When we used the gloves, they didn’t seem to fit our
fingers very well. We had to do a lot of pulling, and some-
times we were afraid of tearing the fabric by trying to pull
the finger sleeves down over our fingers to get a tight fit.
We could, however, use our smartphones, with a little bit
of difficulty. We ended up having to pull the fabric around
our “swiping” index finger taught by pulling with our
other hand, which isn’t exactly an ideal situation, but still
a functional workaround. It also helps to start by pulling
the sleeves of the gloves all the way back on your forearm
before starting to mess with the fingers.
If you’re going for full protection, plan to “shingle” the
products from your feet up to your head. Basically, the
lower layers should be lapped on top of the upper layers. In
other words, tuck your face hood down into the turtleneck
shirt so that the turtleneck is over the hood. Then, tuck
the shirt down into the pants so that the waistband of the
pants laps on top of the shirt, and so on. This way, for ex-
ample, if an insect is crawling up your legs it won’t be able
to crawl underneath your shirt when it gets to your waist.Final Thoughts
We like the fact that these fabrics are chemical-free for
several reasons. First, there’s nothing that’ll wash out of the
clothes after 10 or 20 washes and cause the garments to
lose their effectiveness over time. Second, if it means that
we can carry less bug repellent and use less chemicals on
our skin in the long-term, we’ll take that option all day long.
For similarly useful alternatives, we’ve also used mosqui-
to-netting covers on our heads as well as mosquito-netting
jackets. These products are inexpensive, but they’re also
very effective at what they do. The main downside for
us was that the head covers made it much more difficult
to see what we were doing or where we were walking,
especially when trying to stick to a faint trail in low-light
conditions. Similarly, the netting jackets always seemed
to interfere with gear, such as backpacks or rifle slings, by
snagging easily or getting torn by brush.
We like the fact that the Rynoskin goes underneath our
clothing, since we’re able to maintain 100-percent functional-
ity with our existing gear and clothing systems we’re already
used to wearing. The undergarment will last longer because
it’s protected under your clothing, plus it’s machine-washable
and dryable without shrinking (we verified this at home).
Long story short? Hot or cold, if you work in buggy
environments and haven’t tried this gear yet, there’s just
no reason to wait any longer. The price point is affordable
for most people, the products are made in the United
States, and best of all, the products actually live up to their
promises. We’re sold.092
ISSUE 32HANDS ON