The Undershirt Sweat Challenge: Moisture Wicking vs. Non-Moisture Wicking Undershirts
Well yesterday was day 1 of the unofficial “Sweat Challenge” as I attempt to compare the effects of sweating in a moisture wicking undershirt compared to that of a non-moisture wicking undershirt. The goal is to determine whether or not a moisture wicking undershirt would make the effects of sweating through to an outer layer worse than if you wore a non-wicking undershirt.
The challenge was inspired by this post:
Does a moisture wicking undershirt make the situation of sweating through to an outer layer of fabric worse?
Click here to see the entire Undershirt Sweat Challenge Series.
The test subject: The 4.5 oz. 64% cotton/36% Coolmax polyester v-neck undershirt from Duluth trading company. Yes, I do plan to write up a proper review on this undershirt.
The test: 40-minute cardiovascular work out on the elliptical while wearing two layers of shirts. First layer is the moisture wicking v-neck undershirt, size large. It’s big on me and there’s plenty of room between my body and the undershirt. The important thing here is that our test subject above is a blend of Cotton and Coolmax. I would have to assume that an undershirt that’s made out of 100% moisture wicking fabric would pull more moisture away from my body, so this is a good intermediate test. Second layer, typical oversized t-shirt.
Initial Results: At the conclusion of the workout, I pulled off both shirts to take a look. I had hoped to grab some pictures of them, but I was having technical difficulties with my camera phone (damn that thing).
The outer t-shirt was not notably wet with exception to the front collar area, which was considerably soaked through with sweat. Since the under layer was a v-neck undershirt, the sweat from my chest easily made its way through to the outer t-shirt and created a rather large sweat ring round the crewneck collar of the t-shirt which was slightly deeper than the v-neck opening underneath. This got me thinking, that if you sweat a lot on your chest, you’re probably better off sporting a crewneck undershirt instead of a v-neck to minimize the amount of sweat that seeps through to your outerwear.
The undershirt itself showed noticeable sweat marks on the outer side of the undershirt in the armpit area, around the front of the collar, and the entire back side of the shirt. The rest of the undershirt had light sweat stains on the outer side in a few areas. The inner side of the undershirt had a pretty even layer of moisture all around it.
Subjectively, didn’t noticeably feel any cooler or warmer than I normally do when working out. So no good or bad news there.
Since I don’t have anything to compare it to yet, I can’t say how it compares to other undershirts. I’m going to try to get in another workout later tonight so I can tryout a 100% cotton undershirt so stay tuned.
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