I’ve always liked exercising. I’ve never been particularly good at sports, but I like hiking, biking, playing basketball, and lifting weights. I love the endorphin rush after a good workout. I love getting outside and enjoying some fresh air and sunshine.
Of course, working out means that you need workout clothing. I’m the type of guy who’s always warmer than everybody else around me, and when I workout I sweat. A lot. As a result, until recently I always used quick drying workout gear, like the Nike Combat shirts. These shirts did a good job of wicking away the sweat and keeping me relatively dry.
Pretty much every athletic apparel company makes some version of this shirt, and there’s a lot to like about them. They usually have a slim/tailored fit, so they look good on me. The fabric is thin and it does a really good job wicking sweat away from my skin.
Of course, they have a number of disadvantages. As a result of their wicking/quick drying functionality, if I’m sweating a lot then these shirts become absolutely drenched. And as a result of holding so much water, if I’m exercising in the cold then these shirts just suck the heat out of me.
But the biggest problem is that when they get sweaty these shirts smell. In fact, it’s probably more accurate to say that they stink. After a hard workout these shirts will smell like they were dipped in vinegar and then used to wrap a corpse. They really smell terrible.
For decades I thought this was just how it was. Getting sweaty meant getting stinky. And really, the stink factor isn’t as much of an issue when I’m at home. I can just throw my workout shirt in the laundry after my workout. But when I’m traveling these are big problems.
I workout just about every morning, regardless of whether I’m at home or on the road. When I travel I usually visit multiple cities in multiple days. That means that the workout shirt from the first morning of my trip has to sit in my luggage for a few days. It’s wet, it’s stinky, and it sucks.
For many years I just though this was the way it was and I’d do my best to segregate my workout shirts. I’d stuff my workout shirts in a plastic bag, but the smell still permeated my dress shirts and slacks I needed to wear for my meetings. I tried rinsing the sweaty shirts in my sink, then drying them with a towel, and that lessens the problem but it doesn’t go away. I also noticed that washing my shirts didn’t cause the smell to totally go away. After being worn and washed a number of times, I found that the shirts still had a bit of a smell, even when they were fresh out of the dryer.
And, of course, since my workout stuff got so stinky, I would need to bring a whole set of workout clothing for each day I was traveling. If I was on a 5 day business trip I’d need to bring 5 shirts, 5 pairs of workout socks, and 5 workout shorts. This takes up a significant amount of space, especially when you’re trying to travel light whenever possible.
Merino Wool
All of these problems were solved when I discovered the joys of merino wool. Merino wool comes from merino sheep, which is a separate breed of sheep from the kind that give us “regular” wool.
If you’re like me, your prior experience with wool probably wasn’t a good one. Regular wool sucks. It’s scratchy, it’s itchy, and I hate wearing it. Merino is really soft. I find it to be slightly softer and more comfortable than cotton.
The difference is in the width of the wool fibers. Merino wool fibers are significantly thinner than the fibers for regular wool. In fact, the fibers in merino wool are thinner than the width of a human hair.
Advantages of merino wool
I have found merino wool to have a number of advantages over cotton and polyester (which is what the “dry fit” shirts are made of.
No stink
This is the single biggest advantage of merino wool over cotton or polyester, especially for workout shirts. Merino doesn’t stink. Ever.
This isn’t to say that YOU won’t stink. If you’re sweating and working hard you’ll still smell. But the shirt won’t. And when you take it off and let it dry…there’s absolutely no smell. None. I can’t emphasize this enough.
Merino wool never stinks, no matter how much you sweat while wearing it.
I usually wear my merino wool shirts 5-10x before I wash them. I know this seems ridiculous, but it’s true. Merino just doesn’t smell.
This has huge advantages for travel. No matter how long my trip is, I never need to bring more than 2 workout shirts. I just rotate them from day to day. They never smell and they never cause the rest of the clothes in the suitcase to smell.
Wrinkle resistant
Merino wool just doesn’t wrinkle as easily as either cotton or polyester, and when it does wrinkle, you can just hang the shirt up and the wrinkles are gone the next morning. Polyester is pretty wrinkle resistant as well, but cotton is terrible. If I look at a cotton shirt it becomes wrinkled.
This isn’t quite as important for workout shirts, but it’s very important for other shirts (I’ve bought some merino polo shirts, which I also love).
Environmentally friendly
Merino wool is a renewable and environmentally friendly resource. The sheep are shorn and sent on their way. By comparison, polyester is made from coal and oil. Wearing polyester requires drilling or digging for fossil fuels. In addition, every time polyester is washed it releases fibers, which eventually end up in the ocean and contribute to the micro plastic pollution of the ocean.
Disadvantages of merino wool
Of course, merino isn’t perfect, and it does have a few disadvantages.
Dries slowly
I’ve found that it takes longer for merino wool to dry compared to cotton or polyester. This isn’t an issue for me, as I just hang any wet shirt up overnight and it’s always dry by the next morning. When I take off a merino workout shirt in the morning, I can just fold it up and put it in my luggage. Even if it’s slightly wet, it’s not stinky, so there’s no problem.
Needs more care when washing
In general, with merino you’ll need to wash it on the gentle cycle and then hang to dry. You never want to machine dry merino, as it will shirk and lose some of its softness.
This is no big deal for me, as I live in a house and we have a washing machine. In addition, since I wear each piece of merino clothing at least 5-10x before washing, I only need to wash my merino stuff every few weeks.
More expensive
This is the biggest disadvantage. Merino is significantly more expensive than cotton or polyester. For example, the 2 workout shirts I have are $60-$70 each. A cotton workout shirt is probably $5, and a dry fit polyester workout shirt (like the Nike Pro Combat shirts I used to wear) are $15-$20.
But…I’ve been able to replace my entire collection of ~10 polyester workout shirts with just 2 merino workout shirts, which is roughly the same cost.
My recommendation
I have 2 different merino wool workout shirts. They are very different and they are both great.
The first is The Gresham from Pettet Endurance Project. This shirt is 100% merino wool. It’s made for runners (who tend to be on the thinner side) so it’s a bit more form fitting. It’s super soft and so far has been really durable.
The second is the Weightless Nuyarn Merino T from TREW. It’s a lighter, thinner shit made from 85% merino wool, which is wrapped around 15% nylon for strength. This shirt is noticably thinner than the other shirt. I was a bit worried that the addition of nylon would impact the no-stink properties of merino, but I haven’t found that to be the case.
I love both shirts. The are both tagless, so there’s nothing rubbing on my neck when doing squats. They are both long enough that when I’m doing overhead work (like military presses) the shirt doesn’t turn into a mid-drift top. The Gresham is a bit thicker and a bit warmer. I tend to use it for colder mornings. The Nuyarn Merino is thinner and bit stretchier, so I tend to use it for more active work. However, these differences are slight and I’d be happy using either shirt for any given workout.
Conclusion
I have no business relationship with either company I mention above. I don’t benefit in any way if you buy anything from these companies. I’m writing this article because I’ve found merino wool to be an awesome fabric. It’s solved a huge problem for me and I’m hoping you’ll also benefit.
As a result of my great experiences with merino wool workout shirts I’ve also bought some merino wool polo shirts and they’ve been similarly awesome. They are pretty much all I wear these days.
What fabric are your workout/exercise shirts made from? Have you had similar experiences with polyester and cotton? Do you own any merino wool clothing? What have your experiences been?