I wore Patagonia鈥檚 2010 Capilene base layers for years and they always worked well, save one major flaw: they held onto odor after I sweat in them. And once that happened, the stank hung around, getting progressively worse during extended trips until I threw them in the wash.
This fall, I spent a month testing Patagonia鈥檚 new 听补苍诲听 as the weather turned chilly in Santa Fe. I wore them for all manner of perspiratory activities: running, gravel riding, wood chopping, hiking, and camping, sometimes under many other layers, sometimes wearing just the shirt.
of Capilene seems to wick better and dry faster than its predecessors, thanks to a new diamond-grid weave with hollow-core yarn, which raises roughly half of the material鈥檚 inner face聽off your skin, creating room for sweat and heat to escape. That combination struck a nice balance between breathability (I liked it as a stand-alone running top on warmer mornings) and thickness (it doesn鈥檛 let too much cold air seep through in frigid weather) that felt ideal for a midweight layer.
Another small change that has made a big difference is that Patagonia finally found a winning solution for the Capilene smell issue: odor treatment from Swiss company HeiQ. It鈥檚 a recycled silver chloride application used on hundreds of millions of textile products per year, which聽Patagonia says isn鈥檛 harmful to humans, doesn鈥檛 affect the garment鈥檚 performance, and lasts the product鈥檚 lifetime. HeiQ Fresh is Bluesign certified and works with other reputable outdoor brands, like Mammut. Even compared with聽Polygiene treatments鈥攚hich Patagonia has used in other pieces for a while鈥攖his feels like a big step up in smell elimination.
During this period, I wore the top for a week of daily outdoor activities without washing it. After seven days, there was only a hint of odor. I finally washed it because I figured it was becoming聽unsanitary. Our Gear Guy tested one of the brand鈥檚 Capilene Cool pieces聽with the same treatment and had similar results鈥攁nd he was much more savage in his sweat testing than I was.
This nearly smell-proof generation of Capilene is also 100 percent recycled. That means the collection鈥檚 polyester鈥攚hich is essentially plastic turned into fibers鈥攊sn鈥檛 adding to our fantastic plastic problem.
The nonrecycled-plastic origins of synthetics are one of the reasons I鈥檝e worn wool base layers exclusively for years (along with the fiber鈥檚 natural insulating properties and my love for its next-to-skin feel). In contrast with cozy wool, the new Capilene midweights are cool to the touch when you first put them on, which I struggled with on freezing days.
That said, the Capilene dried faster and had an absolutely silky texture, something that even the finest wool can鈥檛 replicate. It鈥檚聽those features, plus the serious odor control and totally recycled construction, that put Patagonia鈥檚 midweight synthetics back in my gear rotation this winter season.