We’ve all heard that to avoid wrinkles, dark spots, and things much worse like skin cancer, you need to try and stay out of the sun. But what if your hobby or profession requires you to be out in the sun daily, then what are you supposed to do?
First things first, whether you’re hitting the slopes or golfing, you need to be aware of two important sun protection acronyms when shopping for sun resistant apparel: SPF and UPF.
SPF is short for sun protection factor, and this is the number you commonly see on sun screen bottles. SPF indicates how well sunscreen will protect your skin from UVB rays, the type of rays that causes sunburn and can lead to skin cancer. The biggest issue when it comes to sunscreen and SPF ratings, is once you start doing something like horseback riding, you need to keep reapplying to get the same protection. If you’re doing a sport like golf day after day, there will be times you missed reapplying. That is why it’s important to add sun protective clothing to your daily outerwear choices.
UPF is short for ultraviolet protection factor, and this number will show you how well a sun protective shirt will protect you from both UVA and UBA rays. For example, a UPF rating of a 10 means the sun shirt allows 1/10 (10%) of UV radiation in. Our Anique Sun Shirts are rated a UPF of 30, meaning they only allow 1/30 (3%) of UV radiation in while you wear our sun shirts. The Skin Cancer Foundation says for sun protective clothing to get their seal of approval, they need to have a UPF rating of 30 or higher to be considered to offer sufficient sun protection from UVA and UBA radiation.
To test for UPF protection, we used something called a spectrophotometer. This machine sends UV light through the fabric of our sun shirts, which then measures how much UV light transmitted through the shirt.
There are additional benefits that we have included in our Anique Sun Shirts options to up the sun protection factor for all our athletes.
- The color of the sun shirts you wear are important in determining additional sun protection. If you choose a lighter colored shirt, the UV radiation will be less blocked than darker fabrics. So, if you are about to go out and golf for 18 holes, we suggest looking at some of our darker colored sun shirts like our colors Onyx and Navy. However, if you are only going out for a back nine, then our Milkshake Signature Sun Shirt is right for you.
- A slightly looser fit offers additional sun protection because it stretches the fabric less, which allows less light through. For example, if you are a horseback riding instructor or golf instructor, maybe you size up to gain additional sun protection. Either way your Anique Sun Shirt fits, we have knitted the sun shirts to have additional movability in the arms and torso, so the fabric will be more movable.
- Our Anique Sun Shirts have been designed to look fashionable while zipped all the way up, covering your neck from harmful sun damage. No matter if you just chipped your golf ball or hit a hole in one, you will look stylish, while protecting yourself from harmful UVA and UVB radiation.
Here at Anique, we made our Sun Shirts to be stylish, functional and most importantly protect you from harmful UVA and UBA radiation.
