I was in Louisville KY at the beginning of the month for a long weekend and my timing hit a cold front rather perfectly with morning lows in the upper 30's which is downright cold for a Florida boy. The thought of sitting in a chair outside, cold and sedentary, for 8 hours per day for 3 days was demoralizing even if the afternoons were going to be OK.

Action was called for but a bit of a conundrum was in play. My Merino wool long underwear (advocated by someone here on QJ > KF or Snowdog perhaps) was in Michigan. I had 2 choices, either buy something cheap or try and upgrade the merino wool I already had dropped a healthy sum on.

Enter in Underarmour Heat Max base layer. I admit to not having fully bought into the Underarmour hype and thought they were mostly overpriced fashion statements but last year I had picked up some of their cool max T shirts and tank tops and found them superbly comfortable (a tank top goes on every canoe trip).

Couple of choices with the Heat Max.......I went for the top shelf 50% merino wool and 50% polyester blend. The more "comfortably priced" Underarmour  set is all polyester is not such a good value IMO. Anyways, this stuff is heads and tails better than my all merino set IMO at about the same price and will be a constant companion at cold art shows and every outdoor adventure henceforth.

I think tops and bottoms came in around $85 a piece (yes, my jaw dropped open to!) at the Bass Pro in Louisville. A word of warning, while the tops were sized accurately the bottoms seemed exceedingly tight. I despise tight fitting confining bottoms and had to move to an x-large to feel freedom of movement. I ended up living in them all 3 days (day and night) and they saved my tush.    

So as I started reading I was thinking wool, then I read further.

Wool just seems better, specially as I age and metabolism slows. Poly is fine when you're working harder but doesn't seem to retain the heat so well when you stop. They are starting to get a better handle on odor with treated poly, but wool is better there too.

You can't have too many options for wool pieces. Try a Smart Wool T-shirt too. I it like better than Ice Breaker's T.

I'm trying to remember those speed reading courses that advertised when I was a kid......remember the guy (or was it a gal?) was turning the pages at about 1 second intervals?
Wow, now that was amazing! 40 years later and I still remember those commercials.

Not advocating Polyester although it has its place. I own complete sets of Polyester, capilene, merino wool and silk. So far, and its just my opinion having actually tried all the materials, I like the underarmour  50/50 blend as it seems to somehow radiate the heat back while still being quite breathable. Its hard to explain unless you have actually tried it.

Not trying to nitpick but clarity is important to me. 

 

I bought a pair of under armor bottoms about 10 years ago.  I took them on a hunting trip. They squeezed me so hard my Adams apple got bigger.   I through then away and bought a more comfortable garment.

If you like merino wool the best I've found for undergarments is Minus33. I've had much longer life span than with similar smart wool garments and find the fabric more comfortable than Icebreakers. Also reasonably priced

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