Hi, I tend to wear Nike or Champion on the rink. However, now that I exercise more intensely, I noticed that I sweat a lot, despite the rink temperature. Has anybody tried Icebreaker wool clothes? I'm looking for good sweat-wicking exercise clothing that's not going to make me freeze when I stop skating. If it's less expensive than Icebreaker, that's even better. XD
I just got the Gap brushed leggings (G-Fast??). They work well. Under Armour is a go to for me for both tops and bottoms. Can be a bit pricey but I find it's worth it. I have two pairs of cold gear tights and they're great.
My tops are Icebreaker, Smartwool, and UnderArmour Coldgear. The Icebreaker and Smartwool are by far my favorite because of breathability and warmth and are worth every penny. The Coldgear doesn't feel as cozy and I feel like I'm wrapped in plastic a bit.
Any of the pure merino wool or pure bamboo fibres will be good for temperature regulation. Icebreaker are very nice, but my local camping store had superfine merino tshirts for 1/3 the price of the Icebreaker stuff.
If you sweat list you may find the synthetic sports fabrics are excellent for wicking sweat, but, will stink after a few months of use (& washing).
Quote from: accordion on January 27, 2014, 07:38:35 AMIf you sweat list you may find the synthetic sports fabrics are excellent for wicking sweat, but, will stink after a few months of use (& washing).
My personal experience has been that smell is only a problem with clothing containing polypropylene. I would guess that silk might have the same problem, but am not sure. Both are delicate and hard to wash and dry.
Fleece is WONDERFUL. I love synthetic (e.g., polyester, acrylic) fleece for jackets and hats. Very lightweight, breathable, not wool (I am slightly allergic, and it makes me itch), warm when wet, washes and dries easily. But it looks weird for pants for guys like me, because it is both a bit form fitting (though not like Lycra) and fuzzy. Though I used fleece pants for skiing in very cold weather, which you mostly won't find at indoor rinks. You can sometimes buy a cheap fleece jacket for $10 or $20 on sale in some department stores - but they are a lot more in high end sports stores. Expensive outdoor clothing mostly isn't significantly better than the cheap stuff.
Cotton clothing looses a lot of its warmth when it gets wet, though cotton/polyester blends that aren't in too open a weave do a little better.
I stay away from expensive outdoor "performance clothing" with micro-pores, like Gore-Tex, because it gets clammy with sweat.
I sometimes use two layers of warmth, if I'm not sure how cold it will be, or I plan to skate fast, so I can adapt. A fleece hat is something else I can remove if I get too warm.
My go to jackets are standard off the rack softshells. My favorite one is from blanc noir ( Found it last time I was in the US for $25 at Marshall's) but they due tend to run a bit more at retail price. I also use a few fleece lined long sleeve pull overs (stay away from white though, I have had a horrible time getting rid of sweat stains on those). Columbia had a few really good ones as part of their base layer inventory, have not checked in a while . I have to admit mine are the knock off versions and are still warm after sweating.