I love how every shirt you wear makes you look more and more likely to be in a ska band. Seriously though, this is good info. Thanks for doing that research!
I was 30% of the way through this video before I realized that, as a woman who wears dresses and skirts 95% of the time, none of these recommendations were going to apply to me or my workplace. Still love all of Tom’s videos!
I'll take a light merino wool shirt over both cotton or any "activewear" fabric, any day or time of year, hands down. It wicks just as good as cotton, but both dries faster and dries without smell (it's naturally antibacterial). Plus it if happens to cool off suddenly (long cold tunnel 😜?) the wool is comfortable wet or dry. I would bet that it's better than linen too; because linen is made from flax, it's probably as prone as cotton to hanging on to the moisture and smell. One final benefit of the lightweight merino wool: if it's super hot (hot enough to melt a frozen water bottle before I get to my destination), I will actually soak the merino shirt in cold water, wring it out lightly, and still it will be dry enough when I reach my destination. There's a lot of different styles for this fabric - usually built for function (like base layers), but I've seen both athletic wear (and I've got two wool bike jerseys) and dress-casual collared cuts.
Linen is from the stem fibers of flax whereas cotton comes from the flower, idk the specifics but linen is way better for hot weather. On par with wool and more durable. Maybe not as warm.
A clipboard makes everything Official and Scientific. My husband wears cotton polo shirts, jeans or shorts (changes to jeans at work), a cotton sweater or sweatshirt, and slip on sneakers for his daily bike commute in Beaverton, OR, and that all works for his job as a service tech at a sound equipment manufacturer. I am just coming back into bike commuting (2 miles one way, Dutch made ebike). My clothing needs are a bit different at the arts school library. I would love it if a woman could talk about skirts, tops, and shoes. Perhaps a guest speaker someday?
Ooh, 2 miles is a great length! Think of all the routes you can find to make it longer!! My commute was 8 miles each way, and I didn't even bother trying to wear my work clothes; I'd carry them in my panniers, and keep a washcloth at work to clean up. Exercise makes surprisingly non-stinky sweat; but it is sticky and yucky, so damp cloth to the rescue! I always arrived early so I could clean up and enjoy my first cup of tea before the chaos started. YMMV, of course. Congrats on the job and the commute!
@@Korina42 Having experienced quite few working environments, wearing specific clothes for the commute and changing at work can be great, or it can be a total pain. It really depends on the facilities available. Having a proper changing room and maybe even showers is great. Changing in a small toilet cubicle? Not so great. Where do you store your (potentially damp) cycling clothes during the day? Not everywhere is set up to with places to hang them. Having them stuffed in a bag under a desk, or some corner of a storeroom isn't ideal... something I found that out very quickly. 😉
@@another3997 I did say YMMV (your mileage may vary); everyone's circumstances are different, I shared mine. To hang my clothes I bought a dollar store over-the-door rack with six hooks and hung them on the back side of a door that was open all the time.
The advantage of synthetic clothing is that it dries quickly. This is a big advantage for travel. You can swish synthetic clothes around in the sink with some detergent and leave them in the shower to dry overnight. This applies to any clothing that is all-synthetic - bike jerseys, running shirts, golf shirts, and fly fishing shirts. On a recent trip, I took two golf shirts and and two fly fishing shirts that were all-synthetic. My pants, socks, and underwear were also all-synthetic. Most of my clothes came from Bass Pro. Cotton is very slow to dry. Even if you feel less sweaty when wearing cotton, the dampness that it absorbs will dissipate very slowly. The scorecard should have included a column for how dry you felt fifteen minutes after each ride.
Mate, you aren’t living unless you own Hawaiian shirts! I’m really glad that making this video has exponentially increased your quality of life by pure accident, it couldn’t have happened to a better bloke. May you be blessed with many more!
Yep. People from actually hot countries such as in the middle east wear long sleeved flowy clothes for a reason. If it's really hot the thing you want to protect yourself from is the sun. Wearing UV protecting arm sleeves or just long sleeves is super important for comfort. Short sleeves are for suckers!
In tropical climates we can't dress like that since our sweat can't evaporate as readily as in dry desert climates. Short sleeves win in our region (unless it's the wet monsoon)
It really depends heavily on the climate - the temperature and humidity primarily. Also tight fitting highly wicking and quick drying fabrics are great for when you’re sweating a lot and need it to evaporate as much as possible to cool you down. Part of what failed with his test of the cycling jersey was getting one that wasn’t thin and second-skin fitting. A high-end racing jersey would work better in the right temperature and humidity. But generally once the temperature reaches a certain point, you want more cloth covering you even in humid climates because the bulk of the heat your body feels and builds up comes from the non-visible wavelengths of sunlight hitting your skin. The fabric needs to block those wavelengths in particular to keep you cool in those hotter temperatures, and many textiles are virtually invisible to those wavelengths and let them penetrate straight to your skin as if you were almost completely uncovered. There is actually a science to all this, but it isn’t widely known and there are a lot of snake oil sellers out there making it hard to find and learn without costly mistakes.
Great video; thanks for sacrificing your time and your sweat glands for this experiment. There was one option you didn't try; instead of a polyester jersey, a wool one. Wool breathes, doesn't smell, and if it's light enough, won't make you overheat. Also, I'll bet that Hawaiian shirt would have been even better one size larger. Flappy clothes ftw! XD
Expensive linen is very light and breathable. Much better than seersucker and anything else I've tried. I can feel air cutting right thru it when i rode to work in full linen suit and shirt for work in Saskatoon. And it dries very quickly so it works for my commutes now here in Florida. (90+ Fahrenheit with 100% humidity)
i like you comparison! For the sport shirts, you might want to try woolen ones, especially thin wool like Merino. They don‘t stink. Sweat is your way to cool down, but I can wear my Merinos even on hot days and won‘t get complaints or obvious avoiding behavior. In the contrary, a nice bike commute sweat from a wool t-shirt (and a change of clothes afterwards) seems weirdly attractive as people come closer? Also little washing, air dry is enough for some time. The problem with wool is, most are body fit and they pronounce my belly. Also cheap ones are 90% junk, not moth resistant, and they felt or get fuzzy with washing. This is only usable as undergarments. A PS: the claim with the “attractive workout smell” is only true, if your are otherwise healthy and clean. Also stress sweat, even when just mixed in, is stinky and unattractive. But even for myself, I wouldn’t like to put on a plastic shirt for my commute home, ugh! Woolen ones don’t smell for me even after weeks, if air dried…
Appreciate the test video Covering your arms and legs in high sun when it's 90+ degrees should be cooler than letting the sun burn the crap out of you, and some are UV rated. The hottest climates have adopted full coverage, in light colors. Short sleeves and shorts also means you need sunscreen which is sticky or greasy and usually makes me need an additional shower. Columbia and other companies who make hiking equipment make full coverage UV rated "active" shirts, and they include roll up sleeves with retention. Like the flyfishing shirt. These are expensive, so maybe not easy for a huge collection. Cotton, silk, viscose aren't made from petroleum so that's a plus. Biodegradable and sustainability could be a good factor.
Skater dresses or other sporty dresses are 100% the way to go in the summer. I was a no-skirts-on-bikes kind of person for a long time until I fluked my way into a free skater dress, which I genuinely loved cycling in so much that I've overhauled my summer wardrobe for it. In fact, it's so pleasant that it's been the single greatest motivator in my getting over some body image issues and not being afraid to have legs in public.
as someone who has never worked an office job i'm baffled by the restrictions in dress code. how is one plaid button down acceptable but another isn't??
I usually wear a undershirt and then a polo or a dress shirt. The cotton undershirt helps a lot with sweat and it is nice to show up in a normal shirt at the office.
sheeshhhh, I want to move to Canada now.. Beautiful scenery. Thank you for your videos! especially this one- I like in Oklahoma, US and it is HOT here more often than anything else. I'm hoping to start consistently commuting to work and your channel is helping me feel so much more confident!
I think 10 out of 10 for wearing long trousers on a hot day. My legs would melt if I didn't wear shorts in the summer. I used to roll up a pair of jeans or lightweight trousers to change into when I commuted by bicycle. But I had colleagues in who came to the office on a Sunday evening with a weeks worth of ironed clean shirts.
I live in a small city in Iowa. It's hilly here, by Midwestern standards. Flat by hometown Atlanta standards but it does get hot here on occasion but like Calgary it doesn't stick for long. My commute is 2 miles so I wear jeans and a dress shirt, usually. I do errands after work and on a hot humid day I'm going to be wet. Lately I've been using an e-assist bike (I converted a 1988 Schwinn Probe and a no name internal gear commuter from Nashbar. These can help me on the sweat issue better than clothing. At 64 years old I'm riding again like I was 18 on a new Motobecame Gran jubilee. I've driven a car 125 miles since May and am seriously considering whether I should own a car. I use these bikes for errands and pull a trailer and dress to do some more serious pedaling. I still want to make myself exercise--more miles just not working as hard. Seems to be working out so far.
Viscose and bamboo are a nightmare to dry after washing. Even here in Oz it takes the hottest of summer days for them to line dry and are always the last off the line.
This is the stuff that you will deal everyday in the Philippines, it is not just hot but super humid, so bike to work will probably never a thing here, but I DO. Just blessed that I don't sweat as much as a regular guy and I find drifit works best..no cotton, if will make you stink so bad..
Viscose is the fancy name for rayon. It's a synthetic fabric made of reconstituted celulose and is pretty bad for the environment. But it'a still way better than anything poly.
Love your adorable bike tshirt- reminds me of my mum who is almost 70 and has this statement bright yellow jumper with a little bike print on the front (quite high up, not front and centre) she found it second hand and she does ride her bike 99% of the time outside of work (she has to drive for work unfortunately). I find it very cute whenever she wears it (which is like every second day) haha. I'm always too shy to represent the cycle-friendly life although my friend did buy me some bike socks.
That was fun to watch. I'd just got home from a muggy 39C ride (Ottawa) and was super jealous. I need to look for a really light breathable shirt for future rides.
One thing worth looking at and testing, I'm not sure if this is the case in Calgary, but where I've biked to work in the US (Florida and now Maryland) the relative humidity in the morning approaches 100%. It's not as hot obviously, but many of those garments aren't anywhere as useful when sweat doesn't evaporate. Since most of my commutes (at least before work went remote) are in the AM, a shirt like that just didn't work.
@@Korina42 Yes, that was my solution. I can generally wear my clothes in to work in spring, fall, and winter; but summer is the challenge. It's so humid.
I ride in a cycling jersey and a pro-combat nike vest under to keep the sweat off body. I'm fortunate enough to have a shower in work so I can clean myself but with my own body sweat factor it's a necessity because I seat like crazy. I'll try out a Hawaiian shirt, because in my fixie days I was riding in buttonups and it was kinda good ;)
I’ve worn Under Armor golf shirts and t-shirts for the past few years. You were describing polyester from the 70’s era, not these. The materials science field has done wonders. Anyway, cotton? I sweat a lot and cotton is the absolute worst for feeling yucky and wet when it’s hot. One other super important factor is the humidity. The reason we sweat is so the drier air evaporates the sweat and is endothermic, meaning it cools you. Unfortunately, I live in Florida, where the humidity is over 90% most days, which doesn’t allow the sweat to dry, and you end up hot and wet, no matter what you wear. Anyway, I was surprised how you dissed the UA type fabric.
You forgot to try Merino wool shirts and hiking shirts, both made for outdoor activities. Here in the UK cotton is usually a bad choice. It soaks up sweat but doesn't wick it away. The result is that you are wearing a sticky wet garment that takes a long time to dry. Man made fabrics on the other hand dry quickly when wet, that's why they're popular with sports people and many outdoor types. In the UK due to our weather the hiking community always talk about "killer cotton" and tell you to stay away from it for most activities. There was a now defunct UK company that made clothes that were specifically designed for cycling commuters. The concept was clothes that you could cycle in and wear at work. I have a couple of items from them and they are great, still got them years later. Their downfall I think was the very high price tag on their garments. They were good quality but just too expensive.
You completely misunderstand polyester and other synthetics. Polyester drys quicker, it doesn't wrinkle, and if made correctly it can breathe better and feel softer than Cotton. Yes, if you buy the cheap stuff it underperforms. Personally if I buy polyester I use Gaiam brand tanktops as my benchmark and I have never been disappointed. It's a hard type of polyester to find (as a low-budget shopper), but so incredibly worth it.
I'm curious if you've done specific demographic research on your audience in regard to their careers. I'm probably biased from working in tech, but I've been working in offices for decades and never had to wear a tie.
I was just trying to cover a lot of bases with this video. I've worked in jobs that required ties, some that required long sleeves and some that required nothing.
I am working in tech too and I never heard about dress code in mine profession. Mine colleague even wore beach shorts in office without any problems with boss. Cotton polo shirt is best for me, because I like wearing it.
Put a wet towel in your neck and accept that it will leave a mark on your clothing. That is how I deal with heat while cycling. Bring some spare clothing if having a wet patch on your back really is a problem. The towel should easily last over an hour at pretty much any temperature as long as there is some humidity. Higher humidity makes it less effective but as long as you use cold water it should even work at 100% humidity. I have no experience cycling at low humidity levels but I expect that a towel protected from direct sunlight will still last easily over half an hour. These are low estimates btw.
I would look at activewear again because it is not all created equal. I find some of it much warmer and some much cooler. I own one shirt that is only a tiny bit warmer than going shirtless. I lived in southern Japan for a long time, summer temperatures typically above 30C, humidity 90-100%, and the latitude is the same as Dubai so the sun is extremely strong. This is when the only choice is long-sleeved activewear, and a hat. You will sweat heavily no matter what but with activewear it will dry quickly, which keeps you as cool as possible. And good shirts still look nice after many years.
I wear a construction shirt that is a long sleeve year-round even with 99° F outside and I have a helmet on with a skulls cap thing that comes down the hides my back of my neck inside my face or the side of my head.
I guess I don't know much about men's fashion because I couldn't really tell a difference between each shirt of the same cut as it relates to work acceptability. Either that or the places that I've worked at are much more lax on dress code, so I've never had to think of it.
Nice content! What about hats/helmets? (Middle-class white dude shirt? That's too funny.) In many parts of the world -- the Middle East, for instance -- where it's hot, people wear a lot of clothing to cover up and stay cool. In the West we seem to do the opposite. What's up with that? Apparently, loosely fitting garments (sometimes in layers) allows the breeze to pass along our skin and escape, carrying off extra heat and accelerating evaporation, according to a quick Google search.
Honestly the reason I wear the cycling jersey is sweat. just the amount when I commute but also laundry. Did I cycle in this t shirt and it's going to stink after I put it on? Well, if all I use is jerseys then I know what has been drenched. With the amount of AC in the summer, I'd freeze in the office with a wet shirt.
A lightweight merino cycling jersey hands down beats every item tested in the vid. Decent merino wool mesh wicks off the sweat allowing for evaporation, and is naturally antibacterial and insulating in any conditions, hot or cold alike. Dressing for the destination (i.e. wearing regular clothes) on a hot summer day might work for slower paced short commutes on shaded routes over flat terrain, but generally sounds preposterous, unless oozing smelly ambiance is not an issue. My decades of year-round all-weather urban bicycle commuting in various climes the world over taught me to incorporate purpose made cycling attire. That said, I am still on the lookout for a perfect cycling shirt that would check all the boxes: merino mesh fabric for insulation, dress / casual style w a low cut rear panel and the indispensible back pockets. As an aside, fearing the sun is silly at best. Inconclusive correlations from poorly designed studies serve but to shore up the bottom line of fear mongering "skin care" pushers. Sunlight exposure is the only evolutionarily sound way to stock up on vitamin D3.
Yeah I have 1 shirt thats 100% polyester and I find its thinner and lighter than any cotton tee. Maybe its not wicking the sweat off me, but its not wicking the sweat off, but its at least giving me more of a breeze than the 100% cotton tees do. In the hot and humid southern US, either one is going to leave you sweaty after more than 5 mins of riding. And the cotton tee absorbs all the sweat. I know this channel is trying to focus on the casual non-racer, but back when I commuted to the office, I'd just wear a cycling jersey and then change immediately when I got there. I guess it helps that I work at a fitness company and theres lots of bike commuters and roadies. No dress code, super casual. So I just wore shorts and only changed my shirt in the bathroom stall.
@@Shifter_Cycling Mine work; men's athletic tees from Target. They stink, of course, but they also wick sweat really well. I have both short and long sleeves to layer in different conditions. On the cool and humid norCal coast, layering is vital, and a long and short sleeve combo work down to surprisingly low temps; into the mid 40's F/around 7C. The 8 mile commute gave me time to warm up.
When I bike ride I wear active wear because it's active wear swet wicking mitral quick drying loose and comfortable and I buy the Wright size so it covers up very well ? Witch reminds me what kind of active wear did you try out ? For the bottom half I wear thin shorts no cotton because cotton sucks up swet and keeps it in. For my socks I wear copper fit because the same as my shirt it's swet wicking and quick drying.
Great tip, thanks Tom. But it seems to me that it depends on each individual. What clothes do you wear when riding a bike, I see Tom wearing all kinds of clothes that look so nice.. looks very similar to Hollywood actors.. 👍🌟 ❤️it..
cotton does not wick well compared to certain polyesters. I live in Tampa, I do not bike commute May - October because of the heat , humidity and thunderstorms. During dry season November - April I bike commute almost every day. So I definitely speak from some experience.
i think polyester active wear is strictly for wrestling or something like that. Its biggest selling point is that it dries fast.so your clothes don't get drenched and start to sag. Source: years of BJJ
I wear a light coton t-shirt under whatever I am wearing as a shirt. I am not a big fan of synthetics although I know everybody wears them. My slimmer friends all like the fitted bike shirt which I find uncomfortable.
I was on the fence wheter to by a cycling shirt or not, but seeing your results and "basically stewing in your own juices" makes me wonder what the benefits of these shirts actually are? can you comment on the usefulness of those?
Honestly, without some details about what exact models, it's impossible to say. Polyester is entirely dependent on the knit of the fabric. My cycling bib shorts are literally cooler than being naked, except under the chamois, and they're polyester. Cheap tight woven polyester will not let any air or moisture past. Tbh, his take on cotton being comfortable seems to show he didn't get really sweaty, cause it wouldn't dry for hours afterward, except under AC, the you'd be freezing.
Your definition of workwear and mine are very different lol Also I completely disagree with your stance on synthetics, you're gonna sweat no matter what you wear synthetic materials just dry way faster once you get where you're going.
30°c/90°f is hot? That's a cold snap at this time of summer in Texas. Give that cowboy shirt back! I do know people who prefer the fishing shirts for riding. I may buy a couple more for commuting purposes.
I'm sorry, but if I was going to bike to work on a hot day in the summer I would wear a t-shirt of some sort and carry a nicer shirt in my bag to change in to. Also, you really should have included a merino wool t-shirt in this test.
You need to research a far greater variety of materials. Firstly the ‘active’ T-shirt clearly wasn’t active if it didn’t wick sweat away. Secondly, forget cotton, period. There are tons of genuinely active wear clothing styles out there. Many are very expensive, often for good reason. Some are 100% man made, others 100% natural (merino wool has far superior temp regulation properties to cotton for instance) and many are a mixture of fibres. Also, you failed to consider layering e.g an active T-shirt under a loose but smart shirt.
I agree with you that fishing shirts are some of the absolute best shirts for hot climates. I live in south Louisiana and spend a ton of time outdoors, and fishing shirts are my go-to option. I'm not a big fan of the style, but the benefits certainly outweigh the drawback of anyone assuming that I drive an F-250 with a ridiculously long antenna and a big "Salt life" decal obscuring the rear windshield.
I just got back from Egypt and wore a long sleeve linen shirt and linen pants on the hottest day there. I was no worse than the rest of my party who were wearing t shirts and gym shorts. In terms of sun protecting and keeping cool, a long sleeve linen shirt os great.
I agree with you on “active wear”. It’s not warm so you can’t wear it in winter. It keeps in sweat so you can’t wear it in summer. Who is it for? When is it for? I really wish they made cotton cycling jerseys. I want to be able to hold my phone in a back pocket and also not sweat like a pig.
The main benefit to active wear is when you're active for an extended period of time (multiple hours) without extended breaks throughout your trip; if you're sweating a lot, a cotton shirt can't dry, where as activewear can. Therefore, it's not as useful for sub-hour bike rides, but if you plan on being out for hours, it'll be better in the long run.
@@tedwalker1370 Pigs do not sweat, that's why they love mud, it helps get their bodies wet and then the water evaporates having the same effect as sweating.
@@OOTurok Cotton does NOT make you SWEAT any more than other fabrics of similar weight or weave. Sweating is simply something that your body does when it gets warm, with or without clothes. In fact, cotton absorbs moisture very well and loses heat very rapidly when wet, so will actually cool you down more quickly than most fabrics. But, rapid heat loss and not drying quickly are the main reasons why cotton isn't ideal for heavy exertion in cold conditions, when Hypothermia can set in.
Totally agree with your stance on helmet wearing but for those of us that live in cities with less cycle-friendly infrastructure (the UK, for me) I'd love you to do a piece on Road helmets/Commuter helmets. Recognise this could be costly without sponsors though. I currently use a Thousand Chapter that I like.
I was looking at a Thousand that I liked, the classic or whatever it's called, comes in gold and mint among a couple other colors, of which I prefer the mint.
honestly, bring a work shirt and change into it at destination. I do 15 to 18 miles aday on my electric mountain bike and yeah these hot days I get home dripping, but I like cotton t-shirts.
Kudos on landing on the fly fishing shirt. I buzz around on bike between my errands and doing business in other peoples offices. And in my burg, you can get by with Patagonia or Columbia fly fishing shirts or cotton guayabera on business. I absolutely believe in relief from direct sun makes for a cooler, less sweaty ride. I think, can't prove, in decreases the recovery time from a longish ride.
Sweat is definitely the enemy, even with my 3+ mile commute. Anything polyester stinks! If you have the option, bring a change of clothes with you. I hate getting chain grime on my khakis!
My commute is just 1.5 miles, and I do exactly that: I plan to change my shirt when I arrive. I also carry some body wipes meant for cleaning up after exercise, when you can't shower. :)
@@Shifter_Cycling That grime really IS the worst. I recently bought hiking gaiters to cover my legs from ankle to knee, because I keep getting small spots of grime on my work pants. FWIW, a combination of dish detergent, hydrogen peroxide, and just a little water helps clean that grime right off. :) Leave it to soak in for a little bit, then add just a touch more water and scrub the cloth around. The grime will disappear! :)
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this video. I started commuting on bicycle for a new job 33 miles per day, even if I change outfit for work I really look for a shirt that is not warm and that can dry super fast. A price rating would have been a nice thing too (but I can look for those myself). I’m really looking forward the same for pants and shorts, if you do sturdiness is a factor to count in (a cargo pant last 2 weeks!). Anyway great work, great video!!!!!!
Active wear dries out quickly. That's the whole point to it... were as cotton holds moisture & takes a long time to dry allowing bacteria to grow, making you stink.
+1 for the fly fishing shirt. Notice the UPF rating. I wear one all the time. The average cotton t-shirt will provide some protection from the sun with an ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) of around 5-7. I cannot see the other cotton shirts being a whole lot better. However, especially when wet (ie sweaty), the protection level drops to about UPF 3.
active wear doesnt get wet, nothing is worse than a wet shirt, furthermore active wear is super light and because of that it doesnt heat up as much in sun, and finally active wear is super breathable, anti-bacterial and it can stretch, what should keep you relatively dry and non smelly, and lets you move easily whats very comfortable. i dont what active wear you were using but i love mine and so do professional cyclists.
Love your videos man, your humor is awesome and you give great information. Love how you explain things as well! Also the way you move your arms/body when explaining stuff makes it a lot more fun to watch/listen to, so thanks for everything! Love your channel so far
