McDavid's "InteraWear"

I made a passing comment about the heat to David Prong president of Lester's Upstate Sporting Goods and he suggested replacing my normal shirt with one of the new InteraWear by McDavid shirts he had in stock. "You'll find it a little more expensive than a normal shirt but well worth the investment." So in a few days a mid-weight, short sleeve, mock neck, black InteraWear #904R shirt arrived in the mail.

Attached to the tags, a water dropper! Intera claims to be a "Moisture Transport System" as opposed to the absorbing nature of other materials. A synthetic material it its designed to wick the perspiration away from the body to the outside layer of the cloth where it will evaporate quickly. How quickly? Using the water dropper you can place a drop on both an InteraWear and your normal t-shirt. The water beaded up on my cotton shirt then absorbed into the fabric. On the InteraWear shirt the water literally disappeared into the fabric immediately displacing itself over a large area. The InteraWear shirt was dry to the touch in a few minutes while the cotton shirt still showed the dampness an hour later.

Let's take the shirt to the field. The feeling under both my equipment and as a base undershirt took a little getting used to. It was definitely cooler. Every breeze seemed to be getting to the undershirt and through drying the shirt cooling me. Instead of bands of extreme dampness the perspiration seemed to be distributed but also disappearing, evaporating at a quick rate. Taking my equipment off at games end confirmed this. The back of my chest protector was not beaded with water but just a little damp. My InteraWear shirt had an even "just-a-touch" damp feel instead of the soaked sensation I have been used to. Hung up to dry, it was literally felt dry before I could get my plate equipment packed away and base equipment on.

The mock neck looks excellent under your umpire shirt and is particularly comfortable under the chest protector. The shirt washes easily and has maintained its size, shape and color. The shirt must be washed without use of any bleach or fabric softeners, including the softener towels. Since these softener towels do "build-up" in a dryer I would recommend hanging the shirt to dry it.

InteraWear products will now become a part of my umpire clothing. We have a "black" shirt etiquette where I umpire but some of the crews have gone to the red shirt. Under the dark navy's the InteraWear mock in a red would certainly look sharp!.

Thanks for the suggestion David!

- a five plate rating! (5/5)

.... reviewed September 3, 1998

From: Richard Siegel Subject: InteraWear

Strategies for coping with the heat are a constant concern for umpires.

Here is a solution to this problem. I recently discovered the InteraWear tee shirt made by McDavid. This is an amazing product. Like many of you I'm sure, I have always used cotton navy blue tee shirts under by umpire's jersey. I was recently invited to join the umpire crew for a Tournament. When I received my instructions from the tournament director, we were told that we will be provided with a micro mesh navy pullover, but the tournament UIC requires that we get our own red tee-shirts to wear underneath. I've noticed that the pros often wear red tees under the navy pullovers. I think it looks sharp. I made a few calls to some of the regular umpire suppliers I usually deal with looking for a red tee shirt.

Although my sports store carries regular cotton tee shirts in cotton, I was recommended to try an InteraWear shirt. I was reluctant because the shirt sells for $18 while the cotton ones usually go for $6. The owner explained that the InteraWear is made from a new fiber that transports moisture away from the skin and that I would feel much cooler in this shirt. With the tournament coming up quickly, I wanted to be sure I had the shirts and the "cooler" part sounded interesting, so I ordered two.

I received the shirts a week before the tournament. The day after the shirts came I had a double header. The first game was 12 noon in the low 90's, clear sky. The games would be played in the hottest part of the July day. So I figured that this was a great opportunity to give the InteraWear shirts a try. I was on the plate for game one. I put on my new light blue micromesh pullover and wore had the InteraWear shirt underneath my protector. I was quickly astonished by the tee shirt. You know that on these kinds of days you quickly get the feeling of having a wet beach towel under your chest protector soaked with warm sweat. What I experienced was something quick the opposite. Not only did I never feel wet, but also each time the slightest breeze came by I actually got a cold feeling around my torso as the sweat was being evaporated. It was like having an air conditioner inside the shirt. I even got the cold feeling from the slight breeze I created while hustling down to third base to cover a play.

To say the least I was very comfortable during the game. Another thing I noticed that surprised me was the condition of the tee shirt after the game. When I went back to the car to change for the next game I took off the tee shirt and expected that (like the cotton shirts) to find it completely soaked with about two pounds of sweat. To my surprise the shirt was barely damp. I hung it over the open car door while I changed into my "base uniform" for the game number two. Just before we were ready to go back to the field I went to lock up the car and was shocked to find the tee shirt was completely dry! In the 15 minutes of time it was hanging on the door all the moisture was gone. I could have worn that shirt in the next game if I wanted to.

I apologize for going on about this shirt. I don't mean to sound like a commercial, but I'm really sold on this product. Despite the higher cost, I am ready to dump all of my navy tees and replace them with navy InteraWear shirts too. The literature that comes with the shirt explains that the Intera fiber is designed not to absorb and hold moisture like cotton. Rather, it repels the moisture and transports it over a broader surface area to accelerate the evaporation and drying process. From my days as a high school chemistry teacher, I recall a thing call "heat of vaporization" which is the energy required to change liquid to vapor. In this case, this energy is taken from your body, which is where the cold feeling comes from. It is the same reason why going outside with wet hair makes your head feels cold from a breeze. That is the "heat loss" from your scalp during the evaporation of the moisture in your hair.

The InteraWear tees come long and short sleeve, and also in the mock turtleneck. I'm sure most suppliers carry them. If you're working games in any weather where you'll probably sweat, I can't say enough about this tee shirt. I have since ordered more navy tees and compression tights in the InteraWear fabric as well.