Disclaimer: LABFRESH was kind enough to send The Peak Lapel this leather jacket for free for the purposes of this review.
I have become increasingly obsessed with “tech wear” products. You know, the stretchy pants, and shirts, and even now blazers. But there are always certain products that really stand out within this increasingly saturated sub-market, certain products that have “tech” features far beyond those of their competitors. LABFRESH is one of those brands. They make a dress shirt (amongst other products) that are truly top of their class as far as the “technology” within them.
For this review we looked at their white business shirt ($100). Off the bat, the fit is great, and quite a lot better than most other tech wear shirts I have tried in the past. Most tech shirting is not sized like a good slim fit shirt should be, but this one really is. It’s a bit snug here and there, but overall, it honestly fits pretty closely to how many of my custom shirts fit. Plus, they also offer “longer sleeve” options if you typically find dress shirts have sleeves that are too short for you. It also comes in both a Regular and Slim — I am 6”1 and 170 lbs. and went with the slim in Medium. It’s a true slim and worked quite well for me like I said.
As to the style, the collar is pretty nice overall, though a tiny bit small for my taste. Still, it looks and stands pretty perfectly under a blazer. Beyond that, I find the fabric a tiny bit see-through as well for my tastes, but that is pretty common with white shirts, especially more technical ones like this one.
The shirts are made in Europe and have the typical, obvious tech features. They are nice and stretchy, move amazingly with your body, and are wrinkle free. What is truly impressive though is that this shirt is 100% cotton, and so does not resort to some of the less natural fabrics out there used more commonly in technical fabric shirts (though the wrinkle free option is an additional charge). I personally found the shirt to be a bit scratch-y when I first wore it, but with a couple washes and serious wears it will start to break in and become more comfortable.
The coolest part though is that this shirt is stain resistant. Spill some liquid on it and it just beads up and rolls right off. For those long days when you need to look clean and crisp from dusk until dawn, this is the sort of shirt you’ll want to be in.
For a tech shirt like this, $100 is actually quite a reasonable price. It comes in white, blue, and two basic patterns as of this writing as well. If you’re in the market for a quality, performance shirt like this, we highly recommend you consider LABFRESH.