VENTILATING YOUR BODY

VENTILATION AND BELLOWS ACTION

“Starting with the skin and the need to prevent body moisture from entering the clothing, the requirement is for air space around the body so the moisture can evaporate and the vapor laden air can then move more freely out the neck opening. It will not force itself through the clothing if it is free to leave by an easier method. Ventilating net underwear (fishnets) is the answer to the problem. They even make an ordinary suit of clothing feel better in winter. The proper type is distinguished by a 3/8^th inch mesh or larger about 1/8^th inch in thickness and completely open. (That describes the fishnet material I use). Smaller holes and “waffle weave” underwear simply do not allow the necessary evaporation to take place. So called “insulated underwear” should not be worn next to the skin.Start out right by keeping body moisture out of your clothing. Wear ventilating net underwear.”

“How to Keep WARM” by Gerry Cunningham; published in 1971 when he still owned Gerry Outdoor Products Company.

Bellows are used to push air through tube in organs and to flame fires in fire places. They move air. When you are moving you automatically create a bellows action with your movement moving air within your clothing. That air within your clothing is actually a vapor or air laden with moisture. If you are wearing loose fitting clothing over fishnet underwear your movement will cause the moisture laden air to move upwards and if your neckline is open this vapor will leave very quickly through that space. When I was lost periodically when I was generating lots of heat I would open the neckline area of my parka to let the warm air with moisture out, and for this reason when I finally was in the cook’s tent and I took my parka off I was dry as was my clothing.

The Outdoor Retailer trade show takes place this week in Salt Lake City. I received the magazine INSIDEOUTDOORwhich contains a listing of all of the exhibitors and at least one non-exhibitor to my surprise; Wiggy’s.There are few ads and one caught my interest, a company called Coldpruf. Their slogan which I read last year is “WE OWN COLD”. I decided to view their web site to better familiarize myself with their products. As far as what I saw was all close fitting long underwear! The composition was either all polyester, all polypropylene, or polyester and wool or polyester and cotton in various blends. As far as I am concerned all of these materials will function exactly the same way; they will trap all the vapor, i.e. moisture laden air that comes out of the human body right next to your skin.

They are by no means alone producing long underwear that functions exactly in this manner, such as Smartwool who only uses merino wool for their long underwear, but the other few dozen companies that make long underwear use these same materials in general. And their garments perform exactly the same way. So it can be said that all of these companies “own the cold” and as such are passing the cold onto all of their customers. All of their customers when wearing these garments as a first layer under several layers of clothing during the winter season are guaranteed to experience a chill in the event that the person wearing these long underwear are active such as skiing or climbing, etc. when they stop the activity such as riding a chair lift if skiing the ride back up the mountain is not very pleasant. Before I had fishnets I was one of those people getting a chill riding the lift thinking my close knit long underwear was what I should be wearing. Why should I have been different?

One of the reasons the Lamilite socks work so well is because they do not fit clinging to your foot the way all other socks do so all movement is causing a bellows action forcing the vapor away from the foot as best as possible versus wool absorbing the vapor causing it to condense.

These companies like COLDPRUF who is part of a company that is I believe 103 years old. You would think that they would have made an effort to discover what could improve their products, but for most of those 103 years they have not bothered to educate themselves. There is a reason; they own machinery that is basically only able to do one type of knit so they do not care to change. This is indicative of many aspects of the textile industry.

As I have written in the past; if you want to be comfortable while active outdoors during the colder months you should start out with the most important layer of clothing; your base layer and it should always be fishnets and each layer over it should be loose fitting for the most part. You will find that you will probably need less layers because the fishnets make all clothing worn over them work better. And if you can easily allow the vapor out principally your neck line you will never get a chill again.

Soon I expect to have a fabric for use as a second layer over the fishnets.

The knowledge to improve products is out there all one has to do is discover it; however I do not see that happening in the outdoor industry. What I do see are young people just accepting what has been there and is there now that they are in the industry and dreaming up ways to offer the same old products with a new twist knowing deep down that somethings just do not work, and with that I’ll leave it to you to think about what is offered that doesn’t nor has ever worked.

WLECOME TO 2017!