Undershirt Review – Alfani Basic – Ultra Fresh – Antimicrobial Protection

Today’s review is on the Alfani Basic V-Neck undershirt. This 2-pack of large undershirts, retailing for $14.98 at Macy’s, included one white v-neck jersey and one midnight blue v-neck jersey. Personally, I like the fact that they offered two different colors in a single pack and especially liked the midnight blue colored undershirt because it not only can be worn as an undershirt, it also can worn alone and double as a standard v-neck t-shirt.

This particular pack of undershirts is marketed in a “performance” package that includes features such as antimicrobial protection (from Ultra-fresh®) and chemical-free shrinkage control. We’ll talk about antimicrobial protection another day, but feel free to check out the Ultra-fresh FAQ page for more details. I’m not exactly sure how “chemical-free shrinkage control” works, but we’ll find out how this 100% combed cotton undershirt fits after our wash test.

This Alfani large (42-44 chest) undershirt is made in Canada and overall seems to be manufactured pretty well, with one small exception on the white undershirt. At the front where the v-neck collar is stitched together, they did not perfectly match up both sides of the 1″ wide flat collar trim so the tip of one side of the “V” is slightly higher than the other. It’s not bad enough to keep me from ever buying Alfani undershirts again, but it’s bad enough where you wouldn’t likely want to wear it by itself.

I was heading out to the gym yesterday, so I slipped on the unwashed midnight blue undershirt and have to say that it’s pretty comfortable. Right out of the package this combed cotton undershirt is fairly soft and feels nice on the skin. With many other undershirts, they tend to be a little scratchy until they’re washed a couple times — but not this one. I’m fairly pleased with the fit overall (pre-wash). The bottom of the shirt hangs about 10″ below my waistline so it has plenty of length to tuck in. Unfortunately, on my frame, the 6.5″ strap length and 8.75″ shirt sleeves result in the end of the sleeves hanging about 1″ from my elbow and wind up peeking out of my short sleeved casual/dress shirts. The rest of the shirt fits like most other standard loose fitting undershirts — there’s a little extra room in the torso and waist area that will allow it to fit a good variety of body shapes and sizes. Personally, I think a medium may fit me better in the shoulder and sleeve area, but it’s hard to tell how it would fit everywhere else.

I think the best part of this undershirt is that the combed cotton is a little more stretchy and forgiving than other undershirts with the same type of fabric, but at $7.50 per shirt (not including tax), you really should expect it to be more comfortable than their lesser-expensive counterparts.

While I normally like undershirts with shoulder seams that align with or are slightly forward of the center-line of my shoulder, this shirt lays on me relatively nicely even though the shoulder seam sits about 1″ behind that.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the shirt did not noticeably shrink after being washed, but considering the care instructions direct you to wash the shirt in cold water and dry on low heat, I’m not sure if the lack of shrinking has to do with that or the “chemical-free shrinkage control” they talk about on the packaging. The one thing that did annoy me, though, was the fact that I had the shirt in the dryer on low heat for well over an hour already (by itself) and it’s still not fully dry.

If you combine the soft, stretchy combed cotton, the ultra-fresh antimicrobial protection, and the overall fit, you really do get a lot for your money with this Alfani Basic undershirt.

Although I’m not totally pleased with having to dry these undershirts for over an hour, I’ll go ahead and add this one to the #3 spot in “Tug’s Favorite Undershirts” list for the time being.