If you’ve looked at workout wear recently, you’ve seen these shirts that advertise their ‘moisture wicking’ capabilities.
I’d always figured it was just more hype, but after reading up on many hiking blogs finally realized that cotton isn’t always the best choice if you’re trying to regulate your body temperature. This ‘moisture wicking’ material is what everyone recommended. So, what is it? I went to yuppie-ville REI and checked it out – it’s poly-freakin-ester! No way!
I grew up in the 70’s. The polyester leisure suit was king. John Travolta was ‘Stayin’ Alive’, not getting offed by Bruce Willis in a bathroom. After disco bit the dust, I swore I’d never wear polyester again! Okay, times change and polyester is no longer hot, sweaty and gross. It keeps your hot, sweaty, gross body from being as hot and sweaty. In fact, you can get all sweaty in this new polyester fabric, and no one will know, because your shirt won’t have big dark underarm circles or be sticking to your back.
Sound too good to be true? I thought so too, until I ponied up for a few $20 REI-brand moisture-wicking tee shirts and we wore them for the first time on a ride in 95 degree weather. And I didn’t get all sweaty and gross feeling. Taking off my riding coat, the shirt wasn’t wrinked or wet, it looked like I’d just put it on fresh from the dryer.
I wore this shirt every warm day we had - this is 3 weeks into the trip and the only wrinkles you see are on my face!
For hot weather riding, I’m never going back to cotton!
An added bonus is you can wash these in a hotel sink, wring them out in a towel and they’ll be dry in a few hours.
Some have a bit of a shiny look to them, others appear just like cotton. The shiny-look shirts hold up better, the softer cotton-look shirts do fuzz up and pill pretty quickly. If you care about that kind of thing!
We found the cheapest price and best quality on these shirts at REI – yea, urban yuppie green team haven , but they do have nice people working there and some good quality stuff. Become a member for free, and you get a dividend every year – 10% back on regular priced stuff.
