Midweight Crew LS

Harness the magic of Cocona technology, while the Midweight crew’s innovative fabric provides breathable warmth as a baselayer. Its design gives it the appeal of an outer layer. – Kim Thompson

Coconut-based clothing brings to mind rustling skirts and comedy bras, hardly suitable for Britain’s bracing weather. However, Marmot’s warm and snug base layer uses 30 percent “upcycled” (waste) coconut husks that are carbonized, then blended with polyester. The result, Polartec Cocona, dries incredibly fast, offers full UV protection and feels very soft. The fabric also controls odour naturally so you won’t feel too smelly after a hike. And unlike some anti-microbial treatments for artificial fibres, this should last the full lifetime of the garment.

Here’s the buzz on Cocona fabric: warm, light, dries quickly, stops UV and maybe most importantly, doesn’t hold stink like normal polypro – all because it is made with coconut husks. Now before you envision sad monkeys staring at the dead hulks of palms on the beach, know that according to TrapTek, the originator of Cocona fabrics, they use recycled coconut husks from the food industry. And while the coconut is the key ingredient, the fabrics with Cocona technology are still primarily made out of other fibers like cotton or polypro. This, of course, raises the next green question, “Well, where do those materials come from?” The ground, baby, the ground.

Anyway, seeing as how it is in the 90s right now in Colorado, and MG is not sending me to ski in South America any time soon, I had to devise a method to test the claims of Marmot’s “baselayer” while maintaining my current day job (notice that companies no longer refer to this stuff as underwear, because apparently, we are all four years old and can’t handle it without giggling). I decided to paint houses in the heat while wearing my Marmot top underneath a long-sleeved cotton shirt for 10 days without washing either garment. I also made my attention-starved roommate sniff the shirt so as to have an independent opinion because, according to me, I never stink. The results of the doubly-brutal experiment? Well the shirt kept me really, really warm. Despite me sweating profusely, the fabric definitely wicked with the best. The UV protection was too little too late as I was already raisonized by the sun back in June. And the stink? The shirt was understandably malodorous by week’s end, not only with sweat, but paint fumes, too. However, after washing it with unscented biodegradable detergent, the fabric truly smelled like nothing but air. I was a little bummed it didn’t smell like coconuts, actually.

Really, warm undies like these from Marmot are something I want to put on and forget about. Without the old smells to remind me of where I have been, I can focus on where I am going, instead. I can already hear myself chanting “put the lime in the coconut…” as I hike up Highlands Bowl this November. By Chris Kalous

“Wearing this Marmot crew on a sweaty hike is like using a towel to dry off when you step out of the shower,” said one tester after a hard uphill backpack in the Grand Canyon. The stellar wicking action comes from an interior waffle pattern that disperses sweat, and a superfine polyester-Cocona fabric blend.

Cocona, made with activated carbon fibers from the insides of discarded coconut shells, has innate wicking abilities that we’ve found to work better than many synthetics. Its makers claim that it also has natural odor-fighting properties, but our jury is still out.

We put this shirt through the handful of washings that marmot says is required to activate the carbon’s antimicrobial action, then did some sniffing. Some testers gave it the thumbs-up; others said it was unusually stinky. It does provide good insulation for its weight, yet generally stays cool and dry under a shell. Testers liked the way the brushed fabric felt against their skin and how the smooth exterior slid easily under layers, but flagged it for excessive pilling.