I’ve have a short sleeve sport t-shirt, that I probably bought almost a decade ago at an REI sale, that is one of my favorite pieces of clothing. This shirt is so used that it’s now getting small holes in it and replacing has now becoming urgent. That shirt has become my de facto “long flight” shirt as it does such a good job of keeping me dry and comfy.

I’ve basically been trying to buy more of/find a replacement ever since I bought it. The original brand seemed to have discontinued making shirts in this fabric around the time I purchased it. I’ve tried many, many, many different brands of “performance” outdoor shirts in a plethora of different fabrics but no fabric has even come close in terms of casual comfort. I even tried two different types of shirts from the same brand and neither fabric could hold a candle to the original. The one piece of luck I’ve had is that the tag in this shirt actually identities the fabric as “Coolmax Alta”. Researching this stuff online revels that “Alta” Coolmax is a denser weave than the other Coolmax series fabrics so it does a better job of wicking moister away from the body and won’t pill (most Coolmax fabrics do pill). The down side is that it is “warmer” which probably explains why it isn’t as popular as all of the new super light weight fabrics on the market (which FYI – pill and run like crazy).

Anyways, after Googling for the fabric brand I found RaceReady.com which sells long sleeve Coolmax Alta shirts and immediately placed an order. I can’t wait!