Patagonia Capilene 4 hoody. Antimicrobial / smell??

I think the last 5-7 years of Capilene have been much better in regards to smell than previous iterations; maybe I'm just lucky and have little body odor :) I know my R1 pieces do very well in regards to odor control

for longer trips, I think wool will always trump syn in regards to odor, but syns have been steadily improving

I've got a cap 4 hoody on order as we speak :)

FWIW, I think Capilene and similar synthetics have improved greatly with respect to odor management. I did a lot of winter trail running 10 years ago in temps of 20-30F and used Capilene and similar synthetics. Those had to be washed after each use. 8 years ago, I jumped on merino wool because of the stink issue. I still love merino for true stop-and-go activities like resort snow skiing, where the wet weight of wool is less important that its ability to stay warm when sweaty under a shell and you have time to let it dry when it is on you.

Now, for backpacking and climbing I whole-heartedly am back to the improved synthetics. I typically have Capilene 1 or Arcteryx Phase LT under everything regardless of temperature and use Arcteryx SV or the new Stryka hoody on top of that. That's an individual thing — I heat up fast and cool down fast, so I need to transfer the sweat moisture quickly out to the shell. There's less of an odor issue now. Last climbing trip, the odor only started manifesting on the third day but we were in cool temps at altitude, which does a lot for airing you out.

The new Cap 4 layers look great. I have those wishlisted and am waiting for some sort of discount :)

I usually ending up stinking out a poly baselayer in a day but have found that the R1 and R2 stuff to be pretty good about not smelling. The same for the R .5 which is no longer made. The Capilene stuff still smells bad I find. Whether it is Gladiodor or the coconut stuff they used to use, for me it really does not work. Visa Endurance helped some with Power Dry helping more but the best I found was the 50/50 blend T's. Still some stink but much, much reduced. Wool is okay but it doesn't dry that fast and it tends to wear out pretty fast when compared with poly. The Cap 4 should do pretty good being made from Power Dry with maybe just a very light smell when you are really close on it. Weird thing is I don't stink at all in cotton.

Thanks everyone for your input.

I just bought one of the new hoodys and love it. It controls odor better than normal synthetics but not as good as wool. I am using it after a merino one layer now and find that odor is not an issue even after several days. Great layer.

The large size comes in closer to 9 ounces. I felt that it ran small and sized up. I usually wear a medium. But I am also using it as a mid, not base layer.

I'm a loooong-time Patagonia advocate, but I've recently been using more and more Arc'teryx stuff. I have Patagonia base layers dating-back as far as the mid 1990s and they're still going strong though they may stink a bit. I've found that Patagonia isn't as well made as it was, but in terms of stink they still reign supreme. I recently bought some Arc'teryx base layers [to try] and after about 6-8 uses, they permanently stink … all that 'performance' for about $25 more than the Patagonia equivalent. I'll be sticking with Patagonia, for base layers at least, in the future.