4.8 stars)
• Bone conduction earbuds — claimed waterproof, 4.7 stars on 585 reviews
• Hydration mix (Zest Lights) — marketed with “sus carb” and something about awakening your colon
• Altitude training mask — supposed to simulate altitude by limiting oxygen intake
• Running fanny pack / belt — claimed room for phone, keys, charger
• $10 drone — 1080p HD, advertised “follow me” feature
• Sauna shirt — heat training shirt for simulating sweat and elevated heart rate
• Sunglasses (3-pack) — $5, claimed to be polarized
• Portable sauna — $65, the most expensive item, comes with a foldable chair and steam function
• Smartwatch with built-in earbuds — the earbuds physically pop out of the watch

The Running Shoes — Worth What I Paid

First mile in these and I was calling them bricks. They’re super wide, which I was not expecting, and the first lap genuinely felt like running in planks of wood. I pushed through, tightened them up as much as I could, and kept going. By the end of the three-miler they had actually broken in a little bit. The springiness I noticed when I first put them on started to come through. Not a shoe I’d race in or use for anything intense, but for $12 with some break-in time, they’re not completely useless. I’d say they’re worth what I spent on them.

The Smartwatch with Built-In Earbuds — $5 Max

This was the one I was most hyped about going in. You open the watch face and literal earbuds pop out. I had genuinely never seen anything like it. And I’ll give it credit, they actually played music. I was bumping The Weeknd on the track through a watch. That’s objectively cool.

But then the issues started stacking up. The music plays through your phone, not the watch itself, so you still need your phone on you. And then the watch mileage was way, way off — after my three-mile run it was reading 1.8 miles, a full 1.2 miles short. For comparison my Coros had me at three miles on the dot. The heart rate was close (77 vs. my Coros reading 76) but the GPS accuracy makes it basically useless as a training watch. I’d spend $5 on it for the novelty factor. That’s tops.

The Sauna Shirt — Actually Works, Hot Take

Heat training has blown up in running lately, people layering up, trying to drive their heart rate higher, get the sweat going, chase the performance adaptations. The Temu version is a shirt that essentially acts like a heat trap against your skin. It looks fine in the AI-generated product photo. In person it looks a lot less fine.

I put it on for mile two of my run. It immediately felt like tin foil against my body, just radiating heat back at me. Uncomfortable, weird, kind of miserable. But here’s the thing, it worked. My heart rate on that mile was 10 to 15 BPM higher than it was on the first mile in just the regular shoes. That is measurable. That is the exact physiological response heat training is supposed to produce. It was about $10. If I was actually in the market for a sauna shirt I’d spend $20 on this one. Hot take, but I mean it.

The Altitude Mask — $2 of Value

The idea here is that restricting airflow simulates being at altitude and forces your body to adapt. I put it on for mile three. I looked like Bane. I was breathing fine in terms of oxygen restriction, didn’t feel the “limited oxygen” effect much at all — but every single breath tasted like a factory floor. Like I’d been working in a mine since I was four. The heart rate didn’t even spike. I was at 129 BPM, which is basically what it would be without the mask. No performance benefit, tasted terrible, and I looked unhinged running around a track in it. I’d put $2 of value on this one.

The $10 Drone — Forget It

This was the one I was second-most excited about going in because the potential upside was massive for my channel. A drone that follows you for $10? If the “follow me” feature actually worked, I could film myself running at the track without needing a camera person. The 1080p footage it shot was, let’s say, not exactly cinematic. But the bigger issue was the follow-me feature. It didn’t work. At all. I tested it, the drone did not follow me, and that was the main reason I bought it. A fun $10 experiment, but not something I’d buy again.

The Hydration Mix — 6.75 out of 10

The marketing on this one is something. It claims to use “sus carb” to awaken the small intestine for hydration, and something called fibersol to awaken the colon. So your entire digestive tract is apparently going to be activated. I tried the raspberry flavor, my friend tried watermelon. We rated them independently on three. I said 6.8, he said 6.75. We called it 6.75. Honestly decent taste, and that’s roughly what I’d spend on the whole pack — around $6.75. Not going to replace Liquid IV or LMNT, but it’s not undrinkable.

The Sunglasses — Don’t Bother

Three-pack, $5, claimed to be polarized. I wore them on my morning run and I was squinting the entire time. I couldn’t even tell if they were doing anything. The quality is just bad — you can see it immediately. I normally run in a pair that cost around $30 and wear them four or five times a week. The quality gap is not close. I wouldn’t pay a single dollar for these. If you’re going to get running sunglasses, spend the money on a real brand. Don’t be cheap here.

The Fanny Pack / Running Belt — Surprised Me

I will fully admit I felt like an idiot running around with this thing on. I ran past someone I know and immediately felt embarrassed. But practically speaking, it did the job. I had the sunglasses in there and a set of keys and it stayed put and was comfortable. I don’t personally have much use for running with extra stuff, I hate running with my phone, but if it was something I needed, I’d spend around $5 on it. Probably won’t use it again, but it wasn’t bad.

The Bone Conduction Earbuds — $25

The sound quality is noticeably worse than AirPods or Beats. That’s just the reality. But for what I mostly use headphones for on runs, podcasts, you can get by with lower quality audio. The bone conduction design means you can still hear what’s around you, which a lot of runners want. And then I tested the waterproof claim by jumping in the pool.

They fell off when I hit the water, sank, I picked them up, put them back on, and they reconnected and kept working. They disconnected briefly when they hit the bottom but then the “connected” chime came back on. For aqua jogging or pool recovery work these would actually be really solid. I bumped my rating up after the pool test. I’d pay $25 for these.

The Portable Sauna — $50, and It Actually Works

At $65 this was the most expensive thing in the order and the one I was most excited about by the end. I set it up in the garage, not inside, because it’s a Temu sauna and I wasn’t willing to risk burning the house down. It was missing one piece out of the box. Once I got it together and turned it on, it runs off a steam function rather than heating the air directly, so it’s more of a steam sauna than a dry sauna. It came with the folding chair, a remote with a battery already in it, and the zippers have inside zippers so you can open it from inside without wrestling with it. There’s even a phone pocket.

It got hot. Not 130 degrees Fahrenheit like the listing claimed, but it was genuinely working and I was sweating in it. My mom thought it was the funniest thing she’d ever seen. I sat in it for a while. I’d realistically spend $50 on it. Lost some value from the listing price, but it functions, and for heat training purposes that’s what matters.

The Verdict

Going through all 10 of these, the pattern that came out is pretty clear. Basic, low-stakes accessories that just need to exist and not break can hold their own at Temu prices. Anything that needs to be precise, GPS accuracy, polarized optics, actual physiological training stimulus, falls apart fast.

The sauna shirt and the portable sauna both surprised me on the upside. The altitude mask and the drone were the biggest disappointments. The shoes were fine once broken in. The watch had an incredibly cool gimmick attached to completely broken GPS. The hydration mix tasted fine. The earbuds are worth it specifically for people who run in water or need sweat-proof headphones on a tight budget.

Would I order from Temu again? For accessories and novelty stuff, probably. For anything that I’m actually counting on in training, no chance.