ExOfficio Give-N-Go Tee : For Two (or Three or Four Days on the Trail)

Gentle reader, if you shudder at the thought of a man challenging the norms of modern hygiene, going unbathed for days at a time, and wearing the same shirt more than once (way more than once) without having laundered it, then turn away now.   Find yourself a review of cold weather outerwear or perhaps the description of a computer bag that never need touch the sweat-soaked skin of a tropical traveler.   If, on the other hand, your constitution is strong enough to bear witness to the sordid details of my rather extreme efforts to disprove--or in this case, prove--the claims of ExOfficio's Give-N-Go Tee, then read on.

Right on the package I saw the words, "extremely breathable", "excellent in humid climates," and "odor resistant."   Sounded like the shirt for me, especially since I had convinced my wife that we could take a twenty-day trip to Central and South America with just one backpack, and now it was up to me to make that a reality by packing very lightly.

I had tried ExOfficio's incredibly comfortable and quick-drying Give-N-Go material (a mix of 94% nylon and 6% spandex) before, having worn their long underwear during the Minnesota winter we were now escaping, so I had high expectations. They were not only met, but exceeded.

I left home wearing the shirt under several layers, and was completely comfortable during the six hours spent aboard airplanes to Costa Rica. "Extremely breathable?" Check.  

When we arrived in San Jose, the air was thick enough that sweating was almost a futile exercise in cooling off. Yet, still, I was feeling fine in the Give-N-Go material. "Excellent in humid climates?" Check.  

Now I really began to put the tee to the test.   For the next week, I wore only one shirt.   And because I take product claims seriously, I didn't wash it for more days than my wife would have let me had she known. But she didn't know, and that's exactly the point. We spent every waking hour hiking through jungles, up volcanoes, and all around cloud forests, so it's not like I was lounging around air-conditioned hotel rooms all day. And yet, unlike a cotton shirt that gets ripe after one day of such work, the ExOfficio tee stayed remarkably free of olfactory evidence of my expeditions.   "Odor resistant?" Check and double check.

Of course, I did have to do a little laundry eventually.   But the Give-N-Go material dries so quickly that when I washed the shirt at night, squeezed it out in a towel, and hung it up, it was usually wearable the next morning to start the whole sordid process all over again.

Bottom Line: Go ahead and pack three shirts if you must, but you could literally travel for months and never wear the other two as long as one of them is ExOfficio's Give-N-Go Tee.   Plus it comes in a handy re-usable, snap-close plastic bag. Available in men's and women's sizes.--B.S. (May '06)

Price: $36.

Manufacturer's Site: www.exofficio.com

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