Moisture Management

Photomontage Left image Stock photo. A grey t-shirt with sweat stains under sleeves and through the torso. © Mark Deibert 123rf.com Right Image A participant of an Adventure Race in Patagonia hikes up a mountain in full alpine gear. He is wearing an Original Buff® as beanie. You can see sweat on his face but the Buff® looks dry. © Unknown. Released by Original Buff S.A for the promotion of Buff® products.

A wet T-shirt in the cold is so nasty. Moisture managed fabrics like Buff® keep you comfortable (123rf.com / buff.eu)

Cotton is horrible when wet. It gets heavy, feels wet and clings. Add cold weather and your wellbeing goes south.

Buff® fabrics manage moisture. So good that wearing a wet Buff® as beanie in the cold feels okay.

4 other ways it does a great job

Cycling

Rian Cope cycling up the highlands in Indonesia. Rian is wearing Buff® team wear and a Australia Flag Original Buff®. It's obvious that non of the fabrics are wet or clingy. © EatSleepSurf.com.au
90% Humidity, 35 Degrees Celcius and your cycling up the hill. Moisture managed fabrics like the Buff® keep you dry, comfortable and cool (EatSleepSurf)

Sweating and wind don’t go well together. The chill on those wet spots destroys your fun.

MM gets rid of these wet spots. Feel dry and enjoy your ride.

Running in the heat

Buff® Adventure Racing Team in action. It's hot and their on their running leg. You can see a High Uv Buff® used as sweatband. © Original Buff S.A
Hot & Sweaty? Better to have the sweat cool you than running down your face

You’re sweating. Actually you’re sweating a lot. MM takes the sweat away from you skin to the outside. Now cooling can do it’s job for your well-being.

Climbing

A member of the Buff® Adventure Racing Team climbing up a cliff. He is wearing a Original Buff® as sweatband. © Original Buff S.A. Released for the promotion of Buff® products
Sweat in your eyes in a critical situation? A Buff® as sweatband prevents this

Sweat in you eyes and no chance of wiping it away. To make things worse you are in a critical part of the route.

MM keeps the sweat out of your eyes. It takes the sweat from your forehead and distributes it all over the fabric. Now cooling can get rid of it.

Diving

Hair flying around under water? A Original Buff® as hair cover solves this. It feels good even when fully wet. (Arocsport)
Hair flying around under water? A Original Buff® as hair cover solves this. It feels good even when fully wet. (Arocsport)

Long hair floating in your face? Tame it by using a Buff® fabric as hair cover.

MM makes a Buff® feel okay even when totally wet.

What exactly is Moisture Management?

It’s the ability of a fabric to draw moisture away from the skin and distribute it evenly. The emphasis is on evenly. The more even it is the less the skin feels it.

Here is a demo of a Buff® fabric vs. some other (cheap) tube fabric.

Limitations

Wearing the outside of the fabric on your skin reduces the function. Make sure you always have the inside of the fabric on your skin.

If you are a heavy sweater you might get to the limits. The High UV Buff® fabric has the highest MM properties in the world. Should that fail you’ve tried all that’s available.

How to easily check other fabrics for MM

Test it

Easiest is to take a eyedropper with water and put one drop on the fabric. Just see how the fabric  suck up the drop and how it is spread across the fabric. Compare it to your Buff® and you get a good feeling what that fabric will do on your skin.

Have a close look

A cotton T-shirt is one of the worst fabrics for MM. That’s why they feel so bad when wet.

As a rule of thumb if the yarn looks thick and the weave is wide you can expect bad MM. The closer it looks like a T-shirt fabric the more likely it is to have bad MM.

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Only Non-Toxic and Non-Itchy Ingredients – Oekotex Certified

8 December 2018 No Comments

The most dangerous way for a toxin to enter the body is not through the digestive system, but through the skin

Andreas Schimkus, former senior industry adviser to the Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia's (TFIA)
A toddler wearing a Baby Buff® as a face mask. The toddler looks happy. Source: buff.eu
A Buff® passes the most stringent test for fabrics. Free of anything irritating or harmful for babies.

Did you know that fabric ingredients are grouped into toxic or safe and non-itchy?

The difference in costs is huge.

This article shows you how to spot the safe products and why Buff® headwear ticks the right boxes

What makes you itch?

There are 2 main reasons for fabrics itching.

The first is bacteria. Call it bad hygiene or simply fabrics that make you sweat and breed bacteria (cheap polyester beanie hat for example).

The second is toxic and irritating ingredients in making the fabric.

There are ingredients available that can not only make you itch but also severely impact your health.
These ingredients are on a list and banned in most 1st world countries.

How safe are we in Australia?

Not at all, unfortunately.

Australia has no tests or regulations regarding safe textile ingredients. You can import into Australia whatever you like.

This leads to Australia being the only 1st world country supplied with 3rd world quality clothing.
Whenever we mentioned in China that we are from Australia and want headwear that passes the Oekotex test, we heard something like, “Why do you want to waste money on Oekotex. You are from Australia. You do not need this …”.
We were quite shocked at first but got used to hearing it all the time.

Here is a nice article from Choice that goes into more detail
https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/everyday-shopping/clothing/articles/chemicals-in-clothing
My favourite quote is

Products that are made in China for the Australian market could not even be sent back to China, as many of them would not meet the Chinese product safety standards but are acceptable here.

Andreas Schimkus, former senior industry adviser to the Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia's (TFIA)

How do you find safe and non-itchy clothing in Australia?

You look for the Oekotex® certificate.

Oekotex® is a worldwide testing standard for classifying the safety of clothing.

Just look out for something like the logo below. If you spend more money to make your product safe, you will have it tested. If you can’t find it, assume the worst.
Especially if it’s our beloved “The same, just cheaper…” products.

The logo of the Oekotex® 100 certification for babies (class1). Source: buff.eu
The logo of the Oekotex® 100 certification for babies (class1)

You can always go to the AITEX website and enter the test number. That will give you all the details of the test.

So what are Buff® tested to?

The more intensive the skin contact of a product and the more sensitive the skin, the stricter the human-ecological requirements that need to be complied with.

Oekotex® 100 website

All adult products are rated to class 2. This is the class for adults close to the skin clothing (underwear, socks, headwear,…)

All baby products are rated to class 1. The most stringent class.

You can find the logo of the Oekotex® 100 certification on the back of the Original Buff® packaging. Source: buff.eu
The logo of the Oekotex® Certification on the Original Buff®

Sources

Choice – Chemicals in Clothing

Oekotex® 100 webpage

Wikipedia – Oekotex® 100

UV/Sun Protection

6 December 2018 No Comments
Photomontage: Left image Cutout of a man with a severely sunburned face. © Jonny Hunter, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnyhunter/3565036940/in/photostream/ Right image A flyfisher proudly displaying his catch. He is standing waist deep in salt water and he is wearing a High Uv Buff® as face mask. © Pat Ford
Ouch. That must hurt. The Buff® fabrics protect. (Jonny Butler / Pat Ford)

Sunburns hurt. Skin cancer can kill.

The Original EcoStretch and the Coolnet UV fabric give you UPF50 excellent protection (98% UV/Sun protection).

Scan of a UPF report issued by ARPANSA
Skin Cancer aware? If it’s not rated it will not protect you.

This is an example of a UPF report. It was performed by the founders of the UPF rating ARPANSA. Nowadays both Original EcoStretch and CoolnetUV fabrics are constantly monitored for their UPF rating at the factory. The testing company is Aitext Textile Research Institute.

BUFF® Original EcoStretch and CoolnetUV multifunctional headwear comes with a label stating the standard (AS/NZS 4399:1996), the UPF Rating and the testing laboratory.

Beware of UPF Claims without reference to the test!

We see a lot of tubular headwear that advertises sun protection claims but has no labels or mention of the test standard. Those claims are bogus. Why?

A thin fabric without a UPF rating cannot protect you from skin cancer.

For example, a T-shirt is only around UPF 6. That’s because it just filters out enough UVB to stop a sunburn. It will not stop you from getting skin cancer because it doesn’t filter out UVA enough.

UVA is harder to filter, and it goes deep into your skin, so the damage is not visible.

That’s where special dyes and other ingredients that absorb UVA and UVB satisfactorily enter the game. This function can only be tested and proven in a laboratory.

That’s why sun-protective clothing is more expensive than non-protective clothing.

So, if you see a tube with a UV protection claim that doesn’t clearly state the UPF rating with the testing standard and the testing laboratory, do yourself a favour and walk away.

Most Popular Use

 
Fly fisher holding a catch in the flats. He is wearing a High Uv Buff® as face mask. The cooling effect makes the face mask comfortable. © Pat Ford http://www.patfordphotos.com/. Licenced by Original Buff S.A for the promotion of the High Uv Buff®
Intense sun and heat. The BUFF® CoolnetUv fabric cools to make your sun protection comfortable (Pat Ford)

Fishing

The most popular application so far for sun protection. A face mask that you can wear in the heat.
All fishing professionals now wear the BUFF® CoolnetUV for this one reason: Replace sunscreen and still be skin cancer protected.

 

In the Snow

A man wearing a High Uv Buff® as face mask in the snow. He is in a ski resort. © unknown
Forgot your sunscreen? A BUFF® Original EcoStretch helps you out.

How often did you forget your sunscreen? I have tons of times.

  • Wear it as a face mask and you’re protected
  • Not sweating – It eases the biting wind

 

Travel

Halong Bay in Vietnam as seen from a kayak. The kayaker in front is wearing a High Uv Buff® as legionnaire style cap. Submitted to us as part of a testimonial. Copyright unknown
Long sun exposure during a great adventure. Good to have a protective and cooling BUFF® CoolnetUV as legionnaire cap with you.

You’re travelling and you have this opportunity to go on a tour. No cloud in the sky, and of course, you didn’t bring some specialized headgear with you. The BUFF® CoolnetUV tube as a legionnaire-style cap will give you protection.

 

Endurance Sports

A participant of the Marathon Des Sables running through the desert. He is wearing a custom made High Uv Buff® as face mask. Copyright is unknown. Distributed by Original Buff® S.A. for the promotion of Buff® products
Sunscreen sweating out, and there is no time to replace it. The BUFF® CoolnetUV protects. The fabric cools enough to wear in a desert.

Running events in the sun are a prime example. You’re sweating throughout the day, and no sunscreen will work for long. You also don’t have any time to apply sunscreen constantly.

Events like the Marathon des Sables have their custom-made BUFF® CoolnetUV for their participants. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than burning to crisps.

 

Limitations

They are thin fabrics so stretching them too much or wearing them thin over several years reduces the protection.

Sources

ARPANSA Resource Guide for UV Protective Products

Wikipedia – Ultraviolet

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