thedrifter
08-15-06, 02:45 PM
August 21, 2006
Hot debate
With flame-resistant fabric, your next T-shirt might save your skin
Stories by C. Mark Brinkley
Staff writer
Dry test: Comfy during normal wear. Sogged up a little more than we’d like and felt heavy, but dried quickly. Overall, not bad.
Every so often, tactical gear manufacturers swarm on a new idea. A few years ago, it was hydration bladders, the canteen of the future. A single company pioneered the concept, but now everyone has his own water bag, each product promising to pound the crap out of the competition in head-to-head testing. The gear world is also flooded with tiny, superbright flashlights, rugged backpacks and combat pouches in all sizes and shapes.
If the military can find a hole, industry will try to plug it, hoping to win your hard-earned dollars.
This year is no different, with the buzz centering on “high-performance FR T-shirts.” Flame-resistant, to keep you protected. Moisture-wicking, to keep you dry. The best of both worlds.
T-shirt fabrics generally do only one or the other extremely well. Polyester, favored by such performance apparel makers as Under Armour, moves water like Moses but melts and drips like wax when exposed to open flames. Likewise, the best flame-resistant fabrics — such as Nomex, long used to keep firefighters safe — aren’t particularly comfortable for combat.
Though polyester has long been known to melt and drip (it’s been banned in certain military specialties for years), the issue of safe synthetic combat T’s didn’t come to a boil until April. Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, the forward commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, ordered his troops — regardless of their jobs — to stop wearing the shirts during operations outside of military camps there because of the fire threat from rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices.
That decision spurred the services to take a closer look at their policies regarding synthetic athletic wear in combat zones.
“We all have very aggressive schedules,” said Francisco Martinez, a textile technology contractor at the Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass. “This is something that has been taken extremely seriously. ... We’re leveraging a lot of information among us. This is one of those examples of everyone working together.”
But apparel companies and fabric makers claim to have finally cracked the code on performance FR. Coming soon, to a tactical retailer or military exchange near you, are dozens of new products promising to keep you both safe and dry.
The verdict is still out on just how safe they are, but sidestepping banned synthetic fibers definitely gives them a leg up. Even as you read this, researchers from across the services are busy setting perfectly good shirts on fire, evaluating the claims made by the manufacturers. They’re testing the performance part, too, pushing out some of the best FR products to troops in the field for wear testing and feedback.
But those findings are still months away, and the marketing blitz is coming now. So, in the interim, we decided to see for ourselves what’s out there.
We tracked down a half-dozen new products and coming-soon prototypes from companies hoping to strike gold in the performance FR frenzy. Then, we put them through our own common-sense test and evaluation the same way you would, checking them for performance, fit and comfort.
Rather than hand them over to the lab geeks and replicate the bevy of tests your tax dollars are already funding, we decided to treat them the way you treat your stuff — roughly. We wore them to the weight room for 45-minute lifting sessions, followed immediately by a two-mile run, then left them on while we cooled down.
After the sweat stopped flowing like the Mississippi, we peeled out and let ‘em air dry in a pile in the laundry hamper, giving them multiple sniff tests to see if they made us gag. Then, we washed them, ignoring the laundering instructions on the tags, and tumbled them dry on low heat.
Finally, we tried them on again to see if they still fit. This test might not win an eighth-grade science fair or a Nobel Prize. But it should help answer your most essential questions before you plunk down $50 or more of your hard-earned cash for a tactical T-shirt advantage.
In evaluating the shirts, we considered:
• Price. Are they worth the money?
• Odor. How do they smell before and — especially — after wear?
• Performance. How well do they wick sweat during a workout and dry out after?
• Shrinkage. Can they survive a run through the dryer?
• Comfort. Do the sleeves constrict? Do the seams rub your skin raw?
• Tactical value. Do they come in a variety of military-appropriate colors? Do they have the right features for the field?
In the end, we dropped a few pounds and jumped to a few conclusions.
For one thing, you’re not going to get off cheap. If you want a $5 T, we hope you like cotton. FR performance T’s are going to run at least $30 each, and sometimes as much as $90. Luckily, most of them also offer anti-microbial properties, which help keep odor-causing bacteria in check, so you’ll probably need only a handful to get through a deployment.
Should you pay this much for performance? Honestly, some of the prices are in line with what troops are already paying for quality moisture-wicking T-shirts that offer little or no FR protection. To get the best of both worlds for the same price is like having your cake and eating it, too.
At least one FR model costs three times as much as a standard performance T-shirt, which really hurts the wallet. For that price, it better download MP3s and wash itself.
Our top pick comes from a group called Potomac Field Gear. The shirts fit right, they move moisture as well as top-end products like Under Armour do, and the company stands behind its internal testing for flame-resistance. The Marine Corps liked the shirts enough to ship them out to the war zone for wear testing, where after-action reports supplied by the company claim positive results. Considering the price is at the low end of the FR line, it seems like a win-win.
If you’re looking for the clingy, superhero costume feel of Under Armour, the best bet is XGO. Its shirts were neck and neck with PFG until we considered price, where the team at Potomac undercut XGO by 50 percent. With most factors running a dead heat, we favored saving $15 per shirt over feeling like Spider-Man. It’s a matter of personal preference, and we prefer to spend our cash on Red Bull and Copenhagen.
Honestly, our favorite T-shirt came from SmartWool, which doesn’t bill itself as FR and really isn’t chasing the military dollar. It just so happens that its blend of 100 percent merino wool is naturally flame-resistant and comfy. It wicks sweat like a dream, dries fast and feels awesome. It’s also $50, sized badly, and the closest thing to tactical is Air Force black. You’ll love it and find it absolutely useless for most field conditions.
And that’s where the balance comes in. Ultimately, you have to fight for your lives in this stuff. Flame resistance is a key, but so are comfort, utility and price.
And bear in mind, you really don’t need an FR T-shirt for the gym. You need one for combat missions.
Sometimes, your days go all to hell. Unfortunately, that’s where the flames are.
T-Shirt reviews
Safety Systems Corp: driFIRE long-sleeve T-shirt (www.drifire.com)
Retail price: $30 (short-sleeved version for $20).
Made of: Patented blend of 85 percent synthetic and 15 percent natural “dri-release” fibers.
FR marketing pitch: Company officials say their FR line is made from an innovative fiber that is both flame-resistant and moisture-wicking, plus UV-resistant, chemical resistant, hypoallergenic, anti-microbial and anti-static. Still in the prototype stages, the company is conducting a variety of independent lab tests and offering samples for military-grade testing.
Sizing: Since it is in the prototype stages of development, things could change. Our prototype large driFIRE fit like a large Under Armour HeatGear.
Smell test: Lost its new-shirt smell, but still lived to fight another day.
Dry test: Comfy during normal wear. Sogged up a little more than we’d like and felt heavy, but dried quickly. Overall, not bad.
Colors: Coming in a full range of tactical colors, including foliage green, olive drab and desert sand. Also coming in navy, white, ash gray and black, mostly to appeal to the civilian firefighter market.
Shrinkage: A spin in the dryer pulled it in like a Botox shot. We should have gone a size larger, laid off the Cheetos, or hung it up to dry. Or all three.
Availability: Coming in September to a civilian retailer or military exchange near you.
Comments: Interesting fabric blend, a little thicker than the average cotton or polyester-blend T, with little give. If you’ve got any love around the handles, you probably want to go a size larger. Odd thumbholes at the wrist cuff (part of possible military specs for the new long-sleeve T) keep the sleeves pulled down so you can tuck them into your gloves. Flat seams made for comfort in the gym.
SmartWool: Men’s Microweight Tee (www.smartwool.com)
Retail price: $50.
Made of: 100 percent superfine merino wool, which sounds itchy but totally isn’t.
FR marketing pitch: SmartWool promises to thrash the competition in moisture-wicking and comfort, but makes no claims with regard to flame resistance. Unlike a lot of companies, it’s not trying to win big contracts with a tactical design line. It’s just trying to make good gear for active people. We wouldn’t have even considered the shirts here, but we heard the Army gave them a hard look so we decided to jump on the bandwagon.
Sizing: XXL SmartWool fits like XL Under Armour HeatGear.
Smell test: Did we even wear this yet? Good enough to go again.
Dry test: Moved more water than Perrier. We almost forgot we were sweating.
Colors: Decidedly not tactical, sorry — except for the black. These are straight off the shelf, also available in royal blue, brick red and gray. But they could probably be dyed coyote ugly if someone asked nicely.
Shrinkage: This thing dries so quickly, we probably wouldn’t even need to put it in the dryer. But after 15 minutes on low heat, it was ready to wear again. A little smaller than before, but stretchy, and nothing we can’t live with.
Availability: Like they say on eBay, buy it now. (Actually, we saw some on eBay with a “buy-it-now” price slightly less than retail.)
Comments: Possibly the greatest T we’ve ever pulled over our heads. We’re considering two each of the black and gray. Doesn’t bill itself as flame-resistant, but wool is nature’s Nomex. Sports both a sizing tag and a “tagless” label — c’mon, pick one already — but at least the little tag isn’t itchy. Flat seams are soft and supercomfy. “Made in Fiji” means you’ll probably never be issued one (foreign products need a waiver), but these still rock.
Ops Technical Gear: Wool base layer T-shirt (www.opstechnicalgear.com)
Retail price: $55 for short sleeve ($60 for long sleeve).
Made of: 100 percent merino wool
FR marketing pitch: Aside from claiming not to “shrink wrap when it burns,” Ops Technical Gear doesn’t offer many FR promises. The gear is still in the prototype phase, but the materials are generally regarded as fire-resistant by clothing standards.
Sizing: Large prototype fit like a large Under Armour HeatGear shirt, only maybe a little shorter.
Smell test: Held up to odor better than the average cotton T-shirt, but nothing to write home about.
Dry test: Kept us dry, but felt soggy and heavy during our two-mile run.
Colors: Our prototype came in olive drab. No additional colors announced so far.
Shrinkage: What do you get when you toss an already short wool T in the dryer? A rag to scrub your boots with.
Availability: Available Nov. 1 directly from the manufacturer.
Comments: Upstart company has interesting ideas about design and fabrics for tactical outfits, but its wool base layers are better suited for cold-weather climates. Supersoft, with sturdy flat-seam stitching that didn’t rub or rip. Could be useful on a cold winter night, but didn’t do much for us as desert combat wear. Still, keep an eye on the company. Folks there are thinking outside the box.
XGO: Phase 1 Tactical T-Shirt (FR) (www.xgotactical.com)
Retail price: $44.99 for short sleeve ($53.99 for long sleeve).
Made of: 80 percent modacrylic, 20 percent fire-resistant rayon called “Acclimate Dry.”
FR marketing pitch: Company officials say their product is built primarily from a proven modacrylic fiber known for its flame-resistant properties. In fact, that fiber manufacturer goes so far as to label it “flame-retardant,” XGO officials said, a step up the FR food chain. While XGO isn’t calling it flame-retardant, officials did feel comfortable enough to send it to an independent lab for further testing. They’re adding tags suggesting that it has FR qualities, but they won’t promise it’ll save your life.
Sizing: XGO’s large fits like XL Under Armour HeatGear.
Smell test: Treated with “Scent Prevent” to kill odor-causing bacteria before they start, the fabric passes the sniff test. You might not take it off for days.
Dry test: Sliding into it made us feel like Batman. Felt great dry, hung in there when the sweat started to drip, dried fast after we took it off. Generally, we liked it.
Colors: The full military crayon box — olive drab, desert sand, coyote brown, black, white and navy.
Shrinkage: No more than Under Armour, and both still fit fine.
Availability: Already shipped to civilian retailers and military exchanges, so keep an eye out for ’em.
Comments: Pronounced “ex-gee-oh,” it’s a new line from the folks who brought you PolarMAX — longtime faves of deployed troops for staying cool in the heat or warm in the cold. Unique stitching design means no seams to rub on the shoulders, a definite plus. Other seams were flat, which would’ve been nice if the thread weren’t so scratchy. Tight collar felt like it was trying to choke us during the two-mile run. Visible logo on the sleeve could be a problem in uniform.
Potomac Field Gear: Lightweight FR Crew Neck T-Shirt (www.potomacfieldgear.com)
Retail price: $29.95, though we saw them discounted 10 percent online.
Made of: 75 percent modacrylic fibers, 10 percent spandex, 10 percent polyester, 5 percent X-Static.
FR marketing pitch: When we first saw these guys at a gear expo in January, company president Richard Bonin stuck a lighter to one to get our attention, something no other performance T maker had offered to do before. The competition is playing catch-up here, as Potomac Field Gear continues to rack up positive feedback reports from Marine units, Navy SEALs and more. They promote the shirts as “flame-resistant, high-performance, wicking base layer garments” with the FR part up front in bold. Sales have been so strong, and supplies so limited, the main supplier of the gear is giving priority to unit and agency orders.
Sizing: XL fits like XL Under Armour HeatGear, only longer. Tall people, can we get a “whoop whoop”?
Smell test: Thanks to the X-Static, five out of every 100 fibers are bonded with pure silver, giving the shirts anti-odor and anti-microbial properties. Johnson & Johnson uses the same fibers in some bandages to help reduce infections. Suffice it to say, our little trip to the gym had little effect.
Dry test: Dries quick, right up there with some of the best performance T’s on the market.
Colors: Battlefield-ready in black, desert sand, foliage green, coyote brown, olive drab, Army brown and navy blue.
Shrinkage: Dried on low heat, still fits fine.
Availability: Available now.
Comments: Thousands of troops are wearing these already, thanks to military and company testing programs, so ask around for second opinions. Standard T-shirt construction means rounded seams that aren’t doing you any favors but are by no means unbearable. Slightly longer than some other brands, which means it stays tucked in. Scratchy collar tags need a pair of scissors taken to them.
INSPORT: Nomex Defender Tee (www.insport.com)
Retail price: $90.
Made of: Body is 97 percent polyester, 3 percent X-Static; sleeves are 97 percent Nomex, 3 percent Lycra.
FR marketing pitch: Company officials claim the Defender was designed for use with the flame-resistant Interceptor body armor, proven to significantly protect the torso of wearers. That’s why they think the polyester torso isn’t a problem on the new FR shirt. The sleeves are Nomex fibers, long proven to offer heat and flame resistance in extreme conditions.
Sizing: The torso of the InSport large fits like a short Under Armour large HeatGear torso; its sleeves fit like an XL Under Armour LooseGear.
Smell test: Contains silver-bonded X-Static fibers for the anti-odor, anti-bacterial benefits, so you’ll stay fresh (contains about 40 percent less X-Static than Potomac, however, if you’re keeping score at home). Different fabrics for torso and sleeves have us wondering if different parts of the shirt will begin to stink at different times.
Dry test: Uses a Polartec Power Dry blend with heat-resistant textiles in the torso, which pushed out sweat and left us nice and dry. The Nomex sleeves felt like Ace bandages wrapped around our arms, which wasn’t uncomfortable but wasn’t the coolest long-sleeve we’ve tried.
Colors: Comes with a green body and tan sleeves — an odd look, but one you won’t confuse with the competition.
Shrinkage: On low heat, dried quickly without noticeable shrinking.
Availability: The Marine Corps recently ordered 11,000 for combat units. Coming Jan. 1 to retailers.
Comments: Unique blend of fabrics looks like a “Project Runway” reject, but whatever works. The wide cuffs were awkward, but when we tucked our thumbs through the well-designed holes, the fabric covered our hands nearly to the knuckles. Anyone who’s scraped a palm diving for cover will see an obvious upside. The Nomex sleeves wouldn’t be our first choice for workout wear, but the overall design makes sense.
Ellie
Hot debate
With flame-resistant fabric, your next T-shirt might save your skin
Stories by C. Mark Brinkley
Staff writer
Dry test: Comfy during normal wear. Sogged up a little more than we’d like and felt heavy, but dried quickly. Overall, not bad.
Every so often, tactical gear manufacturers swarm on a new idea. A few years ago, it was hydration bladders, the canteen of the future. A single company pioneered the concept, but now everyone has his own water bag, each product promising to pound the crap out of the competition in head-to-head testing. The gear world is also flooded with tiny, superbright flashlights, rugged backpacks and combat pouches in all sizes and shapes.
If the military can find a hole, industry will try to plug it, hoping to win your hard-earned dollars.
This year is no different, with the buzz centering on “high-performance FR T-shirts.” Flame-resistant, to keep you protected. Moisture-wicking, to keep you dry. The best of both worlds.
T-shirt fabrics generally do only one or the other extremely well. Polyester, favored by such performance apparel makers as Under Armour, moves water like Moses but melts and drips like wax when exposed to open flames. Likewise, the best flame-resistant fabrics — such as Nomex, long used to keep firefighters safe — aren’t particularly comfortable for combat.
Though polyester has long been known to melt and drip (it’s been banned in certain military specialties for years), the issue of safe synthetic combat T’s didn’t come to a boil until April. Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, the forward commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, ordered his troops — regardless of their jobs — to stop wearing the shirts during operations outside of military camps there because of the fire threat from rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices.
That decision spurred the services to take a closer look at their policies regarding synthetic athletic wear in combat zones.
“We all have very aggressive schedules,” said Francisco Martinez, a textile technology contractor at the Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass. “This is something that has been taken extremely seriously. ... We’re leveraging a lot of information among us. This is one of those examples of everyone working together.”
But apparel companies and fabric makers claim to have finally cracked the code on performance FR. Coming soon, to a tactical retailer or military exchange near you, are dozens of new products promising to keep you both safe and dry.
The verdict is still out on just how safe they are, but sidestepping banned synthetic fibers definitely gives them a leg up. Even as you read this, researchers from across the services are busy setting perfectly good shirts on fire, evaluating the claims made by the manufacturers. They’re testing the performance part, too, pushing out some of the best FR products to troops in the field for wear testing and feedback.
But those findings are still months away, and the marketing blitz is coming now. So, in the interim, we decided to see for ourselves what’s out there.
We tracked down a half-dozen new products and coming-soon prototypes from companies hoping to strike gold in the performance FR frenzy. Then, we put them through our own common-sense test and evaluation the same way you would, checking them for performance, fit and comfort.
Rather than hand them over to the lab geeks and replicate the bevy of tests your tax dollars are already funding, we decided to treat them the way you treat your stuff — roughly. We wore them to the weight room for 45-minute lifting sessions, followed immediately by a two-mile run, then left them on while we cooled down.
After the sweat stopped flowing like the Mississippi, we peeled out and let ‘em air dry in a pile in the laundry hamper, giving them multiple sniff tests to see if they made us gag. Then, we washed them, ignoring the laundering instructions on the tags, and tumbled them dry on low heat.
Finally, we tried them on again to see if they still fit. This test might not win an eighth-grade science fair or a Nobel Prize. But it should help answer your most essential questions before you plunk down $50 or more of your hard-earned cash for a tactical T-shirt advantage.
In evaluating the shirts, we considered:
• Price. Are they worth the money?
• Odor. How do they smell before and — especially — after wear?
• Performance. How well do they wick sweat during a workout and dry out after?
• Shrinkage. Can they survive a run through the dryer?
• Comfort. Do the sleeves constrict? Do the seams rub your skin raw?
• Tactical value. Do they come in a variety of military-appropriate colors? Do they have the right features for the field?
In the end, we dropped a few pounds and jumped to a few conclusions.
For one thing, you’re not going to get off cheap. If you want a $5 T, we hope you like cotton. FR performance T’s are going to run at least $30 each, and sometimes as much as $90. Luckily, most of them also offer anti-microbial properties, which help keep odor-causing bacteria in check, so you’ll probably need only a handful to get through a deployment.
Should you pay this much for performance? Honestly, some of the prices are in line with what troops are already paying for quality moisture-wicking T-shirts that offer little or no FR protection. To get the best of both worlds for the same price is like having your cake and eating it, too.
At least one FR model costs three times as much as a standard performance T-shirt, which really hurts the wallet. For that price, it better download MP3s and wash itself.
Our top pick comes from a group called Potomac Field Gear. The shirts fit right, they move moisture as well as top-end products like Under Armour do, and the company stands behind its internal testing for flame-resistance. The Marine Corps liked the shirts enough to ship them out to the war zone for wear testing, where after-action reports supplied by the company claim positive results. Considering the price is at the low end of the FR line, it seems like a win-win.
If you’re looking for the clingy, superhero costume feel of Under Armour, the best bet is XGO. Its shirts were neck and neck with PFG until we considered price, where the team at Potomac undercut XGO by 50 percent. With most factors running a dead heat, we favored saving $15 per shirt over feeling like Spider-Man. It’s a matter of personal preference, and we prefer to spend our cash on Red Bull and Copenhagen.
Honestly, our favorite T-shirt came from SmartWool, which doesn’t bill itself as FR and really isn’t chasing the military dollar. It just so happens that its blend of 100 percent merino wool is naturally flame-resistant and comfy. It wicks sweat like a dream, dries fast and feels awesome. It’s also $50, sized badly, and the closest thing to tactical is Air Force black. You’ll love it and find it absolutely useless for most field conditions.
And that’s where the balance comes in. Ultimately, you have to fight for your lives in this stuff. Flame resistance is a key, but so are comfort, utility and price.
And bear in mind, you really don’t need an FR T-shirt for the gym. You need one for combat missions.
Sometimes, your days go all to hell. Unfortunately, that’s where the flames are.
T-Shirt reviews
Safety Systems Corp: driFIRE long-sleeve T-shirt (www.drifire.com)
Retail price: $30 (short-sleeved version for $20).
Made of: Patented blend of 85 percent synthetic and 15 percent natural “dri-release” fibers.
FR marketing pitch: Company officials say their FR line is made from an innovative fiber that is both flame-resistant and moisture-wicking, plus UV-resistant, chemical resistant, hypoallergenic, anti-microbial and anti-static. Still in the prototype stages, the company is conducting a variety of independent lab tests and offering samples for military-grade testing.
Sizing: Since it is in the prototype stages of development, things could change. Our prototype large driFIRE fit like a large Under Armour HeatGear.
Smell test: Lost its new-shirt smell, but still lived to fight another day.
Dry test: Comfy during normal wear. Sogged up a little more than we’d like and felt heavy, but dried quickly. Overall, not bad.
Colors: Coming in a full range of tactical colors, including foliage green, olive drab and desert sand. Also coming in navy, white, ash gray and black, mostly to appeal to the civilian firefighter market.
Shrinkage: A spin in the dryer pulled it in like a Botox shot. We should have gone a size larger, laid off the Cheetos, or hung it up to dry. Or all three.
Availability: Coming in September to a civilian retailer or military exchange near you.
Comments: Interesting fabric blend, a little thicker than the average cotton or polyester-blend T, with little give. If you’ve got any love around the handles, you probably want to go a size larger. Odd thumbholes at the wrist cuff (part of possible military specs for the new long-sleeve T) keep the sleeves pulled down so you can tuck them into your gloves. Flat seams made for comfort in the gym.
SmartWool: Men’s Microweight Tee (www.smartwool.com)
Retail price: $50.
Made of: 100 percent superfine merino wool, which sounds itchy but totally isn’t.
FR marketing pitch: SmartWool promises to thrash the competition in moisture-wicking and comfort, but makes no claims with regard to flame resistance. Unlike a lot of companies, it’s not trying to win big contracts with a tactical design line. It’s just trying to make good gear for active people. We wouldn’t have even considered the shirts here, but we heard the Army gave them a hard look so we decided to jump on the bandwagon.
Sizing: XXL SmartWool fits like XL Under Armour HeatGear.
Smell test: Did we even wear this yet? Good enough to go again.
Dry test: Moved more water than Perrier. We almost forgot we were sweating.
Colors: Decidedly not tactical, sorry — except for the black. These are straight off the shelf, also available in royal blue, brick red and gray. But they could probably be dyed coyote ugly if someone asked nicely.
Shrinkage: This thing dries so quickly, we probably wouldn’t even need to put it in the dryer. But after 15 minutes on low heat, it was ready to wear again. A little smaller than before, but stretchy, and nothing we can’t live with.
Availability: Like they say on eBay, buy it now. (Actually, we saw some on eBay with a “buy-it-now” price slightly less than retail.)
Comments: Possibly the greatest T we’ve ever pulled over our heads. We’re considering two each of the black and gray. Doesn’t bill itself as flame-resistant, but wool is nature’s Nomex. Sports both a sizing tag and a “tagless” label — c’mon, pick one already — but at least the little tag isn’t itchy. Flat seams are soft and supercomfy. “Made in Fiji” means you’ll probably never be issued one (foreign products need a waiver), but these still rock.
Ops Technical Gear: Wool base layer T-shirt (www.opstechnicalgear.com)
Retail price: $55 for short sleeve ($60 for long sleeve).
Made of: 100 percent merino wool
FR marketing pitch: Aside from claiming not to “shrink wrap when it burns,” Ops Technical Gear doesn’t offer many FR promises. The gear is still in the prototype phase, but the materials are generally regarded as fire-resistant by clothing standards.
Sizing: Large prototype fit like a large Under Armour HeatGear shirt, only maybe a little shorter.
Smell test: Held up to odor better than the average cotton T-shirt, but nothing to write home about.
Dry test: Kept us dry, but felt soggy and heavy during our two-mile run.
Colors: Our prototype came in olive drab. No additional colors announced so far.
Shrinkage: What do you get when you toss an already short wool T in the dryer? A rag to scrub your boots with.
Availability: Available Nov. 1 directly from the manufacturer.
Comments: Upstart company has interesting ideas about design and fabrics for tactical outfits, but its wool base layers are better suited for cold-weather climates. Supersoft, with sturdy flat-seam stitching that didn’t rub or rip. Could be useful on a cold winter night, but didn’t do much for us as desert combat wear. Still, keep an eye on the company. Folks there are thinking outside the box.
XGO: Phase 1 Tactical T-Shirt (FR) (www.xgotactical.com)
Retail price: $44.99 for short sleeve ($53.99 for long sleeve).
Made of: 80 percent modacrylic, 20 percent fire-resistant rayon called “Acclimate Dry.”
FR marketing pitch: Company officials say their product is built primarily from a proven modacrylic fiber known for its flame-resistant properties. In fact, that fiber manufacturer goes so far as to label it “flame-retardant,” XGO officials said, a step up the FR food chain. While XGO isn’t calling it flame-retardant, officials did feel comfortable enough to send it to an independent lab for further testing. They’re adding tags suggesting that it has FR qualities, but they won’t promise it’ll save your life.
Sizing: XGO’s large fits like XL Under Armour HeatGear.
Smell test: Treated with “Scent Prevent” to kill odor-causing bacteria before they start, the fabric passes the sniff test. You might not take it off for days.
Dry test: Sliding into it made us feel like Batman. Felt great dry, hung in there when the sweat started to drip, dried fast after we took it off. Generally, we liked it.
Colors: The full military crayon box — olive drab, desert sand, coyote brown, black, white and navy.
Shrinkage: No more than Under Armour, and both still fit fine.
Availability: Already shipped to civilian retailers and military exchanges, so keep an eye out for ’em.
Comments: Pronounced “ex-gee-oh,” it’s a new line from the folks who brought you PolarMAX — longtime faves of deployed troops for staying cool in the heat or warm in the cold. Unique stitching design means no seams to rub on the shoulders, a definite plus. Other seams were flat, which would’ve been nice if the thread weren’t so scratchy. Tight collar felt like it was trying to choke us during the two-mile run. Visible logo on the sleeve could be a problem in uniform.
Potomac Field Gear: Lightweight FR Crew Neck T-Shirt (www.potomacfieldgear.com)
Retail price: $29.95, though we saw them discounted 10 percent online.
Made of: 75 percent modacrylic fibers, 10 percent spandex, 10 percent polyester, 5 percent X-Static.
FR marketing pitch: When we first saw these guys at a gear expo in January, company president Richard Bonin stuck a lighter to one to get our attention, something no other performance T maker had offered to do before. The competition is playing catch-up here, as Potomac Field Gear continues to rack up positive feedback reports from Marine units, Navy SEALs and more. They promote the shirts as “flame-resistant, high-performance, wicking base layer garments” with the FR part up front in bold. Sales have been so strong, and supplies so limited, the main supplier of the gear is giving priority to unit and agency orders.
Sizing: XL fits like XL Under Armour HeatGear, only longer. Tall people, can we get a “whoop whoop”?
Smell test: Thanks to the X-Static, five out of every 100 fibers are bonded with pure silver, giving the shirts anti-odor and anti-microbial properties. Johnson & Johnson uses the same fibers in some bandages to help reduce infections. Suffice it to say, our little trip to the gym had little effect.
Dry test: Dries quick, right up there with some of the best performance T’s on the market.
Colors: Battlefield-ready in black, desert sand, foliage green, coyote brown, olive drab, Army brown and navy blue.
Shrinkage: Dried on low heat, still fits fine.
Availability: Available now.
Comments: Thousands of troops are wearing these already, thanks to military and company testing programs, so ask around for second opinions. Standard T-shirt construction means rounded seams that aren’t doing you any favors but are by no means unbearable. Slightly longer than some other brands, which means it stays tucked in. Scratchy collar tags need a pair of scissors taken to them.
INSPORT: Nomex Defender Tee (www.insport.com)
Retail price: $90.
Made of: Body is 97 percent polyester, 3 percent X-Static; sleeves are 97 percent Nomex, 3 percent Lycra.
FR marketing pitch: Company officials claim the Defender was designed for use with the flame-resistant Interceptor body armor, proven to significantly protect the torso of wearers. That’s why they think the polyester torso isn’t a problem on the new FR shirt. The sleeves are Nomex fibers, long proven to offer heat and flame resistance in extreme conditions.
Sizing: The torso of the InSport large fits like a short Under Armour large HeatGear torso; its sleeves fit like an XL Under Armour LooseGear.
Smell test: Contains silver-bonded X-Static fibers for the anti-odor, anti-bacterial benefits, so you’ll stay fresh (contains about 40 percent less X-Static than Potomac, however, if you’re keeping score at home). Different fabrics for torso and sleeves have us wondering if different parts of the shirt will begin to stink at different times.
Dry test: Uses a Polartec Power Dry blend with heat-resistant textiles in the torso, which pushed out sweat and left us nice and dry. The Nomex sleeves felt like Ace bandages wrapped around our arms, which wasn’t uncomfortable but wasn’t the coolest long-sleeve we’ve tried.
Colors: Comes with a green body and tan sleeves — an odd look, but one you won’t confuse with the competition.
Shrinkage: On low heat, dried quickly without noticeable shrinking.
Availability: The Marine Corps recently ordered 11,000 for combat units. Coming Jan. 1 to retailers.
Comments: Unique blend of fabrics looks like a “Project Runway” reject, but whatever works. The wide cuffs were awkward, but when we tucked our thumbs through the well-designed holes, the fabric covered our hands nearly to the knuckles. Anyone who’s scraped a palm diving for cover will see an obvious upside. The Nomex sleeves wouldn’t be our first choice for workout wear, but the overall design makes sense.
Ellie