Three Shirts Clothing Review was a while in coming together, and it took a turn along the way. I’ll explain. A friend made the generous gesture of gifting a resort golf shirt to me this week, which reminded me that I planned to let y’all know about some shirts I like. I wore the DriFit and immediately took to it. My planned duet became a trio, so here you have bits on golf shirts from Chase54, Devereux and Nike.
What I like most about Chase54 is its old-cotton feel. It’s not the pique that many of us grew up with in golf shirts from the 1970s and 1980s (once they got rid of those straight-polyester ones!) but it’s much closer than others feel. I’ll touch on that later. Chase54 currently uses a renewable fiber by Dupont, called Sorona. One of its consumer benefits is its quick-drying nature, which works great if you’re not in a constant sweat (like the kind you have when running a race.) Since we’re not constantly sweating while golfing, a passing breeze should enact the quick-dry feature, and not leave us with swamp back. Chase54 is big on fabric fusion, as seen in its tag-suffix FUZE. No fewer than five types of fuze highlight its technology page on the website: Feather, Dry, Green, Clima and Ultra. These FUZEs promise to battle wet, cold, environmental abuse, discomfort and the wind, to keep you comfortable. Thumbs-up to Chase54 for its fabrics and look.
Devereux loves the band, at least it did in 2015. This line segment traverses shirts colorfully, sometimes in pairs, usually in a horizontal fashion. From time to time, Devereux will offer a vertical post in line with shirt buttons. Its infrequency is its selling point. Devereux seeks a laid-back look and feel, and achieves both by avoiding power colors. No neons, no brights in this line. Primary colors in pastel shades are the norm. Lots of white for background, behind those pastel segments. Devereux likes the look of yore, a look sported by professional golfers in the 1950s and 1960s. Devereux likes the collar, a tricky notion. If you ignore it, it wrinkles at the tips and looks unkempt. Don’t fear, though; Devereux offers a collar care guide on its blog. For me, Devereux has a similar feel to Chase54, which means soft over sleak, cottony comfort over whatever is contemporary. When that’s the feel and the look you’re after, you can’t go wrong with Devereux, so another thumbs-up for its similar feel and different look.
And we come to Nike. Like Chase54, Nike is into sustainability. So much so that is has a micro-site set up to trumpet its achievements. Nike loves colors. Nike has yet to meet a neon, a pastel, a primary, a shade that it didn’t like. Nike also likes contemporary. Nike isn’t into the old-school look or feel, so it has a different niche from the previous two shirt companies. Dri-Fit is Nike’s response to sweat, a moisture-wicking technology that somehow pulls sweat away from you, into the fabric and out to the world. I won’t lie. There are days that I want to feel relaxed, almost beachy, and opt for the old-school look. On other occasions, though, I want to fly, I want to soar. I want to swing like a titan, or feel like I am doing so. Those latter instances are my Nike ones. If I had a third thumb, I’d place it in the up position for Nike.
A note aside: the question begs to be asked. It’s all well and good that these companies are repurposing old materials to make new ones, but what happens to the clothing when it has outlived its usefulness? Can it be repurposed? If not, are we delaying the inevitable, which is uneliminable pollution?
A final thought: you cannot be dissatisfied with shirts from these three companies, if you know what feel you crave. After that, it comes down to the look. My guidestone is simple: will I want to put this shirt on in the morning, and the following morning after that? If it grabs your attention but your soul cries no, then don’t. Your look is your look; don’t purloin another’s style.
