I bought 4 of these shirts for my husband and son. They both just love them. They are not itchy..but I guess if someone had more sensitive skin anything with wool may be itchy. They fit true to size, but a little room to wear a shirt under if desired. You can tell they will last a long time if you take care of the shirt properly. I would suggest washing in cold water and laying flat to air dry. Just about anything can be washed and dried in a dryer...but that doesn't mean it is good for the fabric as far as making it last and preventing any shrinkage. These shirts are well made(as all of LL bean's merchandise). I wouldn't take a second thought about buying these shirts again, especially if you live somewhere that gets pretty cold in the winters.
My river driver shirt is one of my favorites. It fits well, feels good and is great for all casual purposes. I just wish they would make a black version!
I’m exiting my third winter with these shirts. I find these shirts add a very nice layer of additional warmth. We’re all entitled to our opinions, but I am flummoxed by those who say these shirts offer no additional warmth over an all-cotton model. I strongly disagree. For me, wearing one of these under a shirt is the equivalent of wearing a light weight wool sweater over a shirt. I appreciate that 40% wool content. These offer a toasty warmth that plain cotton just doesn’t offer and they are very breathable as well. I’m not sensitive to wool and I’m not smooth chested so I experience no itchiness with these at all. The cotton inner layer provides more than satisfactory protection against the outer wool blend layer for me. You will NOT find two distinct layers of fabric in these, though they are double layered. They are knit in such a way that the fabric next to one’s skin is perforated a cotton layer (similar to nylon sports jersey with the holes for breathability) and a more tightly knit our layer of wool and cotton.
I can’t comment on the thickness of Bean’s older models. I do tend to find that Bean’s offerings of the 70s and 80s were generally, across the board superior, to current offerings. But, I find these to be a suitable thickness for wearing under other shirts. Any thicker and one would likely have to wear a larger waistband in pants to be able to tuck two layers of shirts in. Contrary to other reviews, these shirts don’t strike me as thin for a shirt designed to be an undershirt.
My height is somewhat disproportional to my torso relative to my legs and I do wish these were about 1-2 inches longer in the body. I don’t need or want additional length in the arms so that is why I don’t order a Tall size. Given relative sedentary activity, these stay tucked in, but given more active pursuits, they can lift up a bit out of the waistband in my experience, which can be annoying. That being said, I wear these for relatively low energy activities, I would not wear these for strenuous activities during the winter – the high cotton content would make them a bad base layer, during winter. For high exertion activities, a more technical garment would be better for activities likely to lead to perspiring in cold weather. This shirt does not provide any significant wicking characteristics.
Per Bean’s instruction, I machine wash (cold) and air dry flat and I would say that they have shrunk marginally - I would say on the order of 5%. However, they do contract a bit after washing and drying – by that I mean, they get smaller, but it’s not a permanent shrinking. I pull the bottom hem down a bit, and tug at the chest and they stretch back out readily. My only quibble with these shirts is that the cuffs do tend to stretch out a bit.
Frankly, these shirt were a revelation to me, in terms of the comfort and warmth that they offer. Each year I order additional colors and have about eight or nine of these mixed between the Henley and crew neck models.
