Hot weather clothes?

GPB said:
As nutty as it may sound, I've had great luck with the lightweight merino t-shirts from Smartwool.

They actually do keep you cooler in summer, warmer in winter.

Natural FR doesn't hurt either.
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not nutty at all. wearing cotton in sweltering heat is nutty however. merino wool is soft and actually allows the moisture to evaporate, unlike cotton which just stays damp and nasty
 
jackknife said:
Why not do what they do in tropical places?

Very loose cotton.
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Work takes me to Samoa, Tonga, Solomons, Cooks, Niue.

I dress local. Loose cotton shirts, lavalava, sandals/jandals. Works for me.
Lavalava beats shorts hands down, plenty of ventilation.
Only tech garment is my hat, usually a Columbia light fishing hat with back flap.
Shade and a breeze are your friends.

Worth knowing that it takes about 10 days to acclimatise to hot climates, good reason to make it a longer visit.
 
PorcupineMtns66 said:
I prefer loose cotton in summer. Synthetics might dry quicker but when your out under the scorching sun that stuff gets hot quickly and heats you up fast.
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The problem with cotton, loose or otherwise, is that it retains moisture once it gets soaked.

No athletic trainer in their right mind would recommend cotton anything to athletes or just active people in general during hot weather. What kind of clothing really depends on your activity level though. If you're just out and about, I suppose cotton is fine unless you sweat excessively. As for me, I prefer some kind of dry fit material. Loose Under Armour is great.

It's worth knowing that Under Armour doesn't only apparel that looks like it only belongs in a weight room. They make polos that look great as casual wear. http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/en/mens/apparel/pid1000490-Men-s-Performance-Polo-/1000490-418

Oh, and give your head a buzz or shave completely.:p

Regards,
-Hark
Exercise Science
 
Government issue nomex wildland firefighting pants. You can wear one pair for a full season of outdoor fire fighting and never tear or rip them. When wet, they dry fast. Are light weight and of course don't burst into flame...
 
Arizona Native here. I wear my wranglers year around, but in deep summer (120+) nothing beats a loose white cotton T-shirt. You can get A five pack for around $10. Also gold bond daily.
 
GPB said:
As nutty as it may sound, I've had great luck with the lightweight merino t-shirts from Smartwool.

They actually do keep you cooler in summer, warmer in winter.
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He's not kidding. :thumbup:

Good wool works. Think about it, if the animal producing wool got too hot and suffered heat stroke, would we have wool today? I have some heavyweight "Icebreaker" brand wool which is really heavy wool and it is suprising how comfortable it is in a wide range of temperatures and activity levels.

A much cheaper solution that works very well is a loose fitting long sleeve shirt with a high SPF rating and a full brim hat (like a Tilley).
 
Cotton... cos it's cheap. Humidity levels are important to note. In Northern Thailand I'd do mostly cotton cos it gets sizzling in summer but low humidity means any sweat dries up pretty fast. In tropical Singapore where humidity levels are high year round the nylon synthetics works better. Cotton tends to stay wet longer. I'm used to the heat though.
 
Synthetics are great if you like the smell of BO.

Cotton retaining moisture is not a big deal , it will dry quickly if its actually hot (much quicker than wool ).
 
Loneriderz has summed up my experience with Tilley hats very well. I have models in the cotton canvas and synthetic nylon. In Arizona, the only time I wore the Nylon model was during Monsoon season because the cotton model was like wearing a wet towel on my head. Water would bead up and roll off on the nylon model. During every other part of the year, it was cotton canvas exclusively for evaporative cooling (that little microclimate around my head really was nice).

In terms of Synthetics and body odor, it really depends on personal hygiene and laundry routine/availability. Most of us have used Synthetic socks with boots at some point and remember how hard these got when they dried out the following day. For high sweat/humidity boot environments, I actually prefer wool hiking socks which might be a little hotter or cooler but, they are so much more comfortable I forget about the minor heat differences.
 
stay indoors lol, i went biking today and man it was hot, got home and looked it was 100 degrees, i was wearing shorts, a lite nylon t-shirt, still about burned up.

summer is here in central TX.
 
Wet cotton causes me to chafe like mad. If I'm hiking/backpacking/working hard in hot weather, I'm all about the synthetics. Eastern Mountain Sports has a lot of my money because they're local and I get to try stuff out before I buy. Their stuff isn't quite as high in quality as Patagonia or Mountain Hardware, but they don't have the extreme prices either. I do have a decent supply of Patagonia stuff and it works wonderfully, but I can't afford multiple sets of clothing at their prices. EMS is a good compromise for me, except for their socks. Merino wool by Smartwool or others seems to be of a better quality. EMS has a great guarantee too. I just bought a nice 30 spf long sleeve button down shirt (like the kind fishermen often wear) that's lightweight, dries superfast and is comfortable as hell.
 
Another vote for Mountain Hardwear here. I also use the Columbia Titanium series long sleeves. They work really well when the outside temps are over 110F (which is almost daily 6-8 monhts of the year).
 
Another consideration is humidity. Even with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees and extremely high humidity, a quick storm can drop the temperature 30-40 degrees over night and cotton just doesn't dry fast enough if you're deep in the woods without a good breeze or direct sunlight. This has happened a few times to me and my son. Even some of my synthetic clothing took longer than usual to dry...but at least you can wring it out and it'll be lighter than damp cotton; plus your body heat will dry damp synthetic clothing faster than cotton.

ROCK6
 
I agree 100% with jackknife: LOOSE cotton is the key.

If you need quick drying and/or are doing high-aerobic activity, then the synthetic items are far superior.
But, the casual Columbia, REI and Ex-Officio shirts I have all feel hotter than cotton. Even the Coolmax t-shirts feel less comfortable--and itches, for some reason.
The only shirts I have that are compatible to cotton regarding heat comfort are my Pearl Izumi, Canari, etc cycling shirts, but those I have look a bit odd walking around town. There are some that are more casual, and I might have to look at them.

All of my casual synthetics result in a dry-feeling shirt, but I also feel sweat running down my body continuously (even the wicking shirts apparently have a limit). This is VERY annoying. The cotton absorbs some of the sweat, and I find that if the shirt is loose, and the temp warm enough, it evaporates ok. I have rarely had issues with a water-logged shirt sticking to me.

I was surprised by my findings, because being a former competitive cyclist, I always believed "cotton kills."
After visiting Disney World seven times (HOT and humid!), I learned that light-colored cotton works fine. Hydrate well.

I really like some of the synthetic shorts (the REI Sahara are nice) and hats (LOVE the Outdoor Research Sun Runner without the cape-thing), however.
 
You can kill two birds with one stone if you get a white cotton Tilley hat. Soak the hat in water, shake it out, and put it on wet. The slow evaporative cooling will chill your forehead, and the hat will shield your head from radiant heat.
 
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