Camouflage Polo Shirt 'Fast Dry'

Cotton shirts stay wet. This one doesn't.

Forty degrees, no shade, and the cotton shirt you started the day in is a wet rag by smoko. It sticks to your back, it holds the heat against you instead of letting it go, and it is still damp when you pull it back on after lunch. Sit in a cold ute for ten minutes in that and you will feel it.

That is a fabric problem, not a you problem. Cotton soaks water up and hangs onto it. This polo is a knitted polyester — the label sewn into the neck reads 100% polyester — so it carries very little water to start with, and what it does pick up spreads out across the weave and goes.

The rest of it is put together more like workwear than a golf shirt. Raglan shoulder seams, so there is no seam sitting on top of your shoulder under a pack strap. A hook-and-loop panel on each sleeve for a name tape or a patch. A flap-closed pocket on the sleeve. Split side hems and a dropped back tail so it moves when you do.

One thing to get right before you pick a size. This is cut to the Chinese sizing standard, and the label on the size M reads 165/85A — a garment made for someone 165 cm (1650 mm) tall with an 85 cm (850 mm) chest. Against Australian sizing that is small. Most blokes will want to go up a size, and plenty will want two.

What It Does

• Sheds sweat instead of holding it: polyester carries almost no water, so a shirt that soaks through at ten in the morning is not still wet on you at two.
• Keeps the sun off your neck: a folded collar and real sleeves cover the neck, shoulders and upper arms that cop it worst on a long day outside.
• Takes your own patches: the loop panel on each sleeve holds a name tape, a blood group tag, a flag or a call sign without anyone getting a needle out.
• Carries the small stuff: the flap pocket on the sleeve suits a site pass, a pen or a folded docket — things that get crushed in a trouser pocket.
• Six patterns to disappear into: green scrub, dry grass, red dirt, grey rock or near-black, depending which one you pick.

Key Features

• Knitted polyester jersey with a fine textured face — the neck label states 100% polyester
• Self-fabric pointed collar with a two-button placket
• Raglan shoulder seams — nothing sitting on the shoulder under a strap
• Hook-and-loop loop panel on both sleeves for patches and name tapes
• Flap-closed pocket on the sleeve
• Split side hems with a dropped back tail
• Double-needle stitched hems and sleeve cuffs
• Six patterns: TYP, MAD, HLD, CP, ACU and JG
• Four sizes: M, L, XL and XXL
• Made by MEGE KNIGHT — the mark is on the neck label and the supplier artwork

Limits

• The sizing runs small: the size M label reads 165/85A, meaning 165 cm (1650 mm) tall and an 85 cm (850 mm) chest. That is not what M means in Australia. Size up.
• There is no size chart: the supplier publishes no chest, length, shoulder or sleeve figures for any size. The 165/85A on the M label is the only measurement printed anywhere on the garment, and we would rather tell you that than invent the rest of the table.
• No sun-protection number: there is no UPF marking on the garment or the packaging, so there is no figure for us to quote. It covers skin, and that is as far as we will take it.
• Not flame resistant: nothing about this shirt is FR, and polyester melts. If your site calls for flame-resistant clothing, this is not the shirt for it.
• Polyester hangs onto smell: it dries faster than cotton and it holds odour longer than cotton. That is the trade, and no fabric does both.
• Four sizes only: M, L, XL and XXL. There is no S and nothing above XXL.
• The camouflage is a pattern: it is printed clothing, nothing more. It carries no issue, service or certification of any kind.

Q & A

What size do I actually order?

Go up at least one from your normal Australian size. The size M label reads 165/85A, which is a garment cut for a bloke 165 cm (1650 mm) tall with an 85 cm (850 mm) chest — so their M is closer to our small. If you normally wear a large, XXL is the safer pick. A customer on another shirt in this catalogue reported an XXL arriving skin tight, so this is not us being cautious for the sake of it.

Is there any cotton in it?

No. The label sewn into the neck reads 100% polyester. That is why it dries the way it does, and it is also why it will hold smell more than a cotton shirt would.

Will it keep the sun off me?

It covers your neck, shoulders and upper arms, which is the part of you that burns first when you are working outside. What we cannot do is put a number on it — there is no UPF marking anywhere on the garment or the packaging, so any figure we quoted would be made up.

Can I put my own patches on it?

Yes. Both sleeves carry a loop panel roughly the size of a standard name tape, so any hook-backed patch will stick to it. Nothing is supplied with the shirt — the panels come bare.

Does it come in a plain colour?

No, all six are camouflage patterns. TYP is the darkest and reads close to black at a distance, ACU is a grey and white digital, JG is the classic green and brown woodland, and MAD, HLD and CP sit through the greens and dry-grass tones in between.

How long will it take to get here?

Ten to fourteen days from the day you place the order, and it is worth allowing up to three weeks. Regional and remote addresses take longer again. Delivery is free to Australia and New Zealand.

Specs