Leland on the Patagonia Men's Sunshade Shirt:
This isn't some Hemingway novel. Don't let anyone tell you sunburned fishermen are cool, okay? As much as Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard might identify with good ol' Ernest, Patagonia understands full well the personal risks inherent in brazen fishing in blazin' climes, and the company designs sensible products -- like the Men's Sunshade Shirt -- that enable anglers to
adventure with some measure of prudence. While there's always the chance you'll hook a fish that takes you miles out of your way,
the number one safety risk to tropical anglers is skin damage. In the Patagonia Men's Sunshade Shirt, you get
full-coverage UPF 30 protection in an airy, featherweight package.
Leland on Specifications:
Especially into the back end of a flats trip,
being able to stay on the water and focus on fishing can mean the difference between disappointment and victory. Covering up with something like the Patagonia Men's Sunshade Shirt is absolutely the best way to stay safe, but Patagonia has recognized that
unless sun protection garments are lightweight and fast-wicking, they won't get worn when the sun's at its hottest. With this in mind, the Patagonia Sunshade Shirt is built of the lightest, most breathable polyester jersey, which keeps you cool even as it affords UPF 30 protection.
As indispensable coverage for the flats, the Men's Sunshade Shirt will perform at a high level, trip after trip.
Specifications:
- Soft, light, breathable, stretchy -- and hugely protective: UPF 30
- Built of 100% polyester 4.3oz jersey for quick-drying, fast-wicking performance
- Brushed crossover collar sits up to give a little extra coverage
- Raglan sleeves mean shirt's shoulders sit flat under pack straps or wader suspenders
- Zippered pocket at left breast, with interior mesh bag, holds small essentials
- Recyclable through Patagonia's Common Threads Garment Recycling Program
Leland on Patagonia Technical Clothing:
For all the focus we put on our craft when we're on the water, we sometimes forget what an incredible range of places fly fishing can take us to -- or, what's more, that these places are sometimes less-than-hospitable to humans.
Just like the folks at Patagonia, here at Leland we understand how
high-performance technical clothing and fly fishing apparel is sure to
improve time spent casting, and we've seen how, sometimes, the right gear can provide the critical edge needed for success.
For the dazzling flats, we offer the Patagonia Guidewater Pants, Shorts
and Shirt. Together with the Sun Glove, Sun Mask and Sunshade Shirt,
these items should help you cover up, stay cool, and make the most of your time in some of the most beautiful, if forbidding, places on earth.
If you're planning to fly fish in more temperate climes, the Guidewater
Pants and Shirt cross over brilliantly, and with either the Patagonia
Insulator Pants or the Shelled Insulator Pants, you'll be able to fish comfortably, even through the winter. These fly fishing garments -- sourced, more often than not, from partially-recycled content fabrics -- are made to the highest standards in the industry and are destined to keep you comfortable over seasons of hard fishing.
Leland on Patagonia:
One of the most admired and emulated firms in the outdoor marketplace, Patagonia is also one of the stalwarts in the fly fishing industry. From its humble beginnings as Yvon Chouinard's piton forging business to its ascendancy as one of the major houses in outdoor apparel and equipment, Patagonia has been marked by the same commitment to well-designed, well-made product, the same dedication to corporate social responsibility, and the same finger-on-the-pulse outdoor culture -- for almost forty years now.
Chouinard, still the company's head and something of an enlightened monarch,
is well known as an alpinist and a surfer, but is also an avid fly
fisherman. Atlantics, cutthroats, permit: he knows what he likes for
fish as well as for gear, and he maintains a hand in the processes of
product design to this day. Patagonia is a founding partner of '1% for the Planet', a league of environmentally progressive businesses, and the firm demonstrates its engagement with environmental stewardship in other ways as well. To minimize the inevitable ecological costs of manufacturing, Patagonia uses recycled-content fabrics where possible and -- more to the point, perhaps -- makes products that will perform at a high level for years without the need for a replacement.
Patagonia on Men's Sunshade Shirt:
This fast-wicking shirt with UPF 30 sun protection is light, comfortable against the skin and very breathable.
This ultralight, moisture wicking fishing shirt provides cool sun
protection and all-day comfort, even on the sizzling flats of the Turks
and Caicos. Turns out, anglers across the higher latitudes – from
Montana to Maine – needed a shirt like this for summer fishing as well.
The 4.3-oz 100% polyester fabric makes our award-winning Sunshade cool
and light, with no loss to its 30 UPF rating. Raglan sleeves.
Recyclable through the Common Threads Recycling Program.
Patagonia on Patagonia:
Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
–Patagonia's Mission Statement
Patagonia
grew out of a small company that made tools for climbers. Alpinism
remains at the heart of a worldwide business that still makes clothes
for climbing – as well as for skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly
fishing, paddling and trail running. These are all silent sports. None
requires a motor; none delivers the cheers of a crowd. In each sport,
reward comes in the form of hard-won grace and moments of connection
between us and nature.
Our values reflect those of a business
started by a band of climbers and surfers, and the minimalist style
they promoted. The approach we take towards product design demonstrates
a bias for simplicity and utility.
For us at Patagonia, a love
of wild and beautiful places demands participation in the fight to save
them, and to help reverse the steep decline in the overall
environmental health of our planet. We donate our time, services and at
least 1% of our sales to hundreds of grassroots environmental groups
all over the world who work to help reverse the tide.
We know
that our business activity – from lighting stores to dyeing shirts –
creates pollution as a by-product. So we work steadily to reduce those
harms. We use recycled polyester in many of our clothes and only
organic, rather than pesticide-intensive, cotton.
Staying true
to our core values during thirty-plus years in business has helped us
create a company we're proud to run and work for. And our focus on
making the best products possible has brought us success in the
marketplace.
Patagonia on the Oceans as Wilderness Campaign:
Fifty
million buffalo once roamed the rolling green prairies of North
America. Gunners reduced them to near extinction. Now, hunters are at
work on the rolling blue prairies of the sea, and already, the big fish
– including miracles like thousand-pound, warm-blooded bluefin tuna –
are 90 percent gone. What we regret happening on land, may again happen
in the sea. Those who care about wildlife should get to know about
oceans." – Carl Safina, "Comes a Turtle, Comes the World," Patagonia
2006 Heart of Winter Catalog
On land, we saw once what wildness
meant. Imagine it: 50 million buffalo. Passenger pigeons that flocked
so thick they covered the sun. A Spanish explorer sailing up the coast
of California described a beach with scores of grizzly bears feeding on
whale carcasses. Now, the vast numbers have dwindled or gone extinct.
Only a remnant reminds us of what was, the animals and land we
destroyed in our belief that there was a never-ending supply. We
protect them with the Endangered Species Act, wilderness areas and
hunting and fishing laws – having finally learned that we must.
And
so now the sea: In Maine, they used to catch lobsters by gaffing them
in shallow water by the shore. Cod were so numerous and so easily
caught that prisoners complained because they were fed the fish too
many times a week. Once, salmon returning from the ocean so crowded
rivers and streams that people told stories of walking on their backs.
Marlin, swordfish, mako, bluefin, abalone – everywhere in abundance.
We
need to train ourselves to see what is hidden under the surface of the
waters because fish stocks are in collapse and the oceans are in
trouble. Many recent studies, including the Pew Oceans Commission
(2003), have come to the same conclusions. The big fish, like that
thousand-pound tuna, are 90 percent gone. Newfoundland cod, wild
abalone, Atlantic halibut and Chilean sea bass are so scarce as to be
nearly nonexistent. Breeding swordfish populations have been cut in
half; marlin are rare. Pelicans in the Sea of Cortés starve for want of
fish to eat.
Coral reefs are crumbling, and the ocean floor is
plowed up by trawlers. Plastic kills seabirds and is found on the
beaches of the world's most remote islands. Surfers, swimmers and
lifeguards are vaccinated annually against hepatitis as a matter of
course. Tuna and swordfish have so much methylmercury in their bodies,
they are hazardous food for pregnant women and children. The causes are
many, but chief among them is an ugly trinity: unsustainable fishing
practices, habitat destruction and contamination.
Patagonia's
2006–07 environmental campaign was devoted to the oceans. Our goal was
to help us all see what is under the waters of the earth. How the vast
schools of tuna are like those herds of buffalo. How bottom trawling is
like clear-cutting an entire forest to get at a single tree. In our
catalogs, retail stores and on our Web site, we spent 18 months with
marine scientists and writers, surfers and fishermen, to teach
ourselves and our customers just how close the connection is between
the vitality of human life and the marine environment.
Our OAW
campaign helped bring about a great success for the oceans: the
reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary law governing
fishing practices in U.S. waters. But our work on this issue is far
from over. The fishing holes, beaches and wetlands that we enjoyed as
children will not be there for our children unless we acknowledge that
the oceans belong to everyone and take seriously our shared
responsibility for long-term marine management.