Best color for shirt?

I’m a fan of the Columbia Low Drag Offshore LS shirt.  LOVE the fabric as it is very light, stretchy and dries almost instantly.  I have this shirt in both white and light grey and love them both.  The white cleans up amazing well and for me, nothing is better in the sun.

JCH I concur!

I just bought my third! Can be a wee bit fragile (doesn’t tear but pills a wee bit doesn’t affect the function at all) if you constantly rub the inner arms on the 3D spacer mesh of your shoulder straps when walking-I am a non stick user most of the time. I have been recommending these to people in Oz for about a year-never been sun touched through it in two Australian summers. Cut off the tags and you get a really (non fishing looking shirt -it has a rod holder on the chest!) nice looking shirt. Have the bone colour, light grey and now lightish blue. Just excellent.

Only problem is the inner collar and wrists are always white no matter the colour of the shirt and they get dirty quick in the dry- but I agree again with JCH, they wash up a treat (and dry in a blink).

Wore it in cold weather also over a LW Pata Cap LS at 2 Celcius and shorts-warm and comfy while moving. Seeming to be the perfect layer, irrespective of the weather-above freezing. Not used below freezing yet.

BTW dark colours attract mozzies and light bright colours (needn’t be white) works best for full sun.

As a medical professional, I’d recommend adding UV protection on your list. Taken from Skin Cancer Foundation website:

“Color: The color of your clothing can affect how well it protects you from UV rays. Dark or bright colors, including red, black and navy blue, absorb more UV rays than lighter colors like whites and pastels. For example, an everyday white cotton T-shirt has a UPF of only about 5. As a rule of thumb, the more intense the hue, the better protection the clothing will provide.

Construction: Like color, the material, weave and texture of your clothing can affect how well it protects you from UV rays. Synthetic and semisynthetic fibers like polyester or rayon are the best choices for sun protection, as are dense, heavy, tightly woven fabrics like wool, denim or corduroy. On the opposite end of the spectrum are natural and lightweight fabrics (think: bleached or refined cotton, crepe, and silk), which tend to be thinner and let more light pass through.”

And of course look for something with higher UPF (50 or greater, ideally). Having said all that, Columbia has great high-UPF clothes that also simultaneously cool the skin and are thicker, thus reducing the insect bites. I use their Omni-Shade stuff for fastpacking one Southern Oregon and the Sierras. Pretty great stuff. You can treat it with insect repellant too. ExOfficio also has some good sun-protective clothing with insect repellant in it.

That’s my two cents!

The Silver Ridge Lite claims SPF 40 and I have it in Light Gray to hopefully reflect a little heat in desert and exposed mountain conditions. There’s a bit of piling and a thorn snagged a small hole in a forearm … in Oregon of all places; it is advertised as “lite” and the fabric is a bit thinner (good and bad I guess).  During the humid part of the PCT I rolled up the sleeves for a more drying as the armpit region got irritated .. wasn’t a super-problem.   All in all a very versatile shirt.

So good, thinking about some iron-on patches for the hole and maybe the piling.

And as someone who hikes in the desert, darker colors feel hotter than lighter ones. While I care about UV exposure, when the shirt has a relatively high UV block rating, I don’t think that needs to be very high on the list given if one is hotter, they are more incline to mistakenly expose their skin to the sun (as many mistake drier for cooler) or just not wear the shirt in the first place. For sunshits, I always pick tan/khaki/earthtone colors. Not fond of actual white due to how easy it shows dirt. As for attactting insects, I’ve heard bright blue and other colors that resemble flowers may do just that. So pick a non-flower color. For the shirt in question, I’d tend for the light grey or the weird green tone one.

That said, I much prefer Rail Rider shirts for the sun as they have mesh along the bottom of the arms and along the sides of the torso. I hiked the PCT in one 10 years ago (and still have it) and use it and another one I have (that has insect shield in it that the original didn’t) in desert and other highly exposed to the sun hikes. I mainly use a variation of their Journey Man Shirts, though their adventure top and Mojave Sun Shirt (basically their classic eco-mesh shirt) all have similar features. They have other shirts that are suppose to breath really well, but I have no experience with them. I mainly get their Tan/Khaki/Loden colors which are light color earth tones that tend to blend in.

The Rail Riders shirts get lots of praise, which I’m certain is well deserved, but I’m such a huge fan of the material used in the Columbia Low Drag Offshore (SPF 40) combined with the significantly lower price ($55 vs $90) and the fact that you can almost always find the Columbia on sale means I’ve never tried the RR.

re: Insect protection – I always send all of my hiking clothing to Insect Shield for treatment, a process which does introduce a small amount of shrinkage.  Columbia’s sizes are, shall we say generous, so I find their M to fit well where I usually wear an L in other brands.  After treatment, a Columbia L is still a little loose, which turns out to work very well in the sun and heat, or when layering the shirt over a base layer in the cooler months.

When I worked in Saudi Arabia in the late ’80s, I quickly came to the conclusion that wearing a dark colored shirt was the wrong thing to do. There being no shade at all in the desert, I would quite quickly overheat. The legs didn’t suffer nearly as much as the torso. I settled upon light gray and light tan as my colors of choice. The shirts that seemed to offer the best sun protection, as well as ventilation, were the Ex-Officio long sleeve shirts. I think they were called “Air Strip” shirts. I still use them. I also have a Columbia LS shirt that I like. It is a light yellow, and I don’t really notice that bugs are attracted to it (at least here in Colorado).

Now that I’ve modified my tan BPL Thorofare shirts (I added a second chest pocket to them), they are my new favorite shirts for general hiking. They seem to breathe OK, but I think that they also offer some degree of ‘windproofness’ over other shirts.

I think the hue doesn’t matter as much as the saturation. I would get a light shade of whatever color you like.

I have NEVER received any noticeable sun exposure under any shirt, even in very harsh sun conditions.  I have burned with sunscreen and unprotected areas plenty.  Experience tells me, though, than all shirts provide enough UV protection.

Plaid. Because I am contractually required to as a bearded white-dude who spends a lot of time outdoors

Haha P Mag, Thats the best suggestion yet, being a white dude with a beard myself.

I’ve taken a few surveys of mosquitos – counting the bugs on people at Alaskan gatherings.  Same day, same time, same setting.  And very dark clothes – black and navy blue – have 5x more mosquitos on them than very light clothes – white, off white, tan or light gray.

Hot weather AND bugs?  Definitely light-colored clothes!

I’m with you Dave. I live in Minnesota, and while our bugs are not as bad as yours, they are more than pesky here. I use Railriders Bug Off shirts in light colors.

Pmags has it all wrong.  I find an orange jumpsuit to be the ideal repellent for other people on the trail.  When I want solitude, that’s my go to outfit.

An orange jumpsuit with ‘State Penitentiary” written on it?

Cheers

I think I have almost every columbia tamiami shirt available in long sleeve and short, its their lightest weight fishing shirt that dries quickly and last a long time with regular washing. I’m 5 got 7 165lbs and wear a size small. I would choose the white and prewash with permethrin clothing treatment wash from Sawyer to keep the bugs away. Even better columbia has a featherweight hiking shirt and pants, new version is $100 for shirt and $110 for pants, and if you can find the old version in your size its around $65 at REI, and the tamiami can be between $20 at amazon and $48 most other places. No I’m not a columbia junkie, maybe just a lil bit. Good luck.

I find an orange jumpsuit to be the ideal repellent for other people on the trail.  When I want solitude, that’s my go to outfit.

That’ll work.  Although personally I wouldn’t get anywhere near your campsite if you were packing a darbuka :)

Recent research indicates zebra stripes help with bugs.

for me theres nothing like cotton against my sensitive skin. patagonia’s long history of developing fabric blends is one of its virtues. the 65 poly / 35 cotton blend in the island hopper shirt has – along with its features/construction,made it my fave hiking & fishing & boating shirt for more than 15 years. light tan w/ a subtle plaid pattern.the 35% cotton content is enuf 4 a cotton-feel,yet not enuf to make it weak, and it dries qwik. and unlike most hiking shirts it’s goodlookn enuf to wear on the town.

Recent research indicates zebra stripes help with bugs.

Go vertical for the slimming effect at the beginning of your through hike and horizontal for the end when you look emaciated.

I second PMags on plaid. It doesn’t readily show dirt. It doesn’t readily show sweat. Columbia puts out new Low Drag plaids about every 6 months and puts older plaids on sale. I’m sending 2 for the Insect Shield treatment. I’ve had other Columbia PFG shirts that are similar, but none are on par with the Low Drag!

Cheers,
Bill in Roswell, Ga