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Reviews > Clothing > Underwear > Duofold Varitherm Silkweight > Roger Caffin > Long Term Report
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Reviewer Details
| Reviewer: | Roger Caffin |
| Age: | 60 |
| Gender: | M |
| Weight: | 63 kg (139 lb) |
| Height: | 167 cm (66") |
| Email address: | r dot [surname] at acm dot org |
| Home: | Sydney, Australia |
I started bushwalking at 14 and took up rock climbing at University with the girl who became my wife and my permanent walking partner. Ski touring and canyoning followed. Winter and summer, we prefer long hard trips by ourselves: about a week in Australia, up to two months in Europe/UK. We prefer fast and light in unfrequented trackless country. We would be out walking and skiing for at least three months a year. We have now moved to lightweight gear, much to our backs' relief. I designed and made much of our lightweight gear myself.
I am also the maintainer of the Australian aus.bushwalking FAQ web site www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/.
Product Information
| Manufacturer: | Duofold | |
| Manufacturer URL: | www.duofold.com/ | |
| Year of manufacture: | assumed 2005 | |
| Country of manufacture: | Honduras | |
| Style: | Silk Weight | |
| Model: | Men's Long Sleeve Crew Neck Top | |
| Model: | Men's Bottom w Fly HC4736 | |
| Size: | Medium | |
| Material: | Polyester knit | |
| Colour: | Black | |
| Listed weight: | not stated | |
| Actual weight (top): | 131 g (4.62 oz) | |
| Actual weight (bottom): | 126 g (4.45 oz) | |
| MSRP: | not stated |
Product Claims
More details are given in the Initial Report, but basically these are lightweight synthetic 'thermals', and incorporate 'silver-based anti-microbial yarns'. The company does not give a lot of factual product claims.
Current Testing Conditions
The clothing arrived around Xmas, several months after I applied for this Test. Xmas is the start of the Australian summer, so the delay was not really great for immediate testing. In addition, parts of this summer have been the hottest on record. I have worn the clothing around the house in the evenings when it was cool enough, and I have taken it on some overnight trips, but even so I have had only limited opportunity to really need the warmth they are supposed to offer. On the other hand, the warm weather has however allowed me to test how the clothing handles sweat and body odor and how they survive being washed. Since the Field Report was lodged the top has been on a number of lengthy trips. The longs have seen less use as the weather has still been quite warm.
Garment Fit and Warmth
In my Initial Report I mentioned that they did a good impersonation of a Superman outfit: skin-tight, but not excessively so. This is actually a good thing for warmth, and over the whole Test period the garments don't seem to have lost any of their shape or 'spring', despite numerous washings. They have retained their size (length) too. Many of the other comments I made in the Field Report are repeated here because, well, they still apply.
I have worn them around the house when it was cool enough. Apart from being rather warm for the conditions, they did remain very comfortable: they 'felt' comfortable every time. In a way, this has been one of the more noticeable things about these thermals: they do feel very comfortable.
I have worn them in the evening on some lengthy trips, more as a change from my sometimes sweaty windshirt as I didn't really need a lot of warmth. It really has been a record-breaking summer. They have been very comfortable on every occasion, especially once the summer heat died down a little bit. Of course, putting on warmish thermals after a hot day without a good shower means that the fabric had to cope with all the sweat already on my body - it did, quite well.
Despite the sweaty conditions they haven't seemed to acquire much smell over four to five days on a trip. This is good as the popular image of thermal underwear is that it develops a serious case of body odour.
Garment Wear and Appearance
Basically, I have to report that the top, which got most of the wearing, doesn't seem to have changed much from new. It still looks like a very respectable neat top, unaffected by the washing machine. The longs, quite frankly, look like underwear and I wasn't game to wear them much in public, so they have had less wear. I would strongly recommend to the company that they remove the very obvious fly from the front and make the elastic waist band 'invisible'. The longs would then be a much more 'attractive' proposition.
Summary
I said I would be monitoring a number of things for the Varitherm Top and Longs: herewith my conclusions:
