subject: Best Moisture Wicking Materials for Golf Apparel [print this page] Best Moisture Wicking Materials for Golf Apparel
It wasn't too long ago my closet was full of 100% cotton golf shirts. It was the only fabric I would wear. Today all of those shirts have been donated to Goodwill. My golf shirt wardrobe now includes nothing but moisture wicking fabric styles. A little over a year ago I tried finding a moisture wicking golf hat, all to no avail. So I decided to make my own line of hats. First, I had to do a little research on the whole subject of moisture wicking.
It seems now every golf shirt has a hangtag with some sort of claim about how the material wicks away moisture and keeps you cool and dry. How can you tell which ones really work well and which ones are just making a false claim?
In my research I found a lot of technical jargon, which was pretty confusing to anyone without a chemical engineering degree. I'll try and keep that to a minimum and just report the findings in a way all of us normal people can understand.
To start let's go back to my cotton shirt collection. Materials such as cotton absorb moisture. Cotton acts much like a sponge. As you perspire the cotton sucks up the moisture and holds it. The more you perspire the more it absorbs and gets heavier and heavier. The rate of evaporation is slow. It becomes more like a puddle of water than a fine mist.
Moisture wicking materials on the other hand do not absorb water. These materials do what is called Adsorption. Adsorption essentially creates a mist of the molecules and the evaporation rate is relatively fast. The water molecules quickly spread to a large area on the surface of the garment allowing for faster evaporation. An example would be wiping a chalkboard with a damp towel. The moisture quickly evaporates as it spreads over a large porous surface.
What I have found in my research is that moisture wicking materials are not all created equal. The ability and methods used to adsorb moisture varies. Many materials use chemical additives to promote adsorption, others use a proprietary polyester, and others promote adsorption naturally. The bottom line is the natural adsorption is better. First, the natural fabric adsorption properties will last the life of the material while chemically treated fabrics will eventually lose their adsorption capabilities over time and repeated washing.
Second, drying time is faster. I cannot find any quantitative data on the subject of which type has the fastest drying time but it is my experience the naturally made fabrics are faster. I have washed both types together and the natural fabric is dryer when it comes out of the washer.
Third and importantly, it is my opinion the natural products feel much better on skin. The chemically treated fabrics and 100% polyesters do not feel as soft or comfortable.
Nature offers us bamboo and coconut shells to make these moisture wicking fabrics. Both work extremely well. My preference is coconut, which is found in a fabric called Cocona Fabric. It is available from a number of name brand manufacturers of shirts, pants, and outerwear. Checkout Cocona Fabrics' website for list of all the major brands.
Once I found Cocona the next step was the hat design but that is another story. Cocona, I believe is one of the best if not the best moisture wicking fabric. It is the most comfortable hat you can wear and dries 8 times faster than cotton. Checkout the video from Cocona to see how this amazing fabric really works.
Some more good news about bamboo and coconut based fabrics. Both are environment friendly since they are sustainable products. I'm not an environment nut, but I do try and do the right thing these days when I can. Every little bit helps. And just as important, these products offer natural UV protection. 4HeadWear hats for instance have a 48 UPF rating (blocks 96% of UV rays) and as a bald guy that is much appreciated.
