700 Days With The Condition Black Ceramic T-Shirt

/// 700 Days With The Condition Black Ceramic T-Shirt

I once said this was the best t-shirt ever made. After 700 days of wearing it continuously among just 3 other t-shirts around the world, it still is.

Nimbly armored with ceramic particles to an advanced textile with active stitching, this is the most technical and tactical t-shirt ever made.
[Excerpt]

Back in October of 2017, I only had 2 months (but with extensive use) with the Vollebak Condition Black Ceramic T-Shirt before writing the review.

This is a supplemental review after 23 months.

It’s one of the most innovative and useful apparel available to the public. The main selling point is the 100,000 particles of ceramic embedded into the shirt in a hexagonal pattern to form a sort of “armor”.

It’s intended purpose is to add abrasion resistance for the shirt exterior and therefore the wearer.

That means the shirt should be extremely durable and long-lasting while protecting your skin from minor injuries caused by abrasive contact with rough surfaces – but be comfortable, light and breathable.

It may sound ridiculous, gimmicky and even bullshit to some. I mean seriously, ceramic particles on a shirt?

The Vollebak Condition Black Line

To be honest, I didn’t think too much about its utility when I first purchased this shirt, it was mostly aesthetic. I love how it looks and looks on me.

Now after almost 2 years of wearing it on a cycle of every 3 days across 7 countries, I can confirm the shirt’s initially speculative feature isn’t just clever marketing but an accurate product description.

The following photo shows the accumulation of the work the ceramic “armor” has been doing for the past 700 days in a particular spot of the shirt.

Excessive pilling has formed in this specific area due to prolonged and repeated friction against the shoulder straps of my Triple Aught Design backpacks.

There’s another on the same spot of the left side.

Its because of how I wear my backpacks (firm and high), the straps always do a number on my shirts in these two exact spots over time, every time. It’s the most common reason I retire t-shirts.

As you can see, pilling (loose / damaged fabric) has only formed where the ceramic is not present.

This means that despite all the friction against this part of the shirt, the embedded particles did indeed provide abrasion protection with the ceramic “armor” seemingly unaffected visually or structurally.

I own two of these Condition Black Shirts but have packed only one of them as the other one is in one of my pre-prepared care packages, ready to be sent to wherever I am when in need. So I’ve only had this ceramic shirt this whole time along with also Vollebak made; Planet Earth T-Shirt, Black Light T-Shirt and from just days ago, the Carbon Fiber T-Shirt

For what it can do, this rugged t-shirt is pretty damn comfortable and performs well even in tropical weather, of which I spent most of the last 700 days.

The advanced technical fabric is relatively thick but breathes exceptionally and dries impossibly fast.

You can call it an adventure shirt or a tactical shirt, either way, it’s a damn fine everyday shirt.

[The featured photos were taken in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Indonesia while equipped with the Triple Aught Design FAST Pack Scout.]