Performance cotton

Athletic clothes maker Under Armour has released “cotton…only better” - Charged Cotton - that promises to wick and dry better than regular cotton. In my search for info on this purported cotton improvement I stumbled across a blog stranger than OBOW - The Undershirt Guy! - see his test results here.

(Brad)

Update on March 24, 2011 by Frank@OBOW

The drama! OBOW has got to get one of these enviro test chambers…

Update on March 25, 2011 by Frank@OBOW

Maria reports that the new UA Charged Cotton fabric does dry faster than regular cotton (though not five times faster - surprise, surprise) and she has pictures to prove it. The UA shirt is on the right. From the darkness of the fabric you can see that the cotton shirt on the left (all cotton, of similar weight and color) is still wet while the UA shirt is largely dry. This is instant research — she heard about it last night, bought it this morning, and tested it today. An OBOW gold star for Maria!

I’ll leave it to Maria to provide further comments below.

(Brad)

Comments

[Maria]

Actually, I am intrigued! Many tech fabrics are a little too close for me and feel like plastic - even if they do dry faster! - and would prefer a cotton or natural fibre fabric. Thank you Brad for bringing the brand to my attention. I checked the website and you can locate nearby stores that sell the line. Several are blocks away - so I shall check them out. Even for just a summer top, these may work.

[Brad]

Maria, do give us your review/impressions.

[Maria]

I shall!

(I'm now on a mission!)

[MaxD]

I like to get the grey heather JerZees from Target. For some reason this color is 50/50 cotton/poly. The rest are 100% cotton. Also, I like many of the cotton blends these days...it's not like wearing some polyester 1970's v-neck softball jersey. My current favorites are these: http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___33509

They are 85 poly/15 cotton. Very cheap and I like them for double duty as under shirt and work out tee.

I would like to try out the under armour ones...I'd be interest to see if they perform like regular cotton when all sweaty adn wet.

[Maria]

Tomorrow, I'll compare my new "Charged Cotton" Under Armour tee to a regular cotton tee of the same thickness - see how fast it dries when they are both wet and then hung to dry together. Granted, wearing it out and about in the summer heat and humidity would be the best test. (Too much snow and ice on the ground for me to do that test yet.)

[Maria]

Thank you Brad. I've purchased quite a few products based on recommendations / comments / suggestions from this site! No complaints from me!

Tested the Under Armour women's "charged cotton" short sleeve tee. I bought the black - which looked like faded "dusty black" right in the store! It is very soft, and not very thin - I feared it would be in order to "dry faster" as claimed. The shirt length is longer than expected - good to keep tucked into trousers that way. Made in Peru, 95% cotton, 5% elastane. Tag indicated not to use fabric softener. It does have a label / emblem on the front left chest and the brand name on the right sleeve - wish it were otherwise. They cannot be removed.

For comparison, I washed a regular 100% cotton short sleeve tee and the Under Armour tee in the sink - no soap, as they weren't dirty. Shirts same size and style, about same weight when dry. The Under Armour took longer to soak up the water, was much easier to twist out the excess water, plus it dried faster - certainly not "Five times faster". I did not roll them in a towel. Under Armour tee took 3 1/2 hours to dry fully, the regular tee was about 3/4 dry in that time. The real test will be wearing it out in the summer heat and humidity when moving about. Obviously hanging to dry in a heated home with dry winter air helped in the "test." The shirt was soft to touch but did feel different when wet - almost "slick". I'm looking forward to trying it out when the weather warms up actually.

Will I buy more - if they are truly better / more comfortable in real heat and humidity compared to the regular tee then it will really be worth the price; or if they go on sale; if they sell them without the lables / brand mark. Still, I'm intrigued.

My Icebreaker wool layers dried faster than the Under Armour cotton tee. Although I wash those Icebreaker pieces in the machine and they go on a spin cycle. I'm going to look into their summer weight tops too.

Cheers!

[Paul Z]

Behold the power of the internet! This is interesting. I may have to get one of these and test it against my Tilley and TravelSmith synthetic undershirts.

[Dan]

Recently I was at the Modells sporting store and noticed these
Under Armour performance cotton tees there. After readig the
above posts I am tempted to take a second look.

[Maria]

PaulZ - suspect that the microfibre wil still dry much faster, as least when washed and hung to dry. I have several pair of TIlley underwear and it seems they dry in minutes compared to regular cotton undies when I have travelled with both.