Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

COLUMBIA PFG FIT Columbia makes some fantastic shirts, and the Terminal Tackle series is no exception. The only downside to the Terminal tackle, and the only reason I deducted a star, is that these shirts have freakishly long sleeves. Most PFG shirts run a little large, but the sleeves on these are fairly ridiculous. I am 5’10”, 195 lbs, and would typically wear a Large in most similar styled shirts, but I have to get a Medium in Columbia PFG shirts. Even with the Medium size, the sleeves on this shirt will hang completely over the end of my fingertips. I typically pull the sleeves up anyway, but this is pretty aggravating. Normally, if a shirt fit poorly, I would return, but I packed the shirt for a trip and didn’t have any alternative but to wear it. So the moral of the story is, if you have average length arms, you may want to drop down 1 to 2 shirt sizes from your normal fit. Tip number two is that because these shirts are on different sizing scale, many get returned to the Amazon Warehouse, so keep an eye for Amazon Warehouse deals on these shirts (see tips to finds the easiest way to compare prices across sizes and colors at the conclusion of this review). Another hint with Columbia shirts is that any of the styles which have an SPF rating will be the best for extreme heat. The open style weave is extremely breathable, hence the cooling effect, yet some UV penetration can occur, hence the SPF rating. For example, the Blood & Guts III, Tamiami II, and Terminal Tackle have this type of fabric, which makes them by far my favorite styles for summer time outdoor wear. Below I have rated/summarized this and other shirts in the PFG line based on several factors. MOISTURE MANAGEMENT (SWEAT ABSORBTION, COMFORT LEVEL WHEN MOIST & DRYING SPEED) >Terminal Tackle - 5 Stars >Blood & Guts III - 5 Stars >Tamiami II - 5 Stars >Bonehead – 3.5 Stars >Bahama II – 2 Stars BREATHABILITY FOR WARM WEATHER WEAR >Terminal Tackle – 4.5 Stars (The collared styles below are vented, making them slightly cooler) >Blood & Guts III - 5 Stars >Tamiami II - 5 Stars >Bonehead – 3.5 Stars >Bahama II – 3 Stars OVERALL COMFORT LEVEL >Terminal Tackle – 4 Stars >Blood & Guts III - 5 Stars >Tamiami II – 4.5 Stars >Bonehead – 3.5 Stars >Bahama II – 3 Stars WRINKLE RESISTANCE >Terminal Tackle – 5 Stars >Blood & Guts III - 5 Stars >Tamiami II - 5 Stars >Bonehead – 2 Stars >Bahama II – 1 Star STAIN RESISTANCE >Terminal Tackle – 4.5 Stars >Blood & Guts III - 5 Stars (Treated Fabric) >Tamiami II – 2 Stars >Bonehead – 3 Stars >Bahama II – 4 Stars FIT (ALL REQUIRE A SIZE SMALLER THAN NORMAL) >Terminal Tackle – Loosest Fit of all, may even require 2 sizes smaller than normal >Blood & Guts III – Trimmest Fit of All, but still order a size smaller than normal >Tamiami II – Fit 1 size smaller than normal (if you wear Large, order Medium) >Bonehead – Fit 1 size smaller than normal (if you wear Large, order Medium) >Bahama II – Fit 1 size smaller than normal (if you wear Large, order Medium) AMAZON PRICE COMPARISON & WAREHOUSE DEALS I found myself getting very aggravated at the way Amazon lists apparel items with multiple colors, as it can take forever to search through multiple color (and size) options to see the cheapest offerings. On my iPad version, the color prices are displayed in a list style automatically, but on my PC desktop I would have to select each color/size to see the price options. I finally found a simpler way. Follow these steps: >Select a color and size option for the shirt. >Look on the right hand side of the screen to see if there are multiple offers for this garment. If so, select the “new and used from” (or “new” if no used offerings available) icon, which will take you to a list view screen. (There must be multiple offerings for the exact size and color selected for this option to appear, so if you do not see the “new and used from” hyper-link, then select another size/color combination till the link appears.) >In the list view screen, select your size and click the “lowest offer for each” icon beside the color selector. This will display the cheapest offering for each color shirt in that size, so you can quickly see which colors are the cheapest. Also, this view will show any Amazon Warehouse Deals available. As mentioned in the first paragraph, these shirts get returned often due to sizing issues, and many times the Warehouse deals are shirts that were tried on, then immediately returned for a smaller size. THANKS Thanks for reading my review.