1. Merino versus synthetic fiber

Merino functional underwear		synthetic fiber functional underwear
1. Functional underwear made of wool keeps you warmer than any other material when it is damp or wet - a quick drying time is therefore of little importance, as the reliable heat retention significantly reduces the risk of catching a cold. Changing underwear after heavy sweating is not necessary.		1. Synthetic fiber clothing dries quickly, but it is precisely this super-fast drying process that naturally creates constant evaporative cooling. This becomes a problem especially in winter or in the phases between or after exertion and increases the risk of hypothermia. It literally sends a chill down your spine.
2. Immediately after the activity, there is no shivering effect due to the residual moisture evaporating. Wool passes moisture slowly and evenly to the next layer. There is no excessive evaporative cooling.		2. Next time you're on the mountain, pay attention to how many people prefer to put on a dry shirt at the top when the wind is howling and the synthetic shirt won't stop evaporating the sweat from the climb. Clearly missing the point!
3. Wool can store 1/3 of its own weight in moisture without feeling wet. This can be a decisive advantage, especially for socks and underpants, as the skin stays dry for a long time and does not soften, which in turn prevents blisters from forming in the shoe or, as experience shows, prevents chafing, for example in the crotch.		3. Take highly praised functional socks made of synthetic fibers and combine them with a waterproof mountain shoe = the perfect recipe for blisters. Synthetic fibers can hardly absorb moisture, which causes the skin to soften very quickly in the "closed cage" shoe. The same problem in the crotch - familiar to many men.
4. Unlike synthetic fibers, Merino functional underwear does not permanently remove moisture from the body. On the one hand, this saves a lot of weight on equipment, as you don't have to carry as much water with you. On the other hand, the risk of dehydration in high outside temperatures and during strenuous exercise is reduced. The stomach is less stressed, as you don't have to constantly drink to compensate for the loss through evaporation.		4. The body sweats to cool itself. If this moisture is constantly evaporated to the outside, sweat must be constantly produced to maintain the cooling effect. This causes water consumption to rise sharply, especially in hot regions or during strenuous exercise. The backpack becomes heavier when you carry more water. The risk of dehydration increases and with increased fluid loss, performance also decreases.
5. You can also save money by not washing your merino underwear for several days at a time, i.e. one piece can last up to a week - this saves both your equipment budget and the weight of your backpack!		5. Everyone knows it, everyone hates it. After a strenuous mountain hike, you sit in the hut and ask yourself, is it my shirt that gives off such a bad smell, or is it the one from the next table?
6. Merino underwear does not smell because the structure of the wool fiber is naturally antibacterial. Airing it out in the fresh air is enough to get rid of most of the smells. Pleasant for the nose - your own and that of others!		6. Regardless of whether you wear "antibacterial equipment" for several hours or half an hour without it, the fact is that you still stink the evening after the tour and after sweating profusely. So wear the synthetic shirt for a second day? Unthinkable!
7. In terms of heat output in relation to its own weight, merino wool is far superior to synthetic fibers. But that's not all. The heat is also different - more natural. Just as the heat from a tiled stove is more comfortable than that from a standard radiator.		7. Synthetic fibers are hollow fibers like small tubes in which bacteria can easily settle in a warm, humid environment. This is the reason why synthetic fiber underwear starts to smell very quickly and the smell is very difficult to remove even when washed.
8. The skin is one of the most important organs of the human body. So why cover yourself in plastic when nature has such an ingenious material at its disposal? Why absorb chemical residues from synthetic fibers through the skin? The advantages of natural raw materials are obvious.		8. In order to get this problem under control, the industry has started to make synthetic fibers antibacterial. This is often done by adding silver threads, which, according to scientific studies, are strongly suspected of promoting antibiotic resistance.
9. The ecological footprint of a merino shirt is many times smaller than that of a synthetic fiber shirt. Originally grown on the belly of a New Zealand merino sheep, a t-shirt made of 100% merino wool can simply be composted after its use cycle. It only needs to be washed at 30° during use to become hygienically clean, so energy is saved with each wash.		9. Petroleum and other chemicals are needed to manufacture clothing made from synthetic fibers (polymers). In addition to the use of fossil raw materials, the production process consumes a lot of energy. Synthetic fiber underwear is not biodegradable for centuries. The higher washing temperature required and the use of hygiene rinse additives to reduce odors are an additional burden on the environment and your wallet.
10. Wool is flame retardant - so nothing stands in the way of an evening by the campfire with flying sparks		10. One spark is enough and a hole has melted into the beautiful poly shirt. Warning: fire hazard!
11. Due to the curled structure of the wool fiber, Merino clothing is naturally highly elastic and crease-free. Ironing is not necessary.		11. Most synthetic fibers are not elastic on their own. This can be achieved by adding elastane, but these materials often stretch quickly.

2. Function of Merino Clothing

The Merino sheep is one of the most robust breeds of sheep, mainly due to its ability to adapt to large temperature fluctuations. In the New Zealand Alps, for example, the sheep live at temperatures of up to +30° in summer and down to -20° in winter. This natural temperature-balancing effect is of great importance in today's Merino functional underwear . No other functional fiber covers such a wide range of climates as Merino wool - whether you are sweating in scorching heat or standing outside in freezing cold, Merino underwear achieves maximum temperature regulation. It is not for nothing that the sheep feel comfortable in their woolen coats in both summer and winter.

Clothing made of merino wool can absorb up to 30% of its own weight in liquid without feeling wet. The skin stays dry for a long time, which significantly minimizes chafing. If even more moisture is added, the wool fiber can score points with a unique property. The curled structure and the special molecular fiber structure keep the heat on the body despite the wetness. Synthetic fibers, on the other hand, are hollow fibers that increase the evaporative cooling at this point through the capillary effect and lead to massive cooling and shivering during the drying phase.

Merino ski underwear, on the other hand, can be completely soaked in sweat after a strenuous climb, for example, but it will still stay warm so that you hardly notice the moisture. This property of wool is particularly indispensable for sports that involve rapid changes between warm and cold, such as ski touring, skiing or mountaineering . This prevents the muscles from cooling down quickly and reduces the risk of catching a cold.

In return, the wool fiber's moisture buffer acts as an effective cooling reserve in hot weather. Slow and even evaporation also means that significantly less sweat is removed from the body. Especially in hot regions, the permanent and greatly accelerated evaporation of sweat caused by synthetic fibers can become a serious problem.

Merino wool, on the other hand, reduces the risk of dehydration and the associated overheating and is therefore also an important weight-saving factor on treks lasting several days, as less water needs to be carried. When climbing mountains at high altitudes , it is also very important to keep fluid loss as low as possible to avoid altitude sickness. Merino functional underwear can make an important contribution here.

Merino shirts and Merino long-sleeved shirts offer another opportunity to reduce the weight of your backpack, as you only need one or no change of clothes. Wool is practically self-cleaning and can be worn for many days at a time without stinking if you hang it out in the fresh air from time to time.

Merino wool is significantly warmer than synthetic fibers in relation to its own weight. The thickness of Merino clothing is always given in grams per m². The thinner thicknesses of 130-170g/m² are ideal for summer or for very sweaty sports, the middle category of 180-250g/m² is for all-round use in spring, autumn and winter. For very cold conditions in mid-winter or people who get cold quickly, there is thermal underwear of 260-320g/m²

3. What justifies the price?

Merino wool is one of the finest natural raw materials used in textile production. Merino underwear is made from only the thinnest and softest wool fibers from the belly of the Merino sheep - the fillet of the wool, so to speak - in order to obtain a scratch-free textile. The remaining wool is processed into other products such as Merino bedding or used as insulation.

It takes time (on average half a year) for the wool to grow, so the raw material is not as cheap to produce as the petroleum waste product synthetic fiber. Nevertheless, there is no great price difference in the end product between Merino functional underwear and well-known synthetic fiber functional underwear products. On average, Merino underwear is only 10-20% more expensive than comparable synthetic underwear. Clothing made from Merino wool offers considerable functional added value and is a sustainably produced and 100% biodegradable natural product.

Now you can also find “cheap merino underwear” at discount stores or other retail chains that sell no-name items directly at much cheaper prices. So why pay more for a branded product such as from the industry leader Icebreaker ?

The cheap offers mentioned above mainly use Australian merino wool from inappropriate mass animal husbandry using the cruel mulesing method (cutting off the sheep's tails without anesthesia to avoid fly infestation). In addition, simpler weaving techniques are used, which results in less fabric stability. The fineness of the wool is lower, which means that the wool is more scratchy than high-quality merino wool.

We therefore only sell Merino products from well-known brand manufacturers with non-mulesing certified wool, which mainly comes from New Zealand, Tasmania or the Andes in South America. Merino wool from mountain regions with a high temperature gradient between summer and winter in particular has better climate-balancing properties than cheap Australian wool. The wool quality of animals kept in species-appropriate conditions that graze on alpine meadows is generally better than that of sheep from factory farming. The Merino brands we sell also use the latest machine technology to produce the fabrics.

The extra cost is worth it in terms of function, quality and sustainability.

 

4. The Tale of Scratching

 

The wool of the Merino sheep is the softest sheep's wool fiber in the world due to its very low fiber thickness of 18-22 microns (22 microns = 22 thousandths of a millimeter) and, thanks to modern weaving technology, is absolutely scratch-free.

Our skin is familiar with cotton and synthetic fibers from childhood. The feeling of wool, with its completely different (curled) fiber structure, is unusual when it first comes into contact with the skin and can initially tingle slightly. This tingling goes away after a short time and, the more often you wear merino underwear, it turns into a very pleasant and soft feeling, accompanied by a natural, comfortable warmth.

This often goes so far that once you are used to the comfort of merino underwear, you can no longer tolerate synthetic fibers with their plastic-like feel.

Many people confuse Merino wool with normal virgin wool and therefore immediately associate it with scratching. Normal virgin wool is scratchy because it is almost twice as thick as Merino fiber. Merino, on the other hand, has a fiber thickness of only ¼ of a human hair.

Even though scientific studies assume that scratching is no longer noticeable when the fiber thickness is less than 20 microns, the skin's sensation is always somewhat subjective.

So take your time when trying on Merino underwear for the first time, leave it on for at least 15 minutes and give your skin time to get used to the different feel. Don't keep thinking that it might be scratchy and only then judge whether you like the material. See for yourself.

If you still feel that you can't cope with pure merino wool, there are also material blends of merino wool with other natural fibers for extremely sensitive skin types, such as bamboo (viscose) or wood cellulose (lyocell), which significantly increase the fineness of the fabrics. The softest fabric qualities in our entire range can be found at Pally'Hi , which offers a merino-viscose blend with unbelievably soft comfort. This natural fiber blend definitely feels better than any other textile you've ever worn!

The Merino-Lyocell blend , as used in the Icebreaker Sphere series, for example, has similar wearing properties and an additional slightly cooling effect for higher outside temperatures.

 

5. Natural warmth - the feel-good plus!

Wearing clothing made of merino wool is a bit like enjoying the cozy warmth of a tiled stove or a fire. We're talking about a different kind of warmth, a penetrating and even warmth, a pleasant warmth that doesn't overheat. The curly structure of the wool fibers holds the warming air cushion that lies directly above the skin and doesn't let it escape quickly, even when you move.

Merino functional underwear should therefore tend to be worn close to the body, but not too tightly so that the air cushion is not compressed too much. Wool reflects body heat inwards, while synthetic fibres conduct heat outwards.

The great thing about Merino functional clothing is that sheep's wool is naturally designed by evolution to regulate the body temperature to a healthy level, even when it is wet, which means that it also protects the body from overheating. Without these properties, the sheep would not be able to survive in regions with changing seasons. To date, it has not been possible to replicate these properties perfected by nature using artificial materials.

 

6. Sweat odor is a thing of the past

 

It is well known that merino underwear does not smell like its counterpart, synthetic underwear. But why? Firstly, merino wool is not a hollow fibre and has an uneven and scaly surface. This makes it very difficult for odour-causing bacteria to settle. In addition, the moisture-storing cell core eliminates the bacteria absorbed with the water vapour through the structure of its inner protein molecules and sulphur-rich proteins. The outer layer, on the other hand, is able to repel water in the form of drops thanks to its waxy surface, but absorbs water vapour. This means that the outside of the wool fibres stays dry for a very long time, which also counteracts the formation of bacteria.

All it takes is hanging a merino shirt out in the fresh air overnight to neutralize odors. This means it can be worn for many days in a row without smelling unpleasant. In a self-test on tour in the wilderness of Iceland, the Merino Store manager wore an Icebreaker T-shirt for a week in a row without being able to shower - with an astonishing result: the merino shirt would have lasted even longer without really smelling. This is unthinkable with a functional shirt made of synthetic fibers, which would have had to be changed after just one day.

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