REASONS TO BUY
Incredibly lightweight and breathable
Solid UPF protection
Very affordable
REASONS TO AVOID
Wider neck exposes skin
Holds onto body odors easily
Vapor Apparel Solar Long Sleeve - Women's Review
This simple design is affordable and good for a lot of activities, but it provides less coverage than some
Credit: Vapor Apparel
Our Verdict
The Vapor Solar Long Sleeve is a lightweight, quick-dry sun shirt that's an excellent option for runners and works pretty well for gardening, yard work, or trail building. It may not have the most coverage of all the sun shirts in this review, but it might just be your style, and it's easy to wear. While it has a straightforward design compared to some of the other shirts you could purchase, its simplicity may be welcome by some, and its surprisingly low price tag is sure to be a relief to all.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Solar is a simple sun shirt without a hood, collar, or thumb holes. It's made of moisture-wicking microfiber and is rated with 50+ UPF protection.
Performance Comparison
This simple shirt from Vapor provides much needed UV protection as the sun rises in the Sierra.
Credit: Maggie Brandenburg
Comfort and Fit
The Solar has a fairly relaxed and flowy fit. Not nearly as loose as the button-up shirts in this review, but with stretchy fabric, it doesn't need to be. All the colors available through Vapor are also pastel or light colors, helping to keep you cool even if direct sunlight is beating down on you while you trail run through the high Sierras (we know; we tried). The fabric is soft, malleable, and not constricting and helps you forget you're wearing a long sleeve shirt. While our reviewers with a high ape index (AKA long arms) think the sleeves could be a tad longer, most of our reviewers found them to be just right.
The Vapor Solar in size S on two 5'4" gear testers.
Credit: Maggie Brandenburg
Sun Protection
The high UPF value (50+) of this shirt allows you to breathe easy, knowing that your skin is well-protected. The lack of hood or thumb holes means you still need to reapply that SPF cream to your neck and hands, but if you're gardening with gloves and a big floppy hat, you may be glad to be rid of that extra fabric. Our only real concern with the protection this shirt offers is that the neck is a bit wide compared to the other shirts we tested, leaving larger exposed areas of skin than any other shirt we tested. However, if your race is just a short 5K, you may not mind this short time of extra sun exposure.
Though it doesn't have thumb holes, the sleeve coverage of the Vapor Solar still keeps out a lot of those damaging UF rays.
Credit: Veronica Palmer
Breathability
With a nice flowy fit and light color choices, this shirt does a great job allowing breezes to cool you off on a hot day. The material is quite thin and dries very quickly, which lets all that evaporating sweat do what evolution intended — cool you off! While you may not enjoy running in a long sleeve shirt or wearing one to build that trail (that you'll later run on, in the same shirt!), this shirt is light and breezy enough to perhaps change your mind.
The Solar is lightweight and breathable enough to wear on a long run, but the smell it accumulates might not be worth it...
Credit: Veronica Palmer
Versatility
The fit of this shirt is easy and relaxed. It may not be featured on a fashion runway anytime soon, but our reviewers also found it difficult not to like. It's meant to have a relaxed fit that's comfortable to wear, recreate, and sweat in. As it comes in a plethora of colors, you can choose the one that best suits your style. Just like some of the other laidback-looking and specific-use shirts we tested, we don't recommend this shirt for a night out or around the office on Monday, but it may work as an underlayer on a cold winter day.
Staying cool and protected even on a high Sierra beach!
Credit: Maggie Brandenburg
Durability
Made of 100% microfiber with touted moisture-wicking technology, our reviewers are left with no doubts about this shirt's comfort and breathability. However, the thin material does have us questioning its durability. While it didn't catch any snags during our testing, we're not so sure how it might hold up to trimming the rose bushes or playing with the new puppy. Yet our reviewers' biggest complaint is how it holds onto smell. If worn for more than a couple short, 3-5 mile runs without being washed, it develops an odor that's sure to deter those with sensitive (or maybe existing?) noses.
After just three sunny spring 5 mile runs in the Sierras, this shirt not only picked up a foul odor, but also some nasty-looking stains.
Credit: Maggie Brandenburg
Features
This shirt has no additional features; it's a simple, straightforward design.
Value
This is one category that the Solar does well in. For less than 20% of the cost of some other sun shirts, you can save your skin and wallet the burden of rubbing all those sunscreen chemicals onto the largest organ of your body. Hard to beat that!
Conclusion
The Vapor Solar Long Sleeve is an easy to wear, breathable sun shirt with a good price tag. It does tend to get a bit stinky if you're sweating a lot in it, and your friends may call you out on it. However, if you don't have a specific activity in mind, and just want to be saved from the sun (and yucky, sticky sunscreen), this shirt is a good choice for you.
—
Maggie Nichols
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