3/30/11 UPDATE – UA Charged Cotton vs. Nike Dri-Fit Cotton? What’s the Difference?
3/23/11 UPDATE – Does UA Charged Cotton T-Shirt Really Dry 5 Times Faster Than Regular Cotton?
A friend of mine and I went to Sports Chalet today to see if they were carrying the Under Armour Charged Cotton tee shirts yet and lady luck was with us.
Photos
I’m going to do some testing on how fast this tee shirt dries compared to a 100% cotton and a cotton/poly shirts to see if it lives up to it’s reputation of drying 5x faster.
Stay tuned to this article for updated information as well as a video I took while we were at the store!
Measurements (Medium & Small):
I originally bought a size medium, but when I got home and tried it on, I determined that I wanted the UA shirt to fit tighter. So, I went back to the store and exchanged it for a size small. That size turned out to be perfect for me. So, size down if you also want the shirt to fit close.
Video
Just a quick video I took as we were perusing the aisles of Sports Chalet in search of the UA Charged Cotton Tee
Under Armour has been contracting manufacturers, mostly in Peru, but also a small quantity has been produced in Bolivia. They use the TransDRY(R) technology developed by Cotton Inc. which very effectively wicks moisture and helps it evaporate more quickly. I would encourage anyone who is interested to check out http://www.cottoninc.com/Transdry/?Pg=3 and the subsequent pages. This is a very effective technology but is also very dependent that the fabric is made correctly, in the factory. Unfortunately, Under Armour does a poor job of enforce its products’ performance standards and though most of their South American suppliers do a very good job of producing this technology, one or two do not. To make matters worse, Under Armour is in the process of moving all its South American production to Asia. The Charged Cotton program is going to Pakistan, where there is even less control for product performance.
If you really want a Charged Cotton product, you should insist on testing it, in the store, before you purchase. Luckly, this is easy. A drop of water should produce a matrix look, as half the yarns are treated to be hydrophobic and the other half are left naturally hydrophilic. How effective the TransDRY(R) treatment is can be gauged by what we call the fried egg effect. Where the drop of water first touches the fabric will remain wetter than where the water spreads and this looks like a fried egg with the yoke being the wet center. The smaller the yoke is, in comparison to the white of the egg, the more effective the TransDRY(R) treatement.
If Under Armour won’t take the measures to insure you’re getting what you pay for, and you really want the UA logo, at least test the product and be willing to tell the retail store that your not willing to be scammed.
Hi, I was hoping to find out what Manufactuer built the shirt. My favorite current shirt is the polo Ralph Lauren stretch cotton and the RN shows it was made by Hanes. Thank You!
gotcha! I suspect the rn# will show the manufacturer as under armour, but we’ll find out for sure.
fyi “charged cotton” is just a product line brand of under armour. the technology behind it is cotton inc’s transdry application.
Hi, What is the RN# on this NEW UA CHARGED SHIRT?
hey jay! I don’t have my under armour charged cotton t-shirt handy right now, but I’ll get the rn# for you in the next few days.
what were you hoping to find out from the rn#??
hey jay, here’s the info on the under armour charged cotton t-shirt:
rn# 96510 (ca# 41095).
as i suspected, the company name shows under armour (legal name k.p. sports inc).
Is the charged cotton suppose to cool better than regular cotton? I imagine since it dries faster, the evaporation process cools you down more, but I guess that is only true if the moisture is being wicked to a wide area at at time and the fabric is still breathable like cotton normally is.
Thank you, I will try the sweatshields to compare with Sutran. I’m not very fond of the idea of underarm pads.
Thanks for the quick reply. How does the Sweatshield and Silberback compare to Sutran? I’ve been happy with my Sutran even though I’ve managed to transpire through them under my arms lately. I feel a bit betrayed since I invested in 10 of them only to later find out that they don’t always keep me dry under the arms.
Now I find out that they have an improved version called maxdry which eliminates underarm sweat completely. It feels a bit dishonest and I don’t want to fork out for another 10 undershirts. I would like to try the Maxdry but before I do I would like to know how the others compare. As I said before it would also be nice to get rid of the static electricity.
Thank you
hey andrei,
well, the sweatshield and silverback undershirts are different from sutran in that their double-layer fabric protection is limited to the underarm (sweatshield) or underarm and back (silverback) areas only. sutran offers double-layer protection throughout the entire shirt. so if you find yourself getting a little warmer wearing the sutran undershirts, you might stay a little cooler in the sweatshield or silverback.
i couldn’t tell you whether or not those two would perform any better or worse than sutran because it’s really dependent on your own personal circumstance. i can tell you that both undershirts will be cooler to wear than sutran because they are both made from lighter-weight fabrics and they are not double-layer throughout the entire shirt.
if you primarily sweat in the underarm area, you could consider trying out undershirts that offer underarm/armpit sweat pad protection. the two that are most known for this are the products from advadri (advantagewear) and kleinerts. however, it appears you might be from a european country, so you might want to check out the laulas undershirts since they also have the underarm sweat-pads and they are based in switzerland (faster/cheaper shipping to european countries).
as you mentioned the maxdry undershirt from sutran shows to have “underarm reinforcement” which could mean they could have: 1) an integrated sweat absorbing pad, 2) another layer of sweat absorbing fabric in between the two layers of the shirt, 3) something else similar. i will attempt to get more information about maxdry to see if we can figure out exactly how it’s different from the other sutran undershirts.
if you look at pricing, here’s how the undershirts compare in euros (not including shipping) priced lowest to highest:
advadri – 16.17 € (medium protection) or 17,57 € (maximum protection)
kleinerts – 17,58 €
sweatshields – 21,10 € or 14,06 € (each if you buy a 5-pack, total 70,33 €)
sutran – 26,50 €
silverback – 28,13 €
sutran maxdry – 32,00 €
laulas – 59,20 €
of course, the key component in your *true* per shirt cost is the shipping cost. shipping from the u.s. to any european country is likely to cost over $30 usd ($21 €), so you’ll have to check each company’s website to see what their shipping cost is.
for the price, i’d recommend trying some of the first few listed and see how they perform before making a determination of whether or not to purchase the maxdry from sutran.
now, if we continue this discussion, we’ll have to take it outside of the under armour charged cotton undershirt post since this article is not related to undershirts for heaving sweating *smile*
Please let us know how these compare to the Sutran undershirts. I have had Sutran for more than 6 months now and feel they create a lot of static electricity. I would really like to go back to cotton.
hey andrei, thanks for your question!
to be clear, the charged cotton undershirts from under armour do not prevent sweat-through, nor are they designed to. generally speaking they act like any other cotton/spandex undershirt as it pertains to absorbing/distributing sweat, but the “charged cotton” is designed to dry faster than regular cotton. i will add more about this to the post about that, but the charged cotton undershirt from under armour is not a replacement for sutran.
If you are looking for alternative sweat-through resistant undershirts to sutran, you should look at the following products:
1. advadri (a new undershirtguy.com advertiser) – united states
2. sweatshield undershirts – micromodal/spandex undershirt with double protection in the underarm area – china
3. kleinerts sweat-resistant undershirts – united states
4. silverback apparel undershirts – double lay protection on back and in underarm area – canada/north america
5. laulas sweat-resistant undershirts – made from swiss cotton – has underarm pads – switzerland/germany, but ships to the entire world
if you’re looking for ways to help minimize sweat-through, you might want to look at products like sweat-block, klima deodorant, or other stronger antiperspirant products like that.
hope that information helps!
You seem to have all the answers so — Where can I buy 100% or 90% / 10% COTTON tenis shorts. I can’t find them anywhere.
Thanks.
L. Stuart
hey l. stuart! thanks for stopping by and posting your question.
you know, i try to be well equipped to answer undershirt, shapewear, or performance shirt-type questions, but i’m not familiar with the selection of tennis shorts out there.
but, since you asked the question on this under armour charged cotton (95% cotton / 5% spandex) article, have you checked out the under armour charged cotton shorts (also a cotton spandex blend)?