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Reviews > Clothing > Shirts > Smartwool Microweight Fitted T > Christine Korhonen > Long Term ReportSmartWool Microweight Fitted Tee Long
Term Report Name: Christine Korhonen Age: 32 Gender: female Height: 5' 4" (1.6 m) Weight: 150 lb (68 kg) E-mail: chris@wormguy.com Location: Western Montana Date: December 8, 2005 Backpacking Background: I'm in Montana enjoying the summers and becoming re-acquainted with winter. Now that I'm back above the snow line, I'm attempting some winter camping and snowshoeing. I'm a lightweight backpacker mentally, if not always in practice. My summer pack weight is around 19 lb (9 kg) with a tent, but my winter pack hovers around 25 lb (11 kg).  Product Information: Manufacturer: SmartWool URL: www.smartwool.com Item: Microweight Fitted Tee MSRP: US $44.95 Color: Steel Blue Size: Women's Large Listed Weight: none given Measured Weight: 3.6 oz (100 g) SmartWool T Description: SmartWool's Microweight Fitted Tee is made of superfine Merino wool. Microweight is the lightest weight wool in the SmartWool line of clothing and is intended as the base layer. Long-Term Use: I wore this shirt frequently over the long-term test period, as a single layer on warm days and as a base layer when it snowed. I wore it climbing my local hill of 4500' (1400 m) and up to the top of California's Mt. Whitney at 14,500' (4400 m). The tee was very comfortable in both warm (80 F/27 C) and cool weather (30 F/-1 C). The wool is thin, soft, and feels warm to the touch. I never felt that I was too warm when wearing the shirt, even on the hottest day. When hiking in warmer weather the shirt would wet out with perspiration, but I felt comfortable. When I stopped at the top of a hill I noticed I was cooling off, but the wet shirt didn't feel clammy, and the shirt dried quickly. No matter how sweaty I got, the shirt never smelled worse than I did. I never noticed it holding an odor, unlike some of my other clothes. On this women's shirt, the sleeves are a little shorter than I would like. When I wore my pack, the sleeves would ride up under my shoulder straps. This happened in warm weather when I was wearing the tee as my outer garment. The back of the shirt rode up some, too. My shirts always tend to ride up, so I just yanked it down.  Unfortunately, I
ended up poking holes through the
material with my thumb. After I made the first hole by adjusting the sleeve under my pack strap, I tried to be careful when positioning the shirt, but no matter how careful I was, I just kept poking through. Now there are four holes: two on the front of the left sleeve and two on the back of the shirt at the bottom hem. When the shirt got sweaty, it seemed to get very fragile and the slightest pressure would make a hole. All of the holes were made by my thumbs. I didn't do any bushwhacking in this shirt so don't know how it would stand up to contact with branches or other surfaces. The holes have started to fray around the edges. Because I kept making new holes, I'm uncomfortable wearing this shirt as an outer layer. As an under layer in cooler weather it was fine. I tended to sweat less and didn't need to make as many adjustments, so no new holes formed. Even though I really like wearing this shirt in warm weather, I will only wear it as an undershirt now. It's too fragile for outerwear. If it wasn't for my thumbs, the shirt would be doing well. The material has pilled some. There's a slight fuzz over the surface, so I can tell that it's been worn. The flat seams have the most pills. It looks like the material isn't folded under at the seams, but the stitching goes over the raw edges. These edges are now unraveling the small amount they can under the stitching, causing pills. The tee doesn't seem to have stretched out, and the color is true. Likes: Soft Comfortable Doesn't Smell Dislikes: Tears easily Sleeves shorter than comfortable for me Read more reviews of Smartwool gear Read more gear reviews by Christine Korhonen Reviews > Clothing > Shirts > Smartwool Microweight Fitted T > Christine Korhonen > Long Term Report | |||
