Author Topic: Old person yells at the sun  (Read 1163 times)

This is pretty much a confused rant about how I don't understand the difference between a regular shirt and upf rated shirts they do the same thing and regular shirts are cheaper than the upf specialized shirts

Ok so I work at a sporting store that sells upf 30 - 50 clothing. People will come in and specifically ask for upf clothing. Most of the Columbia brand area is upf rated. There are upf t-shirts, button ups, shorts, pants and long sleeve shirts that all specifically block out the sun as if no other fabric can do that. What I don't understand is whats the difference between any other article of clothing. Litteraly a cotton shirt will do the same for less money. Like as long as your shirt isn't super thin and you can see light through it you most likely won't be sunburnt. Its not like because you have a upf shirt on you are automatically immue to the sun's rays on all of your body, your hands, neck and whatever part that you don't have covered will still get sunburnt. I have yet to figure out why people would pay extra for clothes that point out one of the very basic functions that any other shirt could do. The only benefit I can see from these shirts is that they are silky feeling and are breathable as opposed to non breathable fabric.

I don't get it, maybe I'm wrong? Maybe I'm missing something?
Today a guy came in wanting upf 50 shirts and not upf 30 any decent shirt will do that. It either blocks the sun or doesn't idk what the difference is.
/rant
I thought it would be fun to see blfs perspective on this

what does upf stand for
« Last Edit: May 26, 2018, 07:01:55 PM by Adrenaline »

ultraviolet protection factor

what does upf stand for
Like on sunscreen bottles but not

branding makes money



first thing I thought of

first thing I thought of
Where'd you find that picture of me

I worked retail before so I know what you mean. people with their weird ass preferences

Pretty sure the difference between 30-50 UPF clothing is a solid like 2-4% of UV radiation being blocked out. 50 UPF clothing supposedly lets less than 3% of UV radiation through, so I'm guessing regular clothes let more UV in. So in reality you're paying extra cash for like 5% less UV radiation getting through.

I guess it kinda makes sense if you work outdoors and live in a place like Australia where people die of skin cancer all the time, but it's slightly paranoid tbh

Pretty sure the difference between 30-50 UPF clothing is a solid like 2-4% of UV radiation being blocked out. 50 UPF clothing supposedly lets less than 3% of UV radiation through, so I'm guessing regular clothes let more UV in. So in reality you're paying extra cash for like 5% less UV radiation getting through.

I guess it kinda makes sense if you work outdoors and live in a place like Australia where people die of skin cancer all the time, but it's slightly paranoid tbh

I did try and look this up, regular cotton t-shirt supposedly provides somewhere from 6-10 UPF of protection, depending on the source.

Meaning it will let through 1 out of every 6 to 10 "units" of UV, or somewhere around 16.6% to 10% of the UV through.