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Lowe AlpineDryflo Zone Top First
Look
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Price: £35.00
(also available as T @ £30)
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Weight: 140 grammes (men's
L)
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Features:
Shortsleeved, deep zip-neck, Dryflo ZoneTech fabric, low
profile collar for easy layering, differential hem (slight
drop tail), enhanced moisture vapour areas corresponding to
body 'hot spots' and seamlessly integrated with main body of
fabric.
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Dryflo's pretty much our favourite baselayer fabric and has been for
a while now. It's smooth, comfortable to wear and wicks well, but
with the competition hotting up from the likes of Polartec's neat
Powerdry fabric - now widely used by companies like TNF and Karrimor
- Lowe has upped the ante with a top which incorporates two different
Dryflo weaves.
The idea is that hot spots - identified by thermal imaging - are
covered with a different material which, in marketing speak, offers
'enhanced moisture vapour transfer'. In other words, it's supposed to
keep you cooler and wick better. What that means, with the men's
version tested here, is that the front of the chest area, armpits,
the sides of the trunk and most of the back are made from a visbly
looser woven fabric, with a different, snazzier pattern.
There's no seam between the two different fabrics and they're the
same colour, so the effect is quite subtle visually, which is a
shame, cos it means we haven't been able to photograph it, though
we'll scan in a pic from the Lowe workbook that makes things clearer
when we've got time...
The women's version, incidentally, has different hot spots, with
the high-wicking part being concentrated from the chest down under
two vaguely breast-shaped cut-outs, but then of course the girls glow
rather than perspiring.
Does it work? The brutally honest answer is so far we can't really
tell. We've used it for running, mountain biking and in the gym and
while it's every bit as good as standard lightweight Dryflo, it's
hard to tell whether it's worth the premium. A Zone Tee retails at 30
quid, a lightweight version is a tenner less.
We suspect that it might come into its own in hotter summer
conditions where the marginally increased ventilation and looser
weave may help, though you could just as well make a whole tee-shirt
from the enhanced, higher wicking fabric.
So, real benefits or just another weapon in the outdoors
innovation marketing wars? The jury is still out, but what we can
tell you is Zones or no Zones, Dryflo is still an excellent,
high-wicking, well designed baselayer.
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Verdict so far: Is it useful or is
it just hype? It's hard to say right now. Certainly the top
works well as a conventional Dryflo baselayer, but we
honestly can't tell whether those high wicking zone bits do
owt more than the rest of the garment. If it does work, we'd
expect to see it in hotter summer conditions when moving
fast - you're just going to have to wait for those I'm
afraid. Watch this space.
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