Photo by Beau Gaughran
Check out our Spring Review lineup with items from LL Bean, Patagonia, Toad & Co. and Muddy Creek.
We like to review Patagonia products for multiple reasons. Some are about how we choose to spend money and others are much more brass tacks:
- The company allocates extraordinary amounts energy and money to public land related efforts and outdoor-related organizations. Given that horse riders benefit from open spaces, we like this practice. For example, it received about $10 million from this year’s corporate tax break and committed it all to different nonprofit environmental groups “committed to protecting air, land and water and finding solutions to the climate crisis,” said CEO Rose Marcario.
- It prioritizes transparency in its supply chain and strives to build a sustainable operation. More and more of its offerings are made from recycled goods, some are made in America, some are made from hemp like WorkWear. We like this, too.
- Its designers make clothes that function in all types of weather and flow with the most active of wearers. Horse owners and riders are the most active of wearers.
That’s all marvy. But, as with anyone, the biggest questions that will assure any item of my top shelf, grab-this-one-whenever-it’s-clean priority status are:
Does it feel good, look great, and do its job?
From simple tee to the warmest winter jacket, these queries are always the same.
Consider the Capilene Cool Trail Shirt. On the surface, it’s an expensive take on a regular t-shirt.
Smart features, however, have bumped it to the top shelf, grab-this-one-whenever-it’s-clean status:
The scoop neck and lack of branding makes it more attractive than most other tees.
The colors are unique and appealing without blaring, “Look at me!”
The all-polyester fabric feels more like superfine merino. Delightful on the skin.
I didn’t test the Polygiene (a fabric treatment that reportedly stops the growth of odor-causing bacteria) element of this tee. Or, did I? I hiked for a few miles on the outskirts of Albuquerque, then went to a nice dinner in town and my son never said, “um, Mom, you stink.”
The sizing is appropriate. I’m 130, 5’7” and wear smalls and mediums equally. I tried the small and it fits nicely. But if you don’t like t-shirts to be slightly form-fitting and are between sizes like me, you might order up.
Photo by Beau Gaughran