Root Shirt L/S

When we set out to make the first Root Shirt last year, we wanted to focus on creating a shirt from natural materials that was cool and let the air move through freely.

In recent years, when people think of a natural-fiber shirt for the mountains, wool is often the first thing that comes to mind.

It resists sweat-chill and is naturally odor-resistant.

As a material for the mountains, it makes a lot of sense.

Even though using loosely twisted wool yarn to prioritize airflow and softness does improve comfort against the skin, it still retains some of wool's natural warmth. In peak summer, that warmth can feel a bit heavy.

Was there a natural material with a drier feel, one that let the wind pass through more freely?

That's when we remembered the Indian Khadi cotton we'd been talking about with a fabric supplier in the past.

A traditional Indian textile: thread spun by hand, woven by hand on a manual loom. Neither the yarn nor the fabric is uniform, and the twist stays loose.

That very inconsistency is what gives the fabric its lightness, its softness, its breathability.

We first borrowed a long-sleeve shirt made from Indian Khadi cotton and wore it throughout an entire summer.

Wearing it felt strange in the best way. Even in the height of summer, it felt cooler to wear it than not.

It absorbed sweat well, and dried faster than we expected. Even when damp, it didn't cling heavily to the skin, and odor was barely noticeable.

Maybe because neither the thread nor the weave is tightly bound, the shirt feels remarkably light to wear. Air moves through it, and even with long sleeves, there's little of the usual discomfort.

We started to think this could be worn comfortably even on a mountain ridge in the height of summer.

We had previously made a short-sleeve version, easy to wear as an active layer. But thinking about exposed ridgelines in midsummer and long days of travel, we found ourselves wanting a long-sleeve, front-open version too.

A shirt that shades you from the sun while letting the breeze through. Absorbing sweat, drying quickly, sitting light on the skin.

In feel, while made from natural fibers, it works like a wind shell. At times it's sun protection. At others, it's comfortable enough to wear on its own, without a base layer.

Of course, there's a real appeal to wearing merino wool in midsummer too.

But for us, there was something uniquely satisfying about the dry, effortless comfort of cotton—how it quietly draws sweat away from the skin. 

Khadi cotton isn't made efficiently or uniformly. And that's exactly why air passes through it, why it absorbs sweat, why it dries light.

The Root Shirt is, in that sense, a shirt built for midsummer out of the comfort that comes from that very inconsistency.

writing / Daiki Nozawa