Summer is upon us in south Florida, and that means sweat – lots of it. Standard beach (and shooting range) attire here seems to consist mostly of sun shirts – those light & loose SPF tops that fishermen wear. Yeah…that doesn’t work for me. While they might ward off the UV rays and provide a little bit of cooling effect, I for one can’t stand sweat slowly dripping down my body while I’m doing work on the range – I need something right on my skin to wick everything away. Hence my mission to find a 1) compression shirt, 2) made in America 3) white in color 4) with long sleeves. Well, mission accomplished – eventually. I’ll explain.
Made in America – my personal obsession as of late. I can’t stand the thought of supporting Communist China, so I do whatever I can to buy USA-made products. I’m pretty good at scouring the internet, so I’m fairly successful at this with most products, but not all (don’t even get me started on the fact that there isn’t a single US-made stainless steel water bottle). Right now Origin, Todd Shelton and Red White and Blue Apparel are my go-to manufacturers.
So off I went looking for compression shirts made in America…and searching, and searching, and…not having much luck. I did find one bizarre fashion-type bigwig making…something that vaguely resembled clothing – but not exactly what I was looking for. I did find DFND, but their shirts only come in black. After a long and otherwise fruitless search, I admit I caved and ordered an UnderArmour shirt (only after confirming it was not made in China, but rather Indonesia I believe – a fact I can live with. Unfortunately my trip to the range yielded less than satisfactory results. While it was tight, and it was white, the material was lacking. And by ‘lacking’ I mean ‘scratchy’. It was wasn’t quality material. It wicked moisture OK, but it just wasn’t up to my standards – it didn’t fit great, and it just wasn’t comfortable. Back to the drawing board, and enter XGO.
XGO has been around for 20 years, and grew out of their parent company after winning a US military contract for moisture-wicking materials. They operate out of a facility near Fort Bragg, in North Carolina.
Back to my requirements: compression material – check. White material – check. Long sleeve – hold up a second. Pouring over their website, there are no long sleeve compression shirts to be found. Long sleeve – yes. Compression – yes. But you can’t have both apparently. However, what you can have is a very affordable, white, moisture wicking compression shirt – as these happen to be on sale in their outlet section for 13 bucks. So I ordered one. Boy am I glad I did.
The shirt arrived and I was impressed. Nice packaging, and the material felt light years better than UnderArmor – thicker, softer and just more plush. I ordered a Large based on their size chart, and the sizing is spot on for me. Only one thing…it didn’t have long sleeves. Mind you, I knew this when ordering but this was nagging at me – I really want to avoid as much sun as possible here in our Florida summers, so an idea was born…
Funny thing about SW Florida – there’s a big Ukranian/Russian population here. Don’t ask me why, nobody has been able to give me a clear answer. But you know what Ukrainians and Russians are good at? SEWING. You see, I’ve had to take in a few items for repair or enhancements – my Origin jeans that ripped in a self defense class, some Crye pants that needed some velcro. So…my theory was, if I had enough material, someone could turn these short sleeves into long sleeves. Enter ‘the Zara’!
At 13 bucks on clearance, I could swing a couple extras of these shirts, so a quick Add to Cart and a few days of shipping, and I had a few of these babies in hand. Then I called up Zara – my tailor in downtown Venice. I explained the situation, and always in her pretty good English she told me ‘bring it down so I can see what you are talking about’. Into the shop I go, and she immediately understands what I need. I told her I have a one week deadline for a full weekend class that I’m attending – ‘no problem’ she says. She tells me she’s got to use one full shirt for each set of long sleeves, but that’s OK. And she explains that she’ll mock up one shirt with one sleeve as a rough draft, I am to come try it on to see if it’s perfect and she can adjust it.
A week goes by and I go in for the test fitting – the ‘dummy’ sleeve is too loose, and too short I explain. She asks me what this is all for – I explain that I’m on a gun range for full days and full weekends in the summer, I need major sun and sweat protection. She gets it now. ‘No problem’ she says – come back tomorrow and they’ll be ready. And they are.
As promised, two magically-converted long sleeve shirts, made in America by a combination of North Carolina and Ukrainians hands. Flat locked stitching all around. Perfect length, and perfect tightness. And the perfect shade of white.
The day after picking these up, I attended a 2 day pistol class in Leesburg, FL. You probably don’t know Leesburg but it’s nickname is ‘the swampiest city in Florida’. Just kidding I made that up, but picture a huge grass field in the middle of swampland, in July, in central Florida – humid is an understatement. How did the shirt perform? Flawlessly. No puckered seams. No sweat running down the small of my back or my arms. They just felt like a second skin, which is exactly what I needed. Some quick match shows I spent $139 on these shirts – $39 for the shirts themselves, and a high-but-reasonable 100 bucks on tailoring. Worth it? Yup, any day of the week.
Check XGO out here, and if you snag their frequent 40% off sales you might be able to pick up some of these for 8 bucks a pop – a total steal.
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