There is a lot of bamboo clothing around nowadays. Its quite heavily marketed as a “natural” choice, more on that in a mo, pretty well priced and very comfortable to wear. But does that make it a good choice for outdoor activities such as hiking or bushcraft? To answer that question we need to look at what bamboo fabric really is and consider those properties.
How is it made and is it really sustainable?
What most people, guilty as charged, believe at first is that bamboo clothing is made directly from the fibres of the bamboo plant. And that sounds great right? Bamboo is fast growing, natural and tough!!
But it really isn’t made in the way we would expect. Bamboo clothing is really a form of Viscose (or rayon), a semi synthetic man made fabric. Viscose was invented in the late 1800s as a cheaper alternative to silk and is made from range of sources of cellulose including eucalyptus, birch and of course nowadays bamboo.
The process is pretty complex sounding but essentially a series of reactions is completed to extract cellulose, yes the same stuff that makes up most plant fibre, including cotton, before reconstituting it into spinnable fibres. It’s these that are used to make the clothing. It’s this series of chemical processes that also mean it is not quite as sustainable or ecologically sound as it is sometimes portrayed. Think lots of nasty chemicals and lots of water use.
However there is a sustainability positive. Being cellulose, pure bamboo clothing is biodegradable.
How does bamboo perform?
But back to performance. As we are talking about a fine cellulose fibre it behaves as we would expect a cellulose fibre to (think a light smooth cotton). It absorbs some water, so wicking and cooling, but also can become waterlogged.
Where it has difference from cotton is that cotton has a different fibre structure. Cotton has a hollow fibre, whereas vicose as extruded fibres are solid. Interestly cotton gets stronger when wet, viscose gets weaker.
It’s a fine silk like fabric with high breathability and great comfort, again good for active wear for short periods but bad for keeping warm when stationary or just when its really cold, so winter hiking or bushcraft for instance.
In warm weather, as a fine fibre, it can dry quickly, more so than cotton, but in cold damp conditions with low air trapping capability it won’t keep you particularly warm, especially when wet.
So there we have it. For warm weather hiking or active short periods of exercise go for it. For staying warm over prolonged periods, so winter hiking, overnighting or cold weather bushcraft stick with the wool or synthetics!