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What is it and what does it do? Well, I am not going to get
into all of that, I will just let you go to Under Armour's website
to look at that. I want to tell you how it worked. For
most of the airsoft games that I have played, I try to wear
something different every so often. I am doing this, not
because I want to be up to date on all of the newest fashion trends,
but instead I am trying to find the right 'combination' of gear to
wear for the game time, scenario and weather that we are playing.
For instance, if I were in the desert I wouldn't want to wear the
same gear as if I were playing in the forest. So different
gear for different games.
One thing that I
noticed though, was that no matter, what I wore, BDU's, Coverall's
or just pant's and a shirt, they all had the same thing in common.
I SWEAT!! Yeah, pretty amazing huh? So at the end of the
game... You know what, we
won't even go 'that' far back...
After the first hour, I always noticed that the shirt that I
wore, was just soaked with sweat. Now a quick lesson on
sweat... it is the human bodies natural reaction to discreet sweat
in an attempt to cool down a body and prevent it from overheating.
Okay now that science class is over, three major things happen when
your shirt gets 'soaked' with sweat.
First, when the
shirt material fills with sweat, it expands. When it expands,
it doesn't 'breathe' anymore, thus adding to your body temp (Ie.
makes you hotter). When a shirt can't breathe, it basically
acts as if you were wearing a jacket and as your body attempts to
regulate heat, it holds more heat in causing you to sweat even more.
For the most part, the sweat will just start popping out on the head
and end up steaming up your goggles. So, unless you plan on
changing your shirt every game (or 30 minutes) wearing a regular
shirt isn't really a 'tactical' choice in gear.
The second
reason is, when you sweat you are actually adding weight to your
gear. Simply put, have you ever picked up a wet t-shirt?
Yeah,.. on to the third reason. Have you ever walked past a
construction worker right after he got off work? He stinks
doesn't he? yeah.. well guess what.. ?!?!.. If you keep wearing
those regular shirts.. you will too. Now, it's not just a
'hygiene' thing, it is also a tactical thing. Imagine you are
playing in a game and stunk to high heaven. Now imagine you
were up wind from the other team.. Have you ever 'passed gas' and
someone on the other side of the room called you for it?
YEP...same concept.
So on to the
review, hopefully you're still awake. When I bought this shirt,
it was T-minus 2 hrs 13 minutes until game time. I didn't have
much time to spare so I ran into the Sport Chalet sporting goods
where I had spotted the gear a week prior and went to the Under
Armour section. I knew the colors that I wanted and just
needed to grab the size. I figured that I normally wear an XL
shirt and that fits nice and comfortable. So I grabbed one of
the same size off the rack and started towards the register.
Some weird chill came over me and told me that I should try the
shirt on or 'I'd be sorry'.. So I stopped off at the dressing rooms
and tried it on. Good thing that I did, it was 'very tight' on
me. Not, tight as in 'that is how it works' tight.. but pretty
close to restricting tight. Needless to say, it was
uncomfortable and I wasn't about to wear a shirt in game that I
didn't want to wear in the dressing room. So I headed back and
grabbed an XXL Under Armour shirt. This one fit snug like it
was suppose to but did not feel restricting like the XL did.
So lesson one, try on the shirt first you 'may' need to get a shirt
that is one size bigger.
*note*.. It may be just my
preference on how the shirt felt, so be sure to try it on first.
Comfort is just as important as function.
I got home and
jumped into the shower. If you know me, you know that I don't
like to be dirty.. when I get dirty.. Yes, counter productive but I
have a problem with 'adding' layers of dirt and sweat to my body.
Anyway, after I got out of the shower I proceeded to put on my BDU
pants and my new Under Armour Heat Gear shirt. Hmmm.. strange,
it felt slightly different now that my body was 'squeaky clean'.
I chalked it up to that and gave it no more thought. So lesson
two, if it feels slightly different after you take a shower, from
when you tried it on at the store, pay no attention. It goes
away and you don't notice it.
As people were
showing up at the house, I couldn't help but feel self conscious
because this shirt fits directly to your body.. and I'll admit, I'm
not going to win any Mr. Fitness contests any time in the near
future. But don't worry about it too much, because if you have
friends like me, they will torment you and tease you the entire
night until you are used to it or they just get tired of coming up
with new ones. So lesson three, don't worry about how 'tight'
it feels, it's heat gear.. remember what we talked about above?
We got to the
game and got set up. After the first game was called, we all
started running in this direction and that direction and sure
enough, I started to sweat. Well, here is the moment of truth,
what will it do? Will it work the way it says it will or at
least the way that I had heard it will? What I had heard about
this gear was that it 'pulls' moisture away from your body, keeping
you cooler and drier. Okay, so it didn't do 'exactly' that..
but what it did do was it keep the sweat uniformed. Does
that make any sense?? Okay, what I mean is, when you wear a
regular shirt, you normally have these 'spots' of sweat and your
shirt stretches and it turns different colors. Well with the
Under Armour gear, I didn't notice any of that and the only sweat
that I really had to attend to was the sweat on my forehead.
Lesson four, it keeps the sweat contained so that it doesn't become
a distraction.
Now, the
'coolest' part (pun intended).. When I would run, the sweat that was
now 'drawn' to the outside of the shirt was cooling me down, as I
ran. With a regular shirt, you wouldn't have noticed that
because it's too loose and it is blocking the ability to breathe.
So you don't feel the air rushing past. In addition to the
running while in game, I was asked how it worked while I was in the
safe zone. I will tell you the same thing, When I was standing
still, it actually felt as if I was standing in front of a gentle
breeze. I felt very comfortable, I didn't find any need to
grab the bottom of my shirt and 'fan' myself.. you know what I mean.
So lesson five, yes it does keep you cool. Not cold or
'anti-hot' but cooler than you would be in a regular shirt.
One of the
things that was brought up to me was, "So what are you going to do
when you get shot?".. My reply, "Well, I hope I don't get shot, but
if I do, I'll take the hit.. I'm not a P_____".. I will admit that I
had my reservations about wearing the shirt. I mean really, it
is almost as if I were wearing no shirt at all. It was thin,
it didn't have any padding and being that it was a form fitting
shirt, there were no loose ends to slow down the shot. If I
got hit anywhere in the upper body, I would feel it. So lesson
six, don't wear this shirt alone, if you are sensitive to acute
localized trauma... haha!
The last thing
that I noticed was when I got home. Ever notice that when you
go home, your shirt is normally still somewhat damp, stretched out,
different colors and most likely stinking like no other? Well
fine, maybe it's just me but anyway, with the Under Armour Heat
Gear, I noticed that the shirt looked the exact same as it did when
I put it on 6 hours ago. That was with 5 hours of pretty much
non-stop consistent game. No sagging, no damp spots, no color
changes, no nothing.. I was very impressed. It held up to 4
shots that I received in different games and the only damage that I
found was some scrape marks from when I brushed up against a wall with
my shoulder. Even then, the damage to the shirt was minimal
and the only reason I saw it, was because I was inspecting the shirt
to tell you guys about it. So, the final lesson is the shirt
is a great overall shirt for airsoft games whether you use it under
your BDU's or by itself. It can take some abuse and you don't
have to worry about it 'breaking' the first time you use it.
Other than a slight smell of my deodorant, I really couldn't smell
anything on the shirt that would suggest it had been worn.
My summary of
this product is that it will definitely help you play harder longer
without having sweat as a distraction. The Under Armour Heat
Gear full t-shirt sells for $24.99 and would be a great addition to
your current tactical gear collection. Use it by itself or
under your BDU it will be a lot better than wearing a regular
t-shirt, even the nice fruit of the loom under shirts. For the
money that I spent and the comfort that I got, I would say that it
will pay for itself after about 3 'hard' days of game play.. or one
airsoft operation. So if your looking for some tactical gear
to help you play, you don't have to buy the $3500 NVG's.. instead,
look into some gear that will make you more comfortable so you can
last longer.
Questions or
comments on this review? Contact me by
clicking here.
Here are some
before pictures of the Under Armour Heat Gear.
    
 
Here are some
after pictures of the Under Armour Heat Gear.
    
  
Here is a look
at a shot that I took from about 10 yards out with a gun shooting at
approx 350fps.
For more
information about Under Armour gear visit their website at
www.underarmour.com
For a direct link to their tactical gear section go to this page:
http://www.underarmour.com/ua2/ua/gear.asp?dept%5Fid=37
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