Synthesization

What would this blog be without the occasional post on my latest clothing and equipment purchases?

I've always been bit of a die hard when it comes to natural fabrics. Although I quickly cottoned on to the advantages of breathable synthetic fabrics like Gore-Tex for rainwear, when it comes to what I wear underneath, I've never felt inclined to ditch good old cotton. I put this down in part to a bad experience with some cheap Kathmandu travel pants that were meant to be breathable but left me feeling all sweaty when I wore them during a trip to Thailand or another of those hot and sticky Southeast Asian countries a few years back.

So when we walked the Nakasendo in 2007, while Erik took along a wardrobe consisting entirely of clothes made out of the latest breathable synthetic materials (I remember him telling me about an incident that occurred when he was "provisioning" in which a shop assistant told him he'd "die" if he wore anything else), I stuck fairly religiously to cotton underwear, t-shirts, trousers, and shirts. Needless to say I didn’t die. But I did envy Erik's ability to wash his clothes in the evening after a day's walking and have them dry and ready to wear again the next morning. I, on the other hand, had to wait either until we came across a hotel with coin laundry facilities so I could dry my washing in a dryer, or until we had a rest day so I could hand wash and dry things properly in my room.

I've been satisfied for some time that the latest breathable fabrics are in fact breathable. But there's another problem. I did take one synthetic top when we walked the Nakasendo, but I noticed it got rather smelly over the cause of a single day's walking even with a cotton t-shirt underneath, something I never experienced with cotton tops. However, this problem has now been solved with the introduction of "anti-microbial" clothing. So, to cut a long story short, the other day I popped into Columbia Sportswear Company's "flagship" New Zealand store on Colombo Street and splurged on some Silver Ridge Convertible Pants (Fossil) and a Mountain Tech Short Sleeve Tee (Night Train). I've yet to wear either on a walk, but I'll let you know how they perform when I do. I just hope my Night Train shirt doesn't clash with my Sunburst backpack.