Pioneer Camp Sun Hoodies and UPF Shirts

The argument for long sleeves in July is not obvious until you have spent a day on water. Direct sun on a bare arm is a load your skin is dealing with continuously; a light knit over it removes most of that and costs you very little in heat, because the cloth here is a thin quick-dry weave that moves air. That is why guides, anglers and cyclists wear these in the hottest months, and why the details are where they are: a hood for the back of the neck and the ears, thumb holes for the back of the hand, a collar that comes up when the light is low and hard.

The figure on the label is the point of the shelf and it deserves reading properly. UPF 50 means the dry, unstretched cloth lets one fiftieth of the ultraviolet through, and fifty is the floor the Skin Cancer Foundation sets for its own seal. Two things reduce it: wet cloth protects less than dry, and cloth pulled tight across a shoulder opens its weave. That is the case for the loose cut here, and it is also why nothing on this page is sold as a replacement for shade or for sunscreen on the parts it does not cover. Sizes run XS to 3XL.