Owner Review: Sun Precautions Solumbra SPT-shirt

Reviewer Information

Name: Jennifer Joy
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Height: 5'4" (1.63 m)
Weight: 150 lb (68 kg)
Email address: jjoy AT io DOT com
Location: Austin, Texas
Date: March 16, 2004

Backpacking Background

I have been camping and hiking since I was a toddler, traveling with my parents across the Western United States. Much of my recent time in the outdoors has been spent in Texas and in the mountains of New Mexico, with some time spent in New England. I often camp and hike with a sea kayak as my vehicle. I used to be not very weight conscious, but I am actively working to move towards lightweight backpacking and plan to replace much of my gear in an effort to help an extreme tendency for tendonitis. My backpacking trips tend to be over a weekend or day hikes within a multi-day kayaking trip. Multi-week hiking is a long-term goal. I could be considered a beginner backpacker but an experienced camper.

Product Information

Manufacturer: Sun Precautions http://www.sunprecautions.com/

Year of Manufacture: 1999
Listed weight: Not listed
Measured weight: 5 oz (142 g)
MSRP: $49.95 (US currency)

Product Description

The SPT-shirt comes in many sizes (XXS – 4XL) and colors (white, summer blue, teal, azure, and stone).  My shirt is an XS azure.  While I normally wear a women’s medium (US size 8 – 10) and the size chart recommends a size S, after trying them both on I preferred the XS.  However, my sizing preference reflects a close fit, which I found to be less cumbersome when wet.  The website recommends teal or azure if you plan to wear the shirt in the water.  They do not specify why, but I can add my opinion here.  The material becomes more translucent when wet so a darker color is less revealing.

The material used in the shirt is called Solumbra.  The material offers an SPF protection factor of 30+ all day UVA and UVB protection.   On the website it describes how after 100 laundry cycles and 100 days of sun exposure the product still protects to the claimed levels.  I cannot offer scientific testing, but I have worn my shirt probably 200 days and have never received any sunburn through the shirt, even after 8 hours in the sun.  Solumbra is only slightly less effective when wet.  The web page’s chart revealed a calculated SPF of over 50 for both wet and dry.  In fact, Solumbra is classified as a medical device, so it has met strict guidelines.  This information, at the time of this writing, can be found on the home page of Sun Precautions through following the “Learn More” button. 

The shirt is cut much like a long-sleeved t-shirt. The material is all Solumbra except the wrist cuff and neck band which are described as made of a soft knit.  The underarms have a matching fabric colored mesh insert which starts out wide and narrows into the sleeve, nearly all the way to the cuff.  There is another section of mesh which starts wide at the armpit and narrows quickly along the torso. It is well matched and uses a narrow grid so the mesh is not too noticeable and not at all see-through.  There is a small slit at the hips for freedom of movement and square-cut tail of the shirt is slightly longer than the square-cut front.  The shirt itself is fairly square with no tapering at the waist.

Field Report

Customer service:

I have had this shirt a long time!  When I bought it, it was a considerable investment, so I made a point on a trip to Seattle to go to a brick and mortar store to try it on.  My first shirt immediately began to unravel at a seam in the cuff.  At this point I was 1.5 hours away from the store, but did not want to drive back into town.  They very kindly exchanged the shirt at their corporate office in Everett, which is not a retail outlet, but was only a short drive away.  I found that level of customer service to be extremely satisfying.  I have had no further issues with the product that required contacting the company.

Comfort in the heat:

I have worn this shirt on so many hiking, kayaking and even cycling trips I have lost count.  I have worn this shirt in temperatures from 70 F / 21 C to over 100 F / 38 C degrees.  The long sleeves and high neck minimize the amount of sunscreen I need.  The cuff also helps keep the sleeve from riding up too far and exposing too much skin.  The vent inserts are a great idea, they seem to help a lot in keeping me cool.  The funny thing is that I didn’t even notice them at first!  My only complaint, which might be a personal issue or just reflects too many hours in this shirt, is that the mesh part seems to retain odor.  I started to put a little extra soap onto the armpits before running it through the wash and that helped considerably.

While the shirt looks almost like a cotton shirt on the web page I find it to be quite noticeably not a t-shirt.  It looks like the synthetic that it is.  This is not an issue at all for me, but a thought to consider if sun protection is a daily concern and this item might be considered for daily wear.

Dry time:

The Solumbra material dries very quickly.  It can be nearly completely dry while being worn after complete immersion in water, if it isn’t too humid and there is a small breeze, over an hour long lunch stop!  The knit collar and cuff do not dry quite as fast, but they never bothered me even when slightly damp. 

Durability:

After about three years one of my cuffs started to unthread exactly in the spot where my original shirt came undone.  Perhaps they had a flaw in the manufacturing process.  However, being lazy, it’s been in this state since then, and has not gone any further.  Imagine the cuff as a donut, and that you are just starting to break it in half from the side view.  That is where the seam comes together.  It is this seam that completes the circular cuff, not the seam between the cuff and the shirt sleeve, which had an issue.

This is one tough shirt.  It still looks nice despite all the hours of use, chafing under PFDs and being whacked against tree branches.  It is easy to machine wash with regular clothes and then quick to line dry.  I had a slight puckering of the fabric where the embroidered logo is placed, but it is very minor.

I cannot tell that my shirt has faded, but my husband’s teal shirt did fade considerably.  He has a permanent PFD (life jacket) impression on his shirt and much fading on the top of his shoulders.  He spends a lot of hours instructing on the water so his has had more exposure than mine.  Other than the fading, his shirt, bought at the same time, has shown equal durability.  He managed to get a few small holes in his shirt, but they’ve not grown.

This shirt is one of my favorite summertime pieces of gear.

Pros

• Easy to use sun protection
• Lightweight
• Quick drying
• Cool
  
  

 Cons

• A little pricey for a plain shirt