Skins Game Golf Shirts Review

Skins Game Golf Shirts

Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: Cool, dry and stylish. These are top notch shirts.

Early in the summer of 2008, the GolfBlogger family visited the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. As with most tourists, we spent a great deal of time in the Asian exhibit, which took you through bamboo groves to see creatures such as the Fishing Cats, Sloth Bears, and Clouded Leopards before culminating in the famous Giant Pandas(complete with baby). Along the way, there was a small exhibit on bamboo.

Bamboo is amazing stuff. It’s a grass, not a tree, and grows at a rapid rate in a wide variety of climates. It has a wide variety of applications as a raw material in building and other industrial applications—among them, houses, flooring, fences, bridges, toys, bicycles, hats, paper, fishing rods, skateboards, and clothing. Its usability and fast growth make it great for environmental sustainability.

All of this brings me to the two Skins Game golf shirts I received in the mail the other day. One was made with 30% bamboo fibres; the other, 50%.

My first reaction when hearing of bamboo clothing was that it would be a bit fibrous and uncomfortable. But nothing could be forther from the truth. The Skins Game bamboo infused golf shirts are among the softest, nicest feeling shirts I have ever worn. They’re silky, and light.

Comfort is only part of the benefits of bamboo, though. Bamboo infused fabric is moisture wicking, anti-bacterial, hypo-allergenic and protects against UV rays.

I can attest the first. I wore the 50% bamboo shirt on a round of golf on the worst day of the summer, with temperatures in the upper 90s and humidity as bad as anything I can recall. In a cotton shirt, I would have been drenched halfway through the first nine. The bamboo stayed relatively dry throughout.

I want more of these bamboo shirts.

In the same package as the two bamboo shirts was another from the Skins Game’s more well-known Holy Moly line.

This shirt, in a very attractive Hawaiian floral design has an interesting cotton fabric that is peppered with tiny holes. These holes—not noticable unless you look closely—are designed to make the fabric breathe.

A test drive on another blisteringly hot day also proved the effectiveness of the Holy Moly design. While it ended up more damp than the bamboo shirt, it still was quite comfortable.

The Skins Game shirts are sold retail in the Hawaiian islands, in many golf resorts, and in the Honolulu Nordstroms. You also can get them online and in a few Nordstroms on the mainland. Skins Game also can do custom embroidery for tournaments and groups. The dark blue bamboo shirt I reeived as the Waikoloa Golf Resort’s logo embroidered on the front.

Mrs. Golfblogger, the accomplished seamstress, gives these shirts two thumbs up for their material and construction. I just know that they feel great, and work great on the course.