View Full Version : t shirts that don't smell?
Mikereisner
02-22-2008, 18:54
I am looking for a tee shirt that dries real fast but I don't have to burn because it smell so bad.
There ya go (http://www.rei.com/product/732432?vcat=REI_SEARCH). I know what you're thinking now. It's ok, you're welcome. :D
They all smell at one point! I wore the same T for 140 miles, one wash, last March. Had it on last week... it still has some lingering odor!
merino wool. icebreaker, ibex or smartwool.
HUNTHIKELIFT
02-22-2008, 20:22
merino wool. icebreaker, ibex or smartwool.
100% agree! icebreaker 200 underware and smartwool T's.
T's will give off a slight wet dog none foul kind of odor but no form of body odor experienced with same T six days 60 miles no wash and I am a BIGTIME sweater...lol
Footslogger
02-22-2008, 20:31
There are NONE ...
'Slogger
bigcranky
02-22-2008, 20:42
I wore my Ibex wool shirt last year for 8 hiking days straight, no stink. It was a long sleeve shirt made of very light wool. Great stuff, now I want a short sleeve version for warm weather.
Blissful
02-22-2008, 21:01
Smartwool is pretty good with odor control. I wasn't happy how well the t -shirt variety held up though. My hubby's got holes in it after a week, so I returned it. My long sleeve one did better for some reason, as has my son's. I still have it after last year's hike.
Footslogger
02-22-2008, 21:04
I've never tried the Smart Wool shirts ya'll are talking about so I guess I should temper my earlier post a bit. Just can't believe ANY shirt would not develop an odor given the cause/effect relationship involved.
But hey ...maybe Smart Wool is onto something ???
'Slogger
HUNTHIKELIFT
02-22-2008, 21:22
Smartwool is pretty good with odor control. I wasn't happy how well the t -shirt variety held up though. My hubby's got holes in it after a week, so I returned it. My long sleeve one did better for some reason, as has my son's. I still have it after last year's hike.
I did have a long john pant of Smartwool and it tore a hole first use. Finger went right through the material. I did experience pilling(sp?) from friction from bp straps. Matter of fact my avatar is showing the orange Tshirt I am speaking of..lol
The only clothing that doesn't develop a premanent funk is clothing that you don't take hiking.
Wise Old Owl
02-22-2008, 23:10
Well some of us might think the funk is coming from the clothing. Perhaps a rip stop nylon pants, Under Armor t-shirt and under shorts, while fully clothed - Jump into nearest deep stream of frigid cold water with you clothes on and you will not notice any funk after 15 minutes of drip dry as you are totally waterproof. More fun than Hyperventilating.
Also removes crankyness.:eek:
take-a-knee
02-22-2008, 23:39
I have some tee shirts I got from Sierra Trading made by Body Sensors from Visa fabric and they don't get funky.by that I mean they clean up and don't stay funky. Some of the undergarments marketed to big game hunters claim to be impregnated with various antimicrobial treatments (silver is one) and thus don't retain odors.
UnderArmor or StromGreen, either last longer than most ... you get what you pay for. The military is starting to use UnderArmor because most the soldiers are wearing them anyway (out of uniform)
OOPS! thats Under Armour and Stromgren ...
I tend to work up a pretty good funk when out with the same layer for a week. And that "funk" returned pretty fast after laundering.
I bought some stuff at REI called NIKWAX BASEWASH. There are other, similar products.
It has so far helped a lot! The funk will returneth but not nearly as fast. And this stuff is supposed to help "enhance wicking and accelerate drying". OK...but it does help the funk.
I'll vouch for Emans funk level! Note to self: do not sleep down wind from Eman or his laundry on the line!
take-a-knee
02-23-2008, 00:16
UnderArmor or StromGreen, either last longer than most ... you get what you pay for. The military is starting to use UnderArmor because most the soldiers are wearing them anyway (out of uniform)
I have not found underarmor shirts to be durable, they pick and pull like a sweater and then look atrocious. Those Visa shirts I mentioned in earlier, are several years older than my underarmors and look better, even though I've worn them more.
fiddlehead
02-23-2008, 00:24
Check out "X-tatic" It is a material that is embedded with silver which kills bacteria which is what causes the stink in the first place.
it is used as an anti stink material for hunters, hikers, skiiers etc and incorporated into a synthetic (polypro, polyester) wicking fabric so it has wicking plus anti stink.
We used to sell it, can't seem to get much of it anymore, tested by some friends of mine who wore it to work for a week and said it didn't stink. I think there's some truth to their boasts (X-tatic ) although i don't think it will stop an AT hiker from smelling differently than normal, "shower a day folks".
Hahahaha...I love you too Cuffs...I started to toss that UA shirt I wore on the BMT. I washed the thing and in about 5 minutes of grunting up a trail, that thing was nasty again. But this NIKWAX stuff has saved it. I also have some less expensive early Campmoor shirts that were to suffer the same fate but they too have been resurrected with the basewash.
I am looking for a tee shirt that dries real fast but I don't have to burn because it smell so bad.
Try cotton.
RenoRoamer
02-23-2008, 13:51
I find a loose shirt made of nylon gives the best results, but you have to make sure to keep the shoulder straps from pushing the shirt into the underarms, since that will cause anything to stink. (There are various ways to keep the shoulder straps from touching the underarms. I tie them to the waist belt, which pulls them down and towards the center of my stomach.) A loose nylon shirt that doesn't touch the underarms will still pick up oils from your back and neck, and then these will go rancid and smell eventually, but nylon is fairly easy to launder clean. So as long as you wash it every week or so, you should be okay. A loose wool shirt is another possibility, but wool takes a long time to dry when wet and is pretty hot in the summertime. Avoid polyester (with or without x-static and fancy enhancements), polypropylene or anything which doesn't absorb water. If it doesn't absorb water, you can't launder it.
Cotton/hemp are poor choices compared with nylon, other than possibly for hot and dry desert conditions. Cotton, hemp and nylon all absorb water and thus can be laundered easily, but cotton and hemp absorb way more water than nylon and thus take longer to dry and pose a hypothermia risk in cold and wet conditions. Cotton and hemp are also much heavier than nylon for a given strength. The only advantage of cotton and hemp is that they are don't degrade in intense sunlight as quickly as nylon, but that is not an issue on the AT (it would be an issue someplace like Bolivia, due to high altitude, low latitude and no tree cover).
....Cotton/hemp are poor choices compared with nylon, other than possibly for hot and dry desert conditions. Cotton, hemp and nylon all absorb water and thus can be laundered easily, but cotton and hemp absorb way more water than nylon and thus take longer to dry and pose a hypothermia risk in cold and wet conditions. Cotton and hemp are also much heavier than nylon for a given strength. The only advantage of cotton and hemp is that they are don't degrade in intense sunlight as quickly as nylon, but that is not an issue on the AT (it would be an issue someplace like Bolivia, due to high altitude, low latitude and no tree cover).
Yup. That's the theory, and it is at least partially true. But I've worn nothing but cotton tee shirts, summer and winter, ever since my first mountain in 1933. I like cotton because it feels better on my back than nylon and polyester, and lately, because it isn't made from oil, a scarce resource, and the principal source of income for middleeast terrorists.
So far I've escaped hypothermia.
Weary
Wise Old Owl
02-23-2008, 14:47
Hey I wasn't kidding before-I found out the hard way, I was wearing those clothes on a Canoe Trip and was trying to teach a youngster to canoe. He froze up as we headed towards our first rock, in a rapid.
We dumped into the river and I straightened everything out and the only thing that took too long to dry was the thick wicking socks. I was amazed that personal body temp and some sun and the clothes will dry in about 15-30 minutes. No need to get changed. I was greatful as we dumped two more times on that fifteen miles. Remember the old days? it would have been a chilly disaster. No Cotton!
The EMS Techwick t-shirts are great. I wore the same 2 shirts for 900 miles in mid-summer of '06, and they never got funky. The only smell was the smell of my sweat (which isn't too bad--it's the bacteria growing in your shirt that give off the nasty smell). They wick well, they're cheap (I think around $20-25), and they held up just fine under my pack straps. I've seen lots of people wearing these shirts on the trail.
Hey I wasn't kidding before-I found out the hard way, I was wearing those clothes on a Canoe Trip and was trying to teach a youngster to canoe. He froze up as we headed towards our first rock, in a rapid.
We dumped into the river and I straightened everything out and the only thing that took too long to dry was the thick wicking socks. I was amazed that personal body temp and some sun and the clothes will dry in about 15-30 minutes. No need to get changed. I was greatful as we dumped two more times on that fifteen miles. Remember the old days? it would have been a chilly disaster. No Cotton!
I've dumped a few times myself in my cotton tee shirts. They dried quite nicely. As you say, just walk around a bit and things, cotton or not, dry. Cotton is a bit slower, but usually not so slow that hypothermia threatens.
Weary
warraghiyagey
02-23-2008, 15:58
Any chance it's not the shirt's fault??:p
The best my husband has found for not stinking is the Arc'Teryx Emissary Raglan Wool T-shirt. He can wear it for a week in the backcountry with no noticeable odor -- it's truly amazing. We bought one off steapandcheap about a year ago for super cheap. I'm not sure I would pay full price for any Arc'Teryx gear, but when you find it on sale, it's amazing. Unfortunately, it appears they've discontinued this shirt, so if you're interested in buying one, you need to move quickly. I think Moosejaw still has some in size large, although they tend to run a bit big, so average sized guys would probably take a size medium. I just found one of those on ebay, and snatched it up while I still could!
88BlueGT
02-26-2008, 00:27
I have never had an UnderArmor peel. I wore an insulated UA longsleeve shirt almost every day this winter to work and has held up perfectly.
i 2nd the underarmour gear. i've had a few of the long sleeves (both heat and cold gear) and they're in the same shape as when i bought them
YeOldeBackpacker
02-26-2008, 14:57
try a traildog, made in the usa 100 wicking, and use antimicrobial yarn which reduces the odor.
take-a-knee
02-26-2008, 15:10
I have never had an UnderArmor peel. I wore an insulated UA longsleeve shirt almost every day this winter to work and has held up perfectly.
They don't peel, they pull like a sweater. I wore Body Sensors and Underarmor in Iraq, the Body sensors performed as well and were far more durable.
under armor or Strom Green, either last longer than most ... you get what you pay for. The military is starting to use under armor because most the soldiers are wearing them anyway (out of uniform)
listen to Purple, it is true and those also dry the fastest.
snaser13
02-26-2008, 21:50
Ibex Echo T's
Wool is by far the least stinky fabric. And washing actually removes the stink, unlike polyester. I'm switching to wool base layers now.
take-a-knee
02-27-2008, 01:30
Wool is by far the least stinky fabric. And washing actually removes the stink, unlike polyester. I'm switching to wool base layers now.
So, wet dog smell doesn't count?
well it's not odor-free, no fabric is. But in my opinion it doesn't accumulate stink as fast as other fabrics, when it does the stink is not as bad, and it washes out better.