Midweight Zip Neck LS

Featuring a yarn made from waste coconut shells destined for landfills, the Marmot Midweight Baselayer – a stretchy, soft, slinky zip top – gets all the green stars. Flat Lock seams don’t rub your skin and after a fast, long walk on the flat, there was no scent of Malibu seeping from the baselayer’s pores. Breathable Polartec fabric means the base layer dries fast and with a UV protection factor of +40 you can be exposed all day without turning pink.

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

One of the most underrated yet most important pieces of clothing is the humble base layer, which can wick the sweat away from the skin to keep the wearer warm and dry. There are plenty to choose from, but if you buy the right one, you can wear it all year, year after year. This Marmot option is made from Polartec Powerdry, like many other garments, and this is a proven performer. It benefits from Cocona, which is a natural environmentally friendly product made from coconut that controls odour and does not wash out. The material is also about twice as fast-drying as a standard polyester base layer. Stylewise you get long sleeves and a zip neck, making this ideal for year-round use. Also the seams are very smooth to prevent chafing. It’s just about perfect, and as these garments last for tens of years the price is a bargain. Nothing wrong here as this is a well-proven performer … just buy it! Verdict: An essential, quick-drying garment to keep you warm and dry while maximizing the control of condensation when wearing a waterproof.

Outdoor companies with half-an-eye on the green dollar are striving to make their products appear more environmentally sustainable than their competitors’, hence a wave of goods whose ingredients include coconut or bamboo by-products, recycled plastic bottles and the like.

Though the results are often commendable, I find there’s still nothing quite like merino wool for baselayers, especially when it comes to what gets you thrown out of bars – the smell.

Cocona, though, is darned good. This synthetic fabric relies on fusing activated carbon (produced by incinerating waste coconut shells at 1600oC) with polyester Polartec to create a fabric that dries very quickly and which can be worn for several days before it begins to pong.

Cocona has been used by Marmot in this long-sleeve zip-neck top which has proved to be comfortable, a good fit even over my KitKat-laden belly and excellent in terms of performance.

The inner face of the fabric is fleecy-soft and gentle against the body, though the rougher outer has snagged on my beard more than once. Cocona contains no chemical anti-microbials which might wash out, so in theory its moisture-moving, temperature-regulating properties should last for the garment’s lifetime.

I wore this shirt for the three days and two nights of the Three Peaks trip and a subsequent sniff test could barely tell that it had been worn. Previously I’d worn it for up to five days on the trot with similarly pleasant results. I haven’t even been kicked out of the pub.