Won these new natural fibres, like bamboo, hemp and cellulose-based fabrics do the job just as well?
In a word – No. Whilst these fibres may be good in hot weather, none of them are a capable of managing moisture in the way Merino does. Nor will they regulate your body temperature, keeping you warm when it’s cold, cool when it’s hot. Neither will they keep you warm once they get wet. Also, the nature of these fabrics is not “elastic”, so a close-fitting base-layer in these fabrics will not move with your body, restricting movement. Bamboo clothing – relatively new to the market, can be seen advertised as “thermal”. It isn’t. It has far higher absorbency even than cotton, the down side of which is that it takes far longer to dry. Bad news if you get wet and it’s cold. There’s an old saying among people who go out in the mountains: “cotton kills”. Bamboo won’t do you any favours either. • Why don’t you use organic merino wool? So little in the way of chemicals are used to treat New Zealand merino sheep, that the extra cost simply doesn’t warrant it. It’s one of the reasons we prefer New
