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Icebreaker from New Zealand is a company which delivers high-tech clothing made from 100% natural materials, the wool of the Merino sheep. One of their aims is to produce the worlds most comfortable, best-fitting clothing.

This review is about the Icebreaker Bodyfit 200, a T-shirt made entirely out of wool. Now, for those of you who remember wearing those bulky knitted sweaters your grandma knitted for you which just never quit itching, this is wool of a different breed.

Fabric

The Merino wool is much thinner than “normal” sheep wool, which enables Icebreaker to make very fine fabrics with all the nice properties present in the Merino wool. Some of the most note-worthy are that it is quick-drying because the fibres breathe, even in thin layers it can be quite warm and, this really sets it apart from many synthetic products from competitors: it is fire resistant. That’s right, where synthetics will melt on you, this stuff won’t. Another nice benefit is that no tricky anti-microbial coatings or whatever were required in the production process to reduce odour, the Merino fibre comes with it naturally. I had to laugh when I read their “think, don’t stink” statement. To be honest, it works. After four days of wearing I decided to wash it more out of courtesy than necessity.

Looks

The shirt is a next-to-skin T-shirt with a round neck. The Icebreaker logo is neatly embroidered on the front in like colours and material, unlike some competitors’ products which make you look like a commercial sign. The shirt is tight and the sleeves are short, so you can wear it underneath virtually anything.

Fit

The material is really thin (the 200 indicates the thickness, ranging from 150 to 320) and really forms a second skin feeling. Whether you wear the shirt under a suit, to work, or out running, the shirt does what it should do, without reminding you it is even there. One drawback though, and this could be just this series, is that the shirt is rather short. I have a couple of comparable shirts from competitors and they are all longer. During normal use this does not pose a problem, but when riding a bike or during manoeuvres where extreme mobility is required, the shirt may work itself out of its tucked-in position. My advise there would be to make the entire shirt a bit longer (2cm would do) or even elongate only the back (like some shirts from Craft have). I haven’t gotten my hands on a shirt from Icebreaker’s GT series but I expect those not to have this problem as they are specifically designed for ‘active’ use.

Sustainability

Sustainability is very important to Icebreaker, and each piece of clothing can be traced back to the origin based on a “baacode” on the label. They make a very fundamental statement that many people, when they go out to explore nature, wrap themselves in plastic. Why not wrap yourself in nature?

For more information, have a look at their nice website..