Note: this item was sent for review.
When Himali asked if I wanted to review something from them, I was pretty excited. I am guessing that many of you have not heard of the brand — they are a Boulder based brand that legitimately tests their gear in very extreme alpine areas. When you walk into their Pearl Street store, you immediately start feeling warm as you look at the full body down suits they have.
The brand suggested I try the Eclipse Sun Hoodie, saying it is a staff favorite and what most of them wear daily. It is sun season, and hiking is in full swing, so I accepted and they sent it over.
I’ll skip right to the end for you: this is the best sun hoodie, and generally best warm weather hiking top, I have ever used. It feels impossible. I love it.
Materials & Specs
This is 100% polyester, and Himali notes a few things:
- 4-Way stretch
- Zipper-free enveloping side pocket
- UPF 20
- Average weight: ~ 4.8 oz
The Eclipse Sun Hoodie is a supremely lightweight, silky soft, moisture wicking base layer designed for long days in the sun. With fabric that has been engineered for optimal breathability and UV protection, this is a great piece for long days above treeline, out on the water, or anytime you are expecting prolonged sun exposure.
Straightforward and simple. There’s six colors, shown in this review is ‘Blue Frog’.
In Use
I have a mountain of sun hoodies and sun shirts. They are surprisingly all very different, whether the cut, materials, or odd additions/subtractions. I personally prefer simple, and the Eclipse is just that.
If you spend any time in the Colorado mountains, you’ll likely see compressed cans of oxygen you can buy, and they are often labeled as being weightless. You doubt it, then you pick one up, and they really feel like nothing.
That’s exactly the feeling I get with this Eclipse hoodie — weightless.
It is so light in weight that I don’t think it is worth trying to quantify it beyond that, it’s the lightest layer I have and it still has sleeves and a hood. Wild stuff.
The material is of course very thin, but what surprises me about it is that it’s not overly breezy even with this thin of material. Instead, I found that it cuts just enough of a breeze that you don’t get a strong chill, but that a breeze still cools you off.
I have worn this shirt a ton, both on trails and working out, and one thing that pushes this to the better than others category is how it handles sweat. Whether from my back and backpack, or anywhere else, there’s two things that I continually notice with this: I never feel sticky and wet like I do in other shirts, and I also never get that gross cold feeling when you take off your pack and put it back on. It’s not that the feeling is completely gone, but it’s handled extremely well. So much so that this is one of those small niceties with a shirt, that after you experience it, you want to only wear that shirt.
The material simply handles moisture exceptionally well.
A few more thoughts on this:
- I find the cut and fit overall on this to be quite nice. It’s comfortable with or without a pack, and trim enough you can easily layer over it. It’s still a sun hoodie, but as far as those go, it looks sharp.
- I can see why the staff loves wearing this, I could see why someone would wear this all day long, as it is very comfortable even when you are hanging out.
- There’s a little pocket thing on one side and the entire hoodie stuffs into that pocket. I am not sure I need that feature, but it’s pretty funny to have that feature.
- As I mentioned, this dries really fast. I hang dry items like this, and after a wash this could be worn in under 2 hours. Wild.
- I did get my arm caught on a bit of velcro hook when I was putting on a backpack and it pulled/snagged the sleeve. I was genuinely bummed by this, and I snipped the loose thread after trying to work it back in (that didn’t work). You could see a visible pull in the sleeve, but after a single wash, I actually can’t see the spot any longer. Good and bad I guess, but pretty common with this type of lightweight polyester garment when it meets velcro.
I am dead set on always hiking with long sleeves, as protecting your skin of sun is very crucial. Usually there’s trade offs with shirts like this when you hike with a pack on. Maybe the hood is in the way when you aren’t using it, or getting stuck on the top edge of your backpack as you turn your head. The sleeves are the perfect length, until you put the backpack on, then they are short. It bunches weird under your arms. Or does it just not breathe as well as you hoped?
This is the first shirt where zero of those things are an issue. I cannot overstate how huge that is for me. I could not believe that I didn’t have any of these issues, and I was blown away by the moisture control on this hoodie.
Overall
Bottom line: I am going to buy more of these, so I have at least three. Not becuase I need three, but because I want three. And then I plan on hiking in nothing else. This is the shirt.
When you find the best sun shirt, you go all in. That’s my plan, because that’s what the Eclipse Hoodie is.