Techy layers for active snow sports: Icebreaker BodyfitZone Merino 260 Zone Long Sleeve Crewe Thermal Top and Thermal Leggings
Our pick
Icebreaker Men’s BodyfitZone Merino 260 Zone Leggings
This pair ranks among our all-time favorite merino leggings. However, these leggings don’t have a fly—a dealbreaker with all the other leggings our testers tried. But testers liked the fit so much they were willing to make an exception.
Icebreaker Women’s BodyfitZone Merino 260 Zone Leggings
After four years of testing, these are our favorite merino leggings because they prevent overheating. We particularly love them because they are great at stretching with your every move—more so than most wool leggings we’ve tried.
Get these if: You do a lot of cold-weather aerobic activity, such as skiing, snowboarding, or running. The goal of the Icebreaker BodyfitZone Merino 260 Zone Long Sleeve Crewe (in men’s and women’s sizes) is to aggressively dump heat you generate while you’re moving and then keep you warm when you’ve stopped. The BodyfitZone Merino 260 Zone Leggings (in men’s and women’s sizes) do the same.
Why they’re great: These base layers are pieced together with two different weights of fabric. The heavyweight panels cover places that are exposed to the cold, such as your shoulders, quads, and calves; the lightweight panels cover the places that generate heat, such as your armpits and the backs of your knees. The goal of these leggings is to keep you both warm and cool through a greater range of body-temperature fluctuation than usual. Ideally that means you don’t overheat while you’re skiing down a hill, but you also stay warm when you’re sitting on the lift going back up. Do they achieve this goal? We think so—our testers definitely found a difference in comfort.
Icebreaker addresses other comfort issues, too: The shirt has offset shoulder seams, no tag, and a long torso to cover the back. Thumbholes make layering easy and cover the wrists for additional warmth.
We’d like to mention that the 260 Zone Leggings are some of the best leggings we’ve ever tested. This is the only merino bottom (aside from the Le Bent design) that doesn’t pull or restrict anywhere and thus provides an unhindered range of motion. We don’t know why. We don’t know whether this is a result of how these leggings are pieced together or due to the tiny bit of stretchy Lycra, but people who slide down snowy hills universally love them. Eve has had her Icebreaker bottoms stolen twice—once by a couch-surfing snowboarding chick and once by her ex-boyfriend, never to be seen again.
Flaws but not dealbreakers: After a full season of wearing the shirt, one tester found that it had developed tiny holes. But he didn’t consider this to be a dealbreaker—he wasn’t surprised to see some wear and tear after 100-plus days of sweaty, next-to-skin contact. These pieces also don’t come in as many sizes as we’d like.
Material: 97% merino wool, 3% elastane (body); 98% merino wool, 1% elastane, 1% nylon (panels)
Sizes: S to XXL; fits a 33- to 48-inch chest
Colors: Jet Heather/Black
Material: 97% merino wool, 3% elastane (body); 98% merino wool, 1% elastane, 1% nylon (panels)
Sizes: XS to XL; fits a 30- to 42-inch chest
Colors: Jet Heather/Black
Material: 97% merino wool, 3% elastane (body); 98% merino wool, 1% elastane, 1% nylon (panels)
Sizes: S to XXL; fits a 27- to 42-inch waist
Material: 97% merino wool, 3% elastane (body); 98% merino wool, 1% Lycra, 1% nylon (panels)
Sizes: XS to XL; fits a 24- to 35-inch waist