Fighting Funk: Lululemon Silverescent
Whether training hard on the range or at the gym, if you’re going to stay fit to fight, you’re going to sweat doing it. Lululemon isn’t just your girlfriend’s yoga pants anymore and in this article Doug shares his thoughts on their new Silverescent anti-stink clothing for guys.
It started on a lunch break in the middle of a hot day of training last summer as several of us took our armor off and the familiar smell of “plate carrier funk” started emanating from our sweat-soaked shirts. That day, though, I’d left the shirt I usually wear under my armor behind to test a new kind of shirt after a recommendation from a friend who swore up and down that it was “stink proof.”
Most guys I know (myself included, until recently) aren’t familiar with the brand Lululemon, but almost all guys I know are quite aware of what Lululemon is most famous for – the wonderful invention that is women’s yoga pants.
To be perfectly honest, though, when I heard about their men’s clothing line, I didn’t want to like it. Soon though, when I started to see things like their ABC Pants (“Anti-Ball Crushing”) and features in other products like a “panel between the legs to keep seams away from special cargo,” I started to feel like this company was looking out for my most personal of interests. I’m also always up for a challenge and when guys are on the range wearing body armor or in the gym working out, we sweat and stink.
So there I am, on the range in the sun, sweating into a shirt under my body armor that is made by the same company that makes my wife’s yoga pants. As you can guess, I kept that last part to myself as I’m sure I would have had to pick up the first round of drinks that afternoon if someone had found out.
I first smell-tested the shirt at lunch, then again at the end of the day… nothing. Sure, I smelled like I’d been on the range all day, but the shirt didn’t. By now I was intrigued so I decided to wear it again the next day without washing it. Incredibly, even at the end of a second full day on the range wearing body armor in the sun… still no smell. At this point I was impressed enough with the shirt that I decided I should write about it. As any good gear test goes, however, I first wanted to see if I could push it all the way to failure, so I decided to wear the shirt to the gym for the next five days straight without washing it.
“You want me to do what?!”
After going two full days on the range under my plate carrier and another five days in the gym without washing the shirt, it definitely wasn’t clean and it didn’t smell fresh. What I did notice, however, was that I didn’t smell any body odor. I decided to have someone else smell-test it just to be sure and, while it took some convincing (“you want me to do what?!”), my wife and her friend eventually agreed to do a sniff-test on my week-old shirt. They agreed that it did smell musty from being worn for a week without washing but they also agreed that it legitimately did not smell bad or of body odor.
According to their website, the technology behind the anti-stink clothing is the addition of silver into the fibers the shirt is made from. All I know is that I was impressed at how well it worked.
“While sweat is virtually odorless, naturally occurring bacteria on your body consume the sweat. This process is what causes the odor. The moisture in the sweat combined with air causes the silver to oxidize. This process releases a positively charged ion from the fiber. The positively charged silver ions are attracted to the negatively charged bacteria. The positively charged ions enter the cell membrane attacking the bacteria’s DNA. Ultimately the silver ions drastically inhibit the bacteria on the garment preventing mutation and reproduction.”
The shirt is very comfortable and seems well made. Unfortunately, the down side of the Lululemon Metal Vent Tech shirt is that it’s expensive. I wish I could replace all my workout clothing with their anti-stink products but at $64 per shirt that’s not a cheap proposition. Still, I am thoroughly impressed with their Silverscent technology and look forward to purchasing more of their products in the future.
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