The Age of Base Layers...

(This headline is from SGB Magazine)

The sub headline reads as follows; “Sure Winter Jackets Bear The Brunt Of Winter Forces, But It’s The Critical Base layer That Does The Heavy Hitting.”

Having read the article I decided to research what the meaning of “base layers” is as pertains to the outdoor industry. The place I looked was Wikipedia. Their definition starts out “Layered clothing is a term describing a way of dressing using many garments that are worn on top of each other. Some layers have different, largely non-overlapping, functions.” They further state the following; “Outdoor and sportswear manufacturers favor layered clothing because, among other reasons, it allows them to offer so-called “technical” or “functional” clothing which are optimized for the particular demands of a specific layer.” (My opinion is so they can sell more different garments regardless if they actually function.)

They then list the various layers of which I will only discuss the first shown as “1.1 inner or base layer”. Their explanation which is taken directly from what sellers say of this layer is as follows; “The purpose of the inner layer is to draw the sweat away from the skin to the next layers, which makes the wearer feel warmer and more comfortable. The transfer of moisture happens due to capillary action, sometimes called wicking. The used materials are called wicking materials. When moisture has moved from the skin into (nonabsorbent) clothing, it has more surface area and will evaporate faster.” This last sentence makes no sense what so ever. If the material is nonabsorbent capable how can the sweat move away from the skin surface so it can evaporate? The answer is it cannot.

They further list the materials used for the base layer garments, wool, silk and cotton which are absorbent materials and the synthetics which are not. They do not describe the way the fabrics are knitted but the SGB article does.

The SBG article describes garments from the following companies; Smartwool, Columbia, Marmot, Arc’teryx, Bergans, Obermeyer, and Tasc. Each of these companies utilizes either wool, polyester or as in the case of Tasc a viscose fiber from bamboo or cotton.Looking at the pictures all I see are complete knitted garments, Smartwool describes their garment as “interlock” knitted, Columbia is using a Polartec material which is probably a fleece of some sort and while the other companies do not mention how the fabric is made it really makes no difference, they are all overall knitted fabrics that are worn close to the skin as in against it. This tells us that any and all moisture created by the person wearing one of these garments against their skin in a cold situation they would ultimately get a chill if they were to sweat.

These companies have employees who concentrate on image and have no interest in learning how the body actually functions and therefore, what structure the material should be if they want to get rid of sweat the most efficient way. Of course the answer is and always has been since 1932 when the Norwegian military officer created the “string” underwear the forerunner to fishnet underwear.

A friend of mine once told me that employees of companies in the outdoor industry like to read my newsletters/commentary which is flattering, and if that is the case they do not seem to learn from me as consumers do. Now if anyone buys these garments and wears them over fishnets they the wearer will be warm so long as this second layer is lose fitting versus skin tight fitting.