REI Sahara Tech Shirt

Lightweight, wickable, breathable shirt that's attractive enough to wear pretty much anywhere. I use this shirt a lot for hiking and backpacking, where my backpack causes my back to sweat. It wicks moisture quickly and dries out rapidly. The upper back portion of the shirt has a cool feature that allows you to lift and secure a flap exposing some mesh material for added ventilation.

I normally always wear pull over technical tee-shirts when carrying a pack, which are great for keeping the perspiration off the body. But when I get too hot there's not really a way to create more ventilation. I decided to try one of these REI Sahara short sleeved button up shirts this past summer which provides additional ventilation in several ways.  

You can unbutton the shirt, there are mesh vents behind the pockets, under the arms and along the upper shoulder area (this part can be exposed via a back panel that lifts away and secures itself to the back collar area.

I used this shirt a lot this past summer and found no faults with it other than it hold wrinkles. I was hoping since it was not cotton that it would be pretty wrinkle-free but that's not the case. If you plan to wear it in a more "formal" setting it'll need the iron. I've also used it in some pretty tight areas where it was being brushed up by tree limbs, etc.  I've not found any pulls on it so the material appears to be pretty durable; same goes for the stitching.

The shots below show the wrinkling and the shoulder vent.

Other than the wrinkling factor, I really like this shirt.  It meets my needs and I have been happy with its ventilation properties and one season durability.