Odor control shirts

I know you said wool is the best already, but let me tell you this.  Wool is the best.  I purchased my first last fall.  Wore it on a 16 mile hike with a 20# pack on a 70 degree day climbing a 3000′ ridge, then back down again.  Wore it for another couple weeks after that riding my bike back and forth to work, and as an undershirt under my work shirt.  Still did not smell.  nuf said.

anything with polygiene (T1/2/3, Cap 1/2/4) is pretty good these days, perhaps not as good a merino but  generally cheaper and much more durable for the weight … or are there moth issues

not to mention that it dries much quicker in constant humidity environments (no sun), and you can easily rinse it out in a stream and itll be dry quite quickly

;)

Other than wool, I’ve had very good luck with nylon hiking shirts (or so all the people who gave me rides from the trailheads said…).

Polyester shirts (for me) are FUUUUUNNKY in the extreme, but nylon seems not to absorb the smell, and doesn’t develop “perma-stink”.  I wore a single nylon shirt for the whole CT (500 miles) and — to my amazement — it still looks/smells new.

@embracestardumb – I prefer a blended fabric like Rab’s MeCo, which is 2/3 wool and 1/3 Cocona (recycled coconut fibers that perform like synthetic). This gives the odor-fighting and thermoregulation benefits of wool, plus faster dry-time and greater durability of synthetic. I’ve worn one of these shirts for three weeks in a row without any stink (according to strictest tests available – my wife’s nose).

I’ve tried Devold’s blend, which is quite good, but this is basically a layer of synthetic against your skin to move the moisture away quickly, and then a layer wool on the outside. More affordable options, like Terramar Thermawool or Costco brand, have a such low wool content that I question how well they perform over pure synthetics.

What temps and conditions are you looking at?

If consistently warm and fairly dry the majority of the time, 100% linen and 100% hemp fabrics have excellent odor control, and are much tougher than Merino in a thinner, non highly worsted nor felted article of clothing.

They are also naturally cooling, while feeling dryer noticeably faster than cotton. (because linen and hemp fibers are like hollow, tubular absorbent straws, vs the solid, flat ribbon structure and sponge like nature of cotton).

Not good for winter, colder temps, or cool and constantly wet conditions though.

I have a slight majority nylon, slight minority (almost half and half) tencel shirt that is fairly good in a lot of areas, but again not good for winter or colder temps or cool and constantly wet conditions.

I like MeCo for in between conditions, where it’s not too warm nor too cold.  Fall and early Spring type.  It works decently in more extreme cold conditions (near 0* F or below), but i prefer fishnet and Cap 4 type high void, grid fleece more for those conditions.

I’ve found polygiene hit or miss.  Some polygiene stuff i have is pretty decent at reducing odor, and others–like my OR ls white Echo shirt seems to have lost it pretty quick nor was as good as the others from the get go.  Polygiene is added during the dyeing process of synthetics–apparently it bonds to the fiber while the dye bonds to the fiber substrate).  I know some synthetics are white/whitish in their natural state, so maybe the white versions don’t end up treated the same way?  I’ve wondered if maybe only the underarm (much darker fabric) was polygiene treated on my OR white Echo shirt.

Besides, apparently many Asian folks have just different enough genetics as compared to Caucasians as to not smell as much (or produce the same kind of ear wax) as a trend (according to Colin who mentioned this).  So maybe don’t take synthetic smell advice from those using Asian bodies, if your body is a white one since it won’t apply quite the same?  Asians have been saying for many centuries that us Caucasians are smelly, and apparently they were right!

(I’ve found that a healthy diet, general healthy lifestyle [regular exercise, positive attitudes, meditation, low anger/stress etc], eating mostly vegetarian, etc helps in the odor area).