A Travelling Shirt

Of late I have become very fond of these new age technical material for sportswear. One great quality about them that appeals to me is their packability. They can be folded into a small ball and take very little space when you are packing. They are also easy to wash and quick to dry and obviously are very light. I was meaning to get for myself a travelling shirt for quite some time now but was undecided because they cost quite a packet. I already have a pair of cargo trousers from Marmot and a few T-shirts (Under Armour and Max). A shirt would complete the scene.

Two days ago I pulled the trigger on a Columbia travel shirt from their website here. This was with an eye on the forthcoming Stok Kangri trek. It was available at a good discount for Rs 1800. The shirt is yet to reach me. But I can always type down the details here. It's a Silver Ridge Long Sleeve in size medium and colour cypress purchased for Rs 1800 online from the Colombia India online store.

July 30, 2018

After a lot of back and forth mailing the shirt finally came home today. After placing the order they wrote back to me that they don't have my shirt in the size I had ordered. They can offer a coupon code with which I can make another purchase. There was no option for a full refund.

I had half a mind to buy a more expensive shirt (which apart from a superior fabric offers zippered pockets) but when I asked them for a coupon code they went silent. I then realised or assumed that they probably don't have the technology to generate a coupon code. So I ordered the same shirt in size L because I had read in the meanwhile in some online review that the shirts are a bit on the smaller side and one should order for a size higher than regular. This order was promptly answered and the order was executed.

But I have a word or two to say about the packaging. It's terrible. They used a very thin packaging material and packed it tight. I could have easily torn it apart while using my scissors to cut it open. In comparison, Adidas provides such fantastic boxes that we have ended up keeping all three of them. The Columbia brand is in the hands of some ghatia lala in India, for sure.

Now the shirt itself. Very nice cypress colour. Deep green. Size L is perfect for me. Though going by their sizing chart my size should be M. The pocket's closure leaves a lot to be desired. A very small square of a velcro. Also the flap does not fully open as the corner is stiched. The pocket is not meant for keeping anything very important, probably only small change.

There is a mesh vent in the under arm area. We will have to see how effective that is. There is also a loop for rolling up the sleeves.

The fabric is thin making the shirt very light. Very nice Marmot Transcend like feel. Perhaps thinner because that's after all a pair of trousers. Eqully smooth. Looks like water repellant. We shall see about that very soon.

Field Test Report After Stok Kangri

Somewhere outside Stok village

Wore this as a layer over my base layer of mostly black HD Lee during the 2018 September trek to Stok Kangri. The shirt is very light. Has two useful pockets. Packs really small. But one major disadvantage of the shirt is that it takes a relatively long time to dry off, if it gets wet.

Otherwise it's nice. It's not supposed to be a winter hiking shirt. But I used it and it worked fine so far as being a shirt was concerned. Just that the fabric does not have any special water repellant coating, like my Marmot cargo trousers. That dries really fast. This shirt got a bit wet on my penultimate day when I was walking towards Mankarmo from the base camp. Next morning it really took some time to dry out, despite being spread in the sun over a tent. So, possibly I will not buy another of this for trekking. But there is no reason to discard it either. It can be a decent shirt for my long drive trips.