 Best Moisture Wicking Fabric for Golf HatsSteve Aronson the owner of 4HeadWear tells how he found the perfect material for making a golf hat.
By: 4HeadWear It seems now every golf shirt has a hangtag with some sort of claim about how the material wicks away moisture and keeps you cool and dry. How can you tell which ones really work well and which ones are just making a false claim? In my research I found a lot of technical jargon, which was pretty confusing to anyone without a chemical engineering degree. I’ll try and keep that to a minimum and just report the findings in a way all of us normal people can understand. To start let’s go back to my cotton shirt collection. Materials such as cotton absorb moisture. Cotton acts much like a sponge. As you perspire the cotton sucks up the moisture and holds it. The more you perspire the more it absorbs and gets heavier and heavier. The rate of evaporation is slow. It becomes more like a puddle of water than a fine mist. Moisture wicking materials on the other hand do not absorb water. These materials do what is called Adsorption. Adsorption essentially creates a mist of the molecules and the evaporation rate is relatively fast. The water molecules quickly spread to a large area on the surface of the garment allowing for faster evaporation. An example would be wiping a chalkboard with a damp towel. The moisture quickly evaporates as it spreads over a large porous surface. What I have found in my research is that moisture wicking materials are not all created equal. The ability and methods used to adsorb moisture varies. Many materials use chemical additives to promote adsorption, others have use a proprietary polyester, and others promote adsorption naturally. The bottom line is the natural adsorption is better. First, the natural fabric adsorption properties will last the life of the material while chemically treated fabrics will eventually lose their adsorption capabilities over time and repeated washing. Second, drying time is faster. I cannot find any quantitative data on the subject of which type has the fastest drying time but it is my experience the naturally made fabrics are faster. I have washed both types together and the natural fabric is dryer when it comes out of the washer. Third and importantly, it is my opinion the natural products feel much better on skin. The chemically treated fabrics and 100% polyesters do not feel as soft or comfortable. Nature offers us bamboo and coconut shells to make these moisture wicking fabrics. Both work extremely well. My preference is coconut, which is found in a fabric called Cocona Fabric. It is available from a number of name brand manufacturers of shirts, pants, and outerwear. Checkout Cocona’s website for list of all the major brands. Once I found Cocona the next step was the hat design but that is another story. Cocona, I believe is one of the best if not the best moisture wicking fabric. And by using Cocona the hats are 100% machine washable. Checkout the video from Cocona to see how this amazing fabric really works at this link: http://www.4headwear.com/ Some more good news about bamboo and coconut based fabrics. Both are environment friendly since they are sustainable products. I’m not an environment nut but I do try and do the right thing these days when I can. Every little bit helps as 4HeadWear hats are constructed with a 50/50 blend of polyester and Cocona. And just as important, these hats offer natural UV protection. Our 4HeadWear hats for instance have a 48 UPF rating (blocks 96% of UV rays) and as a bald guy that is much appreciated. # # # 4HeadWear offers the most comfortable sports hat you can wear. Three styles available: The 4HeadHat for receding hairlines, the BaldGuyHat for bald men, and the patent pending Bandit Hat for those with or without hair. UV protection/100% End
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