Smartwool  Classic Thermal Merino Base Layer Bottoms - Men's

An absolutely great product. Day hikes, working outside, winter backpacking. Wore the 250 top and bottom base layer on 1 week backpacking trip during the 2nd week of Feb - 13" of snow and ¹/⁴ inch of ice during our 1st night. The smartwool followed through by keeping me warm when we were static during lunch or at camp, but also kept me dry while on the move. Light weight, hyper packable. Worth every penny.

When doing my research on this product, I saw a regular thread of one criticism arise for Smartwool products: the Merino 250 and 150 baselayers, in general, are not very durable. However, I thought that maybe those people with those complaints used their products more vigorously or for more demanding activities than I intended. My intended use for these products was simply for every day, around town, office, and home activities when outside temperatures dropped below 30 degrees (i.e. not camping, hiking, cycling, mountain climbing, etc.). I decided to give the 250 baselayers a chance and try out for myself. I bought a top and a bottom in preparation for the winter, but before committing to buying more Smartwool products, I wanted to test the durability for myself. Well, I used these products for my intended use-case, and here are a few of my experiences: 1) I can confirm that these are not very durable. I owned them for 12 weeks in total. I used them for about 25 days in total, and I washed them 5 times in a machine wash gentle, as well as 1 time by hand. The first time I hung these to dry, they needed 5+ hours to dry. So, afterwards, I would throw these in the drier on low for about 10 minutes, and then I would hang them to dry. This sped up the amount of time to hang dry by several hours. I noticed after my last wash, that the shirt had 3 small holes appear on the right torso side of my shirt. I would say I averaged about 4 days of wearing these between washes. 2) I found that I could wear these products multiple times before washing them because the odor resistance is excellent. I usually wore these 4 times before washing them, and I wore underwear under them to extend their use between washes. I would wear them for about 12-16 hours during the day, then I would change my clothes at night for bed, allowing these to hang dry. Wool certainly has an advantage over synthetics on odor resistance. 3) While I normally wore these in temperatures from 10s to 30s, sometimes I would be indoors at 60-70 degrees. While I definitely felt warm and started sweating a little at room temperatures, I did feel that these products breathed and dried well. I never felt these products get soaked like cotton nor unpleasantly damp like polyester while wearing them. 4) When soaked (like just after washing), these products need 5+ hours to hang dry. I would say these are not the best for highly humid, wet environments. I had high hopes for my Smartwool 250 Merino base layers, especially since these are highly rated. I must say that if I spend $100 on a baselayer top and $100 on a baselayer bottom, I expect to get more than 25 uses and 12 weeks worth of wear out of them, so I am highly disappointed about the cost to durability/longevity ratio. I guess the search for the best baselayers continues.. Cons: -3 stars - This baselayer is not durable at all. I had 3 small holes form after only 5 machine washes and 1 hand wash. (-2 stars for the lack of durability) - This product is expensive, and not worth the price given the fragility of the product. (-1 star for the cost) Pros: +2 stars - This baselayer resists odors extremely well. - This baselayer is extremely soft. - This baselayer does provide adequate warmth and is more breathable than synthetic counterparts.