There are no other products like De Soto. With all due respect to you, while what you wrote my apply to other brands, you incorrectly described how De Soto Skincooler works. Our fiber does not cool due to, as you state, “evaporative effects.” Skincooler works due to the fiber dispersing the moisture more evenly across the fabric, both through the hollow fibers and through the channels knitted with the fibers, thus creating a more evenly moistened garment. So the slightly breeze, even from body movement will offer cooling when combined with the shade it is offering from the sun. So if it does not work for you, it does not mean it does not, or will not for others. Of course there is no such thing and refrigeration (as defined in physics), so if you want to get more comfortable in that humid heat, train more in it.
With all due respect back I live and train in Houston and almost always wear Desoto wings or sleeves when riding. So I have a couple hundred rides of experience using them in very humid conditions. Skin always cooler without than with.
When I used them in dry conditions (like Whistler) the cooling effect was awesome… to the point I thought “So this is how they’re supposed to work.”
I find myself doing my long run training either before 0500 or after 2030 to beat the heat, sun, and humidity found in the Lowcountry of SC. It’s usually over 100+ heat index by 1030/1100, which personally I don’t believe any exercise under these conditions does anything other than heat exchange and fluid loss. Not a morning person? After a few weeks rolling out of the rack and getting 1-2hrs of running in before the sun comes up isn’t so bad. I find that seeing the sun rise is the best part of the day. You’ll save a ton of money on suntan lotion. See plenty of “strange denizens while running” on the road in the AM and cool wildlife.
Please have a “PLAIN BLACK” fabric and longer sleeves (than Riviera) :-)… thanks.
I have been using the long sleeves skin cooler for years and I cut the sleeves on my black one just above the elbows and added a full front zipper… worked great.
There are no other products like De Soto. With all due respect to you, while what you wrote my apply to other brands, you incorrectly described how De Soto Skincooler works. Our fiber does not cool due to, as you state, “evaporative effects.” Skincooler works due to the fiber dispersing the moisture more evenly across the fabric, both through the hollow fibers and through the channels knitted with the fibers, thus creating a more evenly moistened garment. So the slightly breeze, even from body movement will offer cooling when combined with the shade it is offering from the sun. So if it does not work for you, it does not mean it does not, or will not for others. Of course there is no such thing and refrigeration (as defined in physics), so if you want to get more comfortable in that humid heat, train more in it.
cool story bro…I use Zoot Ice Fills and they are awesome!
I’m in south Louisiana, so we’ve got Florida-style heat and humidity here, too. I agree with the others who say that nothing’s going to keep you cool when it’s hot and humid. Nothing’s going to evaporate much when it’s humid, so take the “cooling” claims with a grain of salt.
As a melanoma survivor, I’ve used a number of brands that have true UPF 50+ protection. For a run, I like the combo of a loose short-sleeve UPF 30 or 50+ shirt (Columbia Omni-Freeze is my current favorite, but there are a lot of good brands) with sun sleeves like Zoot and Sugoi, both of which use super-light white “Icefil” fabric, which is UPF 50+. For a long-sleeve shirt, I’ve got a few from Craft that I really like – light, thin, white, with UPF 30 or 50+. Lots of companies make these.
REI has an excellent long explanation of UPF here: http://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/sun-protection.html
The gist: “Basically, a UPF rating of 50 indicates the fabric of a garment will allow only 1/50th (roughly 2%) of available UV radiation to pass through it. A garment rated UPF 25 permits roughly 4% (1/25th) UV transmission.”
DeSoto recommends that you use sunscreen under their skin coolers, which concerns me. I’d like to try the DeSoto products, because Slowtwitchers give it high marks, but DeSoto’s got some confusing sun-protection info on their site. Their site says the fabric in skin coolers blocks 90% of the UVB rays, which is the equivalent of UPF of 10. Emilio’s always good about answering DeSoto product questions, so maybe he can help. One of their tri suits has the good “coldblack” fabric that should have a UPF of 30 or more, but the DeSoto site describes that as blocking 70% of the sun’s rays. That’s simply not what UPF 30 means – a UPF30 means it blocks about 97% or UV rays. It may be that DeSoto’s marketing is just misunderstanding and therefore understating the effectiveness of their sun protection. But I can’t take the risk of a fabric that only blocks 70% of UV rays. Emilio?
This is what i use and love it… less expensive than the Desoto…but looking at the Desoto i love the pockets…could be used for things other than ice also.
actually the real translation is: “we do not currently offer a short sleeve version of the long sleeve Skin Cooler SDS shirt, but you really want one, it will be more affordable for him to get his altered rather that for me to give him an estimate for what is essentially a customized garment, but with enough interest from people who would be willing to preorder a short sleeve, and with a minimum of 100 units preordered we will gladly make these for all 100 interested people.”
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You are very creative and resourceful which I think it great in order to get the perfect product for you. I think you will find the most of the tri tops we will be offering in 2016 to be very different that what we offer now.
Are there not fabrics with some chemical which has some reversible endothermic reaction when soaked? I sort of recall this being marketed to hikers by columbia.
I live in central Mississippi and the heat and humidity is at times unbearable. I’ve been running into the same issue. I have not tried a lot of the products on here but my $0.02 goes like this. Anything that is skin tight doesn’t seem to help me with the heat. It gets saturated and doesn’t dry at all.
But I might have had a revelation just last Saturday. I was running in a traditional tri-top and carrying a water bottle. When the bottle was empty I got tired of holding it and stuck it in my top which was unzipped about half way. I didn’t much care for that after about 10 seconds and took it back out. When I did, the fabric that had been held away from my skin snapped back and felt amazingly cool. From that point on I would stick the bottle in the front and even in the back, only for seconds at a time. When the bottles were removed it literally felt cold for a few seconds. No, this did not have a long lasting effect but it did make me wonder about wearing a shirt made of the same material but much looser fitting with the idea being that the shirt would be away from my body, thus allowing the sweat to cool in the air.
The problem with fabrics soaked with chemicals that offer endothermic reactions, antimicrobial finishes, water repellency, sun reflection or protection, or chlorine resistance, is that these chemicals only last for a limited number of washes, then they are no longer effective. In addition these chemicals are notorious for causing contact dermatitis. What Columbia is doing is similar to we are doing. In other words, they found my innovation to be legitimate and created something similar.
I use the DeSoto arm coolers and cooler beanie and they are far superior than any other productss I’ve tried over the last 8 years. I reccently bought the DeSoto loose fit shirt for RedMan 70.3, where it will be in the 90s, but may order the LS cooler shirt after reading Emilio’s posts on this.
actually the real translation is: “we do not currently offer a short sleeve version of the long sleeve Skin Cooler SDS shirt, but you really want one, it will be more affordable for him to get his altered rather that for me to give him an estimate for what is essentially a customized garment, but with enough interest from people who would be willing to preorder a short sleeve, and with a minimum of 100 units preordered we will gladly make these for all 100 interested people.”
actually the real translation is: “we do not currently offer a short sleeve version of the long sleeve Skin Cooler SDS shirt, but you really want one, it will be more affordable for him to get his altered rather that for me to give him an estimate for what is essentially a customized garment, but with enough interest from people who would be willing to preorder a short sleeve, and with a minimum of 100 units preordered we will gladly make these for all 100 interested people.”
I would be interested as well. I am female - so don’t know if that changes things for you. I know Desoto is the only company to offer short sleeve tri top - which I so appreciate, but it’s a little hot. So I’d love to try this out.
Okay we have 2 people interested. 98 more to go. Once we have a larger commitment, we will set up a preorder process. Yes, you will all have to pay for it, before we make it!
I have the Desoto long sleeve in white. I did IM TX in 14 and 15. In 14, I thought it was great, but this year where the humidity was higher…it was a little stifling and I would have preferred to have gone with a regular tri top.
I have been using the deSoto skincoolers for many years now and I never put sunscreen on under them. I have two colours: white and red. So if I don’t have sunscreen on and get exposure, I go beet red. I never had this happen with this product. It’s a big part of why I love them - less sunscreen, awesome protection, great cooling.
I just bought the De soto Skin cooler long sleeve shirt and plan to try it on my next long ride. If it works out I plan to use it for Augusta 70.3. My question is has anyone found a good way to get the sharpie out of the shirts or arm coolers?
I was also wondering if the Tri tats transferred less to the material on your arms.
