How an upstart bike apparel company made the world's best travel shirt
By Cameron Patterson
Bolo Bikes, a new Colorado based bike apparel company, made their new Badland Breeze ride shirt to be the perfect bike shirt, lightweight, durable, and well ventilated, complete with a little Western style design and classy pearl snap buttons.
What they actually made was the world's greatest travel shirt. I’ve spent the past two months on a different kind of bike, a Royal Enfield Himalayan 411 named Stevie Nicks. Stevie and I began our journey in Quito, Ecuador, and have been traversing all of South America's extreme topography, from coastal deserts, windy altiplanos, rainy season jungle and high Andean sierra. The Badland Breeze has been my go-to shirt through all of it.
Let’s get one thing out of the way and that is that I'm a prolific sweater. At the first sign of humidity or a wedding dance floor, my pores open up like the wave machine at the water park. No shirt on earth can stop that. However, the Badland Breeze first showed its mettle in the Ecuadorian cloud forest, where even caked in sweat, the oblique meshing on each side of the shirt kept me feeling cool and comfortable. Furthermore, this shirt is supremely wring-able, and after 10 minutes or so, was completely dry, unwrinkled, and didn’t soak up any smell.
Along the coastal desert of Peru, it was the perfect beach shirt: airy, lightweight and breathable. And let’s be honest, there is no more satisfying way to remove a shirt before a dip in the ocean than the single rip, button popping pleasure that the classy pearl snap buttons provide.
On a backpacking trip where weight and space are crucial, The Badland Breeze is gloriously packable. Lighter (.5oz? Idk) than any cotton t-shirt, and comes out wrinkle free after sitting rolled up in my backpack for a day or two.
This is truly the do-it-all travel shirt. It’s my go to hostel shirt, and I have gotten multiple compliments from Tinder dates while out dancing in the city. But I’ve also worn it on 18 mile treks through the Andes mountains. What to wear for a whole day hiking to and around Machu Picchu? Easy, the Bolo Bike Badland Breeze.
Motorcycling, jungle hiking, salsa dates, beach days, Machu Picchu trekking, I imagine this would be the perfect golf shirt as well, the Bolo Bike Badland Breeze is the ultimate do-it-all, any weather, any country travel shirt. It just so happens you can also use it as a bike shirt too.
Want more bolo bike travel content? Check out our complete guide to the whole enchilada