Did GearSkeptic just jump the shark with his new base layer video?
For those who don't know, Gear Skeptic is an excellent hiking gear "skeptic" youtuber who has released many high quality videos investigating many different topics in deep deep dive detail.
His most recent video is entitled "Outdoor Clothing Theory, Part 1: Base Layers" has the following description:
>This video reviews the scientific literature to establish the desirable attributes of a base layer, when used as part of a multi-layer clothing system where exertion in the cold creates a sweat risk for post-exercise chilling.
In another part of the video he re-iterates:
>"remember these criteria were for the scenario of a base layer worn in a multi-layer system used in cold weather where sweat during exertion creates the risk of a post-exercise chill"
Yet it seems to me all he's really investigating is the ability of a garment to evaporate moisture rather than seeing what garments will "avoid post exercise chill" in a multi-layer system in the cold.
All the citations he makes revolve around evaporation properties, which he uses to justify the testing methodology.
His main test was to wet the items out and then see how long they dry (in isolation rather than as part of a layering system, mind).
So it's no surprise that his top test winner is specifically designed, not as a thermal base layer, but as an evaporative cooling system, designed to be work on hot days beneath a t-shirt (a thin synthetic mesh rather than a thermal nordic style mesh). Again, a system designed specifically to give you a post exercise-chill! Nothing in the marketing material for the item suggests it is meant as a thermal base layer or to avoid chill (the opposite in fact).
He didn't even test wool because the extracts from all the studies he relies on focus on evaporative power which he uses to imply that all that really matters is how fast an item can dry... not even how much surface area is in contact with your skin, but the absolute value of dryness of the entire item. Yet he included cotton in his tests!
The entire thing seemed to me more like mental gymnastics to debunk the recent nordic thermal mesh fad. Because these types of garments are actually heavier and hold and retain more water they do not fare well on the tests. He later explains that these items are not really suitable at all for anything other than extreme cold, but seemingly forgets the point of his test which was to avoid post-exercise chill in the base layer as part of a multi-layer system. Why would someone be wearing all their layers if they weren't
>used as part of a multi-layer clothing system where exertion in the cold creates a sweat risk for post-exercise chilling
He also makes a big point about how mesh to useless as a stand-alone layer (it's meant to be worn under a traditional base-layer), while touting the top performing product, which is also not at all suitable on its own as only the arms are shielded from the sun (made from a different non-mesh textile). In fact few of the products he tests are designed as sun-proof type systems at all.
Confusingly he ends the entire thing by saying if you're sweating out your base-layer you are doing something very wrong to begin with... Which may be true for most situations but which, again ignores the basis of his video.
I pointed this out to him, but he kept fixating on his citations talking about evaporation power. I also made the point that calorimetry was really the only valid way to test any of this (see: mylifeoutdoors on youtube for such tests), to which he replied that such tests were only clickbait. The way he responded to my critique was frustrating to say the least.
Naturally I am butthurt. But I feel like my issues with the video are not completely irrational.