Propper AdventureTech APCU Level I - SS Lightweight Baselayer Top
For some time now, my favorite hot weather base layer shirt has been the Zensah Seamless Crew Compression Shirt, as seen HERE at Military Morons site. I gave one a try last year based on his review and have been VERY happy with it. I MUCH prefer Zensah items over Under Armour, which I will buy no more. UA shirts were always too tight around the neck for my taste, too tight around the arm pit area causing chaffing and irritation active movement, and the well known odor issue. In all fairness, the odor issue is supposed to have been eliminated, but I cant comment on that as I havent bought any in some time. Zensah solved those issues for me, and I liked the material better to boot.
I've been looking around though, and have found a few other brands that I wanted to try. Enter the Propper Adventure Tech line and their APCU Level I - SS Baselayer Top. I ordered one from a Propper dealer that I had a discount coupon for to give one a try.
I ordered a size large in coyote. I am 6'1" for reference.
The shirt was waiting on my front doorstep yesterday when I got home from work. I opened it right up and gave it a good look-over. The material looks and feels very similar to my Zensah, only maybe a slight bit thicker/heavier. There are areas under both arms, and down the upper middle of the back that are more of a mesh, but are seamless with the other material. The shoulder area's are really well thought out to me. There are NO seams on TOP of the shoulder. There are two seems for the shoulder arm area, but they are flat seams and run along the front and back of the shoulder. Very cool as this eliminates that seam ridge on top of the shoulder that gear/pack straps love to press down on and create discomfort. Also, no seam around the armpit area.
The shirt was VERY comfortable to wear. I put it on immediately and went outside to mow the yard. I kept my work jeans on, as I wanted to see how the shirt handled the increase in my body temp via the hot, non venting/breathing cotton jeans. Temps were in the mid to upper 90's, humidity was 85-95% easily. Heat index in the shade was probably 105 give or take. Mostly sunny skies with a few scattered clouds. No wind except for an occasional slight, but brief, breeze (typical July weather in NE FL). I could feel the sun baking on me, but did not get any areas of intense heat. The material did a very good job of pulling sweat off of me. When the occasional breeze blew, I could definitely feel it blowing through the shirt. Evaporation seemed quite well also. When I got done with the yard, I vacuumed out our pool. Lots of upper body movement pushing the vacuum around doing that. I wanted to see if there was any chaffing, discomfort, or hot spots that developed. None did. I then went for a short mile or so jog. Again, sweat absorption was good, evaporation was good, and I could feel air flowing against my skin.
Some observations... Its not a "compression" fit shirt like my Zensah is. Its form fitting, but not tight. VERY comfortable to me. I did not have ANY issues at all with it being too tight around the armpits area and neck, like I do my Under Amour shirts. There was zero odor from the shirt. Even my wife pointed out that for all the work/sweating I had been doing, she couldn't smell me at all. It seemed to hold moisture a bit longer than my Zensah, but I suspect that is from the ever so slightly thicker/heavier material. That said, it still cooled very well, as the moisture in the shirt was cool to the touch, not hot like a cotton shirt, and the airflow through the shirt was cool air. There were no visible "wet spots" of accumulated moisture, so it was obviously evaporating it and drying fast enough to prevent that. UPF rating proved to be plenty good, as I had no issue with sunburn at all. The color is a nice semi dark brown. Should match really well with Multicam, which just happens to be my favorite.... 
About the only negative I think I can find so far, is that very much like Zensah material, this material snags pretty easy on things, such as velcro, etc. (such as Military Moron notes in his Zensah review). Since its intended to be worn as an under shirt and not so much open by itself, I don't see that as much of an issue personally. I cant say enough how much I liked the fit. It was one of the most comfortable shirts I have ever worn. Sizing was very nice. Length wise, it was long enough to stay tucked in below my waist line without riding up and out like Under Armour does. It also fit well through the shoulders, again, fitting without being too tight anywhere. I'd have to say this is my favorite shirt so far. I want to try one from from one from one other line to compare though, before I make a final decision. Propper may really be onto something here with their Adventure Tech line if the rest of it is as nice (I intend to find out! 
).
I still like and highly recommend Zesah products. I think one of the biggest things that I like about the Propper shirt though, over even the Zensah, is the shoulder construction. Someone who has worn gear and humped a ruck was involded in the development of this shirt, no question about it.
Oh, one other thing of note, that I know some folks will be happy to see. It has a nice "Made in the USA" printed on it. I'll buy stuff from just about anywhere, so long as its god kit. When I can get good kit that's made in the USA, that's even better!
I'll try to put up a few pics shortly.
One final note.... I'd really be interested in seeing Propper make a boxer/brief type underwear out of the same material as the shirt. I much prefer my Under Armour heat gear boxer/brief underwear over cotton anything, but I'd sure like to see what Propper could come up with as a better alternative.
Please forgive the quality of the pics. They arent Military Moron quality pics, but thats because there is only 1 MM, and he didnt take these.
Here are the Propper shirt pics first. You can see where the seams run at for the arm areas. Nice and smooth on top, and no seam around the arm pit area to rub and chafe.
And now the Zensah shirt.
Last edited by Hawkeye; 07-27-08 at 13:37.
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