Nike Shows Its Salty Side In Base-layer Test

Helly Hansen, Musto and Victory Wetsuits also measure up in our fabric test

Our line-up included from left, base layers from Mureadritte, Patagonia, Victory, Nike, Helly Hansen, Ibex, Musto and Under Armour.

Not too many years ago, racing sailors in the grand prix arena began turning up at regattas with uniformed crew shirts that had an unmistakable synthetic sheen to them. Their owners boasted that they were comfortable to wear, dried in minutes, and offered some measure of protection from the sun’s UV rays. Most of these garments evolved from technical advances in the realm of fabric technology for high-end professional sports. The intent of their inventors was to replace cotton, which can absorb up to 30 percent of its own weight in water (or sweat). Some of these shirts carried claims that they absorbed just 2 percent of their weight in…