Cleaning out my backpack the other day, I found my Enduracool Instant Cooling Mesh Towel. Oops. I received this for review back around early July, and used it quite a bit during the summer. But as the weather cooled, it got misplaced. I’m certain that if I hadn’t dug it out last week, I’d be frantically searching for it next year, as it was a key piece of gear on hot days.
If you’re the kind of person that likes all the marketing talk, I can tell you that the Enduracool Instant Cooling Mesh Towel from Mission is constructed from a multi-yarn fiber that uses their patented Coolcore™technology. For regular readers of this site, the idea of performance textiles is no surprise. We’ve been known to write about socks that have all manner of top-secret, proprietary blends and construction techniques which bestow near-magical qualities upon the lowliest of clothing items. But don’t take that to mean that this product is all hype and doesn’t work as advertised. Quite the opposite. It works better than expected.
Forget your cheap cotton bandana or doo-rag. Cotton just absorbs water and dries slowly, with no real wicking or cooling benefits. The synthetics in your typical doo-rag don’t do much more than give it some shine. But this 15″ x 36″ towel actually works. Get it wet, wring it out, and “snap” it in the air. I questioned that last bit, but upon looking closely, I could see that there are multiple layers, despite it being very thin overall. It seems as though the snapping motion directs moisture to the middle of the layers, where it can cool without evaporating too quickly. Mission claims that once it’s wet, the Enduracool Instant Cooling Mesh Towel will instantly cool to 30 degrees F below body temp. Simple math here. Your body is generally at 98.6 degrees. Subtract 30, and you’ve got 68.6, which we’ll round to 70. It’s not hard to image some water suspended in mesh being cooled to 70 degrees with even the slightest bit of air flowing around it. And since we lose so much heat via our heads, it makes sense that we should be able to cool off the same way.
Yes, we should have shared this during the peak of summer. But there are plenty of you out there still playing in the hot weather. And for about $20, you may want to add this to your essentials. I used it on my neck while hiking, and on my head while mowing the lawn. Maybe that didn’t look so cool (doo-rag style), but it certainly kept me cooler than just wearing a hat. Plus it offered protection from the sun. The Enduracool Instant Cooling Mesh Towel comes in red, blue, or white-grey, is chemical-free, machine washable, works as advertised, and quite affordable. You can find them just about everywhere, or direct from missionathletecare.com.
– Brian
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the Enduracool Instant Cooling Mesh Towel for free from Mission, in consideration for review publication