Originally Posted by
AlmostTrick
Regarding SPF levels of clothing, I've made an interesting observation. I wear a wide variety of jerseys/shirts, which surely vary in SPF ratings. Yet I never burn or even tan in the areas which are covered. This leads me to believe that SPF rating is not as important as just covering up with something.
This has been my experience as well.* I suspect most of this is marketing, backed up with science for sale.
*The one exception I can think of was an old, well-loved jersey that was bleaching and stretching. I noticed I was tanning through the jersey (had bib straps visible on my skin) before I discarded it.
Originally Posted by
Sy Reene
It has been an interesting thread, but hasn't really touched much on what I was looking for feedback on. That is, can technical clothing actually be more cooling than slathering bare skin with sunscreen.
That's a different wrinkle on your OP. Theoretically, it might be possible. Practically, the only time I've noticed sunsleeves being cooler than sunscreen covered skin was in the 30 seconds or so after I sacrificed some drinking water from a bottle to wet the sleeves down. OTOH, I've noticed sweat-covered sleeves being much hotter when I peeled them off.