Note: this item was provided for review purposes at no cost.
In my continued search to find the best hiking clothing, I took Triple Aught Design up on their offer to send over an Atlas Hoodie. I was not sure what to expect, and I wasn’t even certain how good it would be — but a quarter mile into my first hike with this hoodie, and I knew this had the potential to be fantastic.
A few hikes later, and I can confidently say this is the most performant hiking top I own.
Materials
This is a quasi-baselayer hoodie. It fits trim, but not tight. You can wear it under a larger layer easily, but it won’t look awkward worn on its own. Since it was still warm out when I tested this, I’ve only worn it on its own.
The Atlas is made from two materials: Polartec Power Dry LT Micro Stripe, and Polartec Delta, with an overall 212gsm for the fabric weight. It is also treated with Polygeine to cut odors (until it wears off). I’ve had experience with both of these materials on their own, but never in a way where they felt or performed like this.
The Power Dry is 95% polyester and 5% elastane, and the Delta is 51% polyester, 45% lyocell, 4% elastane.
The end result is materials which are impressively good.
(The color in these images is ‘Eclipse’ which looks dark slate blue to my eye.)
Performance & Wear
The first time I wore this, I tossed it on as my top for my three mile morning ruck — about 60°F out, the weather where you start off feeling cool and end up sweating by the end of the ruck. I thought I was going to overheat with how comfortable it was keeping me during the morning chill, but as I warmed up the shirt kept the same level of warmth/cool throughout my ruck.
I immediately washed the hoodie so I could wear it on the next hike we took. It was even colder that morning as we were out deeper into the mountains in a cool 50°F heat with a stream and shade mixing to make it feel cooler than that. By the end of the hike it was slightly over 80°F. Rinse and repeat this cycle for a couple more hikes with this shirt.
In each scenario, I would have thought I wanted another layer to start, but didn’t need it with the Atlas. And the shirt kept me impressively comfortable all hike, in the sun and heat, against my backpack sweating, and so forth.
Photo thanks to Erin Brooks
The Atlas Hoodie does a lot of things well:
- It manages moisture better than anything I own, including merino wool. I am not sure how it does this, but it is noticeable. It never feels gross and soaked with sweat, instead it keeps a very comfortable hand feel to the cloth when fully soaked. The mesh-like panels, where the Delta fabric is, adds a ton of venting to help move heat out.
- It dries really fast. Triple Aught Design claims it dries twice as fast as cotton, and I believe it. It dries faster than any other garment I have — synthetic or not.
- The cut is really nice. It’s trim without being tight on the body. The sleeves are long and work well for me and my abnormally long arms.
- The seams are flat, and well placed — it’s been designed to be comfortable under backpacks and it shows. A lot of shirts get this wrong, but the Atlas nails this.
In all my wear there’s only two things I would change, both are personal preference:
- I would love a version without the hood. I don’t see a need for a hood, and this would be great with the same fabric in either a half zip or crew neck.
- I would love more earth tone colors, the blue is quite nice, but black isn’t my thing. Olive, now that would be something great.
There are not many hiking shirts I can say that both of the negatives are more aesthetic than anything performance. This shirt is simply fantastic and it lives up to all of its claims. If you need a shirt that will also dry quickly if you wash it in a pinch while traveling, this will do well there.
The weave is very open and breathable, the wider spacing fabric is Delta and is location around the underarm and up the back shoulder blades.
Overall
Every garment I get like this has bold claims as to what they will do. Here, Triple Aught Design claims that it is a “…durable all-season, all-weather base layer. Light, breathable, and comfortable, Atlas build a strong foundation for active pursuits.” And the thing about it — they are completely correct. This is a fantastic layer, either as a standalone or a part of a system, and it’s being sold at a really good price.
For $95 you are getting a very comfortable hoodie which works really well even in warm weather, dries shockingly fast, and has a really nice cut. I am a huge fan of this, and that’s even after taking into account this has a hood — which I generally dislike.
This is top tier active clothing. I suspect it will be among my most worn shirts when I need as much performance as possible. I highly recommend the Atlas Hoodie.