Brynje Wool Thermo Light Shirt (wool-mesh baselayer)
What we liked …
Amazingly warm, given the size of the holes! Great heat regulation.
What we didn’t …
The spring in the wool mesh pulls the ends of the sleeves back from the wrist a bit, making them feel very slightly short in the arm.
After washing, it will shrink to dolls-size, requiring stretching out again while wet.
The Verdict
Our Rating
4 out of 5
The Short Read…
A mesh-type base-layer that is warmer than you’d imagine, can deal with a huge temperature range from ‘really very cold’ up to ‘warm’, and helps prevent you overheating.
The Long read …
Construction - 80% Merino Wool and 20% Polyamid. A fairly wide mesh, with holes a couple of mm square. “Solid” non-mesh wrist cuffs. At 160 g/m2 this is pretty lightweight, but because of the mesh, the wool bits themselves feel like mid-weight thickness.
Fit - Quite wide and low neck. Cuffs are nicely elasticated. Long in the body, coming down almost over your bum. Long-ish length sleeves but due to the spring-back in the mesh these do tend to pull back up the arm a little and end up sitting maybe 1-2 cm higher up the arm, away from the wrist, than where I want them. This 'spring-back’ happens in the body as well, but if tucked into trousers, say, that will hold it in place enough. That same ‘spring’ means it’s super form-fitting around your waist and chest - which feels great, in my opinion. I’m 6' foot 2 inch and wear the M - the L was a bit long for me in the sleeves and a bit baggy at the wrists. However, given my main gripe about the sleeves pulling up a bit, away from the wrist, I might re-consider the L again.
Performance - This is the interesting bit - as soon as I pull this shirt over my head and put it on, I feel the warmth of it. Probably even more so than for my similar or higher-weight non-mesh type wool base-layers. It seems that the mesh captures warm air easily and holds it there. However, when you start moving and generating more heat, I find that I don’t overheat, because, I’m guessing, the mesh allows an easier outward air flow than normal base-layers. If exposed to wind, yes, it may cool down faster too - so you may need to be prepared to layer up in that case, but that mesh also allows me to cool down faster after I stop exercising.
I love it, it seems to work well for me, and I could wear this in anything from genuinely-cold (early negative degree-C temps) through to ‘cool’ temps of say 15C. The neck line is quite low, so in really cold weather my neck does feel a bit ‘exposed’ in this, so would need a buff, or switch to a base-layer with zip up neck.
Care - The tricky bit! As with anything wool, wash on the delicates/woollen cycle, and even then it will shrink massively, so much so that the bottom hem only just covers my belly-button! But, just re-stretch the sleeves and body (length-wise) gently by hand - so it’s stretched out longer in the arms and body than your actual measurements, lay it down on a towel and maybe cover with another towel, to hold it in it’s stretched position, wait a few hours or overnight till it’s dry - even so, it will be smaller than before it’s first wash.
We recommend buying a size larger than normal - so that after washing/re-stretching, it will be less tight.
Brynje - I only discovered Brinje in the last year - I was doing a web search for “Norwegian wool baselayers” because I imagined the Norwegians know a thing or two about cold and wool, given their predilection for wonderfully patterned jumpers. Also, Pete from Backdrop raves about Scandi kit and I was looking for something at the affordable end of that spectrum. Brynje make a huge range of woollen gear to take you from full Artic survival (check out this brilliant onesy, , through semi-paramilitary, to recreational and these light-weight meshes. I also have a mid-weight
Overall - The re-stretching after washing is easy to deal with, so I don’t mark it down for that. But, I’ve not yet managed to re-stretch the sleeves long enough so they don’t pull back that inch from my wrist (see pic above) - marks down for that but liveable for the incredible temperature range this seems to be able to deal with and it’s heat-regulation properties. Do buy one size larger than you’d normally wear. And the blue seams add a little style to something that you might take a bit of stick for, in the bar after riding. The performance is so good though, that this gets a 4 out of 5 for me.
There are an incredible range of these “wool thermo light” products, in men’s and women’s - I recommend taking a look!