Long-sleeved outdoors shirt with Berghaus's Argentium anti-odour treatment arrives.
We have to admit that our normal outdoors preference is for a long-sleeved baselayer top, but recently arrived, just in time for summer, is a Berghaus Lawrence Long Sleeved Shirt, a much more conventional, erm shirt really, but made from a high-wicking, fast-drying Argentium nylon and polyester mixed fabric.
We guess you'll either like the idea of a check-patterned technical shirt or not, but whatever your first impressions, don't dismiss it out of hand. A high spec polyester base-layer fabric will, we suspect, always have a wicking edge, but as with long-sleeved base-layer tops, the shirt design has some pluses.
Sun Protection
First, the collar offers a bit of sun protection to the back of the neck, not an comedy triple-decker one though,as do the long sleeves, but you still have the option of rolling the latter up to your elbows and there's even a bicep-high button to clip the cuff to when you do. And of course, visually there's a different vibe going on too, which again you'll either like or not. It's a bit more 'gentleman walker' than 'highly-tuned mountain athlete', but none the worse for that.
One oddity is the off-set, reversed zip chest pocket, which is a very modern styling touch sort of plonked down into the midst of a garment that otherwise looks pretty traditional. Functionally it's nice to have the facility, though we reckon you'll either like the styling or not.
Gentlemanly Fit
Fit, for what it's worth, with our medium, is a little less generously cut than we'd have expected. Not tight exactly, but quite trim and snuggish on the mildly over-wide editorial shoulders. And it looks quite nice. We've not used it in anger yet, but we'd expect the pleasant-feeling Argentium treated fabric - think silver anti-pong ions - to have more wind resistance than a base-layer equivalent, dry pretty fast, but lose out on wicking performance, so we'd suggest it's probably best suited for steady walking rather than bombing across the hills like a demented adventure racer. Oh, and with summer in mind, it has a UV protection rating of 50+.
And if you prefer short sleeves, there's a short-sleeved version available for a fiver less than the Lawrence Long Sleeve Shirt's £50 SRP price tag. We like being able to roll sleeves down for fore-arm protection though, so we'd probably stick with the long sleeves.
More once we've meandered aimlessly across the hills in it. Further info at www.berghaus.com.
