Ladies, just because you’re standing in a bass boat all day working a jerkbait 3,000 times down the bank does not mean you have to look like you’ve been dragged through the woods at the end of the day. Your arm may like it is about to fall off, and your feet may be sore, but the livewell is full, and you can look amazing as you sashay up and accept that tournament check. IF you choose the proper clothing, that is.
Most people opt for comfort when fishing. However, wouldn’t you like to look as good as you feel? That’s not easy to do when you spend the day fishing hard -- coffee can splash and spill, you absentmindedly wipe your hands on your pants, and maybe a big bass upchucks a crawdad on you. We’ve all been there. Those stains, smell, and sweat will be with you all day if you wear jeans and a t-shirt. This may sound like science fiction, but nanotechnology has made it possible to fish hard all day and still look fantastic when you step off that boat.
A company called Nanotex produces fabrics with properties such as moisture wicking, stain release, repellency, odor elimination, and wrinkle-free. They can also bundle these technologies so that one garment can have many properties. I know what you’re thinking. You are imagining those old shirts that are like wearing a plastic bag. Sure they resist stains, but wearing one makes you feel like you have been in a greenhouse all day. Living in Arizona has made me extremely sensitive to non-breathing fabrics. Nanotex is different, and the reason is in the name.
Not just anyone can slap the word “nano” into the company name. To legally use that term, the process you use has to be in very tiny particles -- about a billionth of a meter. And that’s what Nanotex does. They use a process that puts a nanowhisker on each fiber, giving it whatever properties they choose and changing it on a molecular level. These properties are permanent -- locked in for the life of the garment. For instance, the nanowhiskers make water bead up and flow away on a repellant fabric. You may be used to such fabrics as feeling like plastic, but the Nanotex process doesn’t alter the fabric's feel or hand. The nanowhiskers are so tiny that the technology still allows for breathability – it does not close the weave at all.
Nanotex doesn’t make clothing. They work with fabric mills. After the fabric is woven and dyed, it is dipped in Nanotex solutions and sometimes rolled. Then it is heat-dried in a curing oven. This is where the magic happens. Stain repellent fabrics let previously impossible stains come right out in the wash. Shirts with Cool Inside balance your body temperature and enhance your comfort no matter what it’s like outside -- or inside. Speed Dry fabrics mean that even if you get drenched on the run back to the ramp, you’ll look sharp in no time. Vitalize DP fabrics let you look as fresh at the end of the day as you did when you first got dressed. These are not your grandma’s blouses, ladies. Welcome to the 21st Century.
You can find clothing featuring Nanotex technology in stores like Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops, TravelSmith, and more. Also, Nanotex is used in clothing for men. As for the price, you may expect to pay a LOT more, but clothing made with Nanotex fabrics costs about the same as a decent shirt without nano properties. Next time you’re in a store or shopping online, check out those hang tags and labels carefully. Nanotex is the way to go.
