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Oct 14, 2024

The 6 Best Sun Protection Shirts of 2024 | Tested

We've tested almost 30 different sun shirts since 2019, and our current review features 19 of the best, most popular, and most intriguing sun shirts on the market. We wore all these UPF-rated shirts

We've tested almost 30 different sun shirts since 2019, and our current review features 19 of the best, most popular, and most intriguing sun shirts on the market. We wore all these UPF-rated shirts for months, subjecting them to hands-on testing in variable sun-ridden climates through all sorts of adventures. We compared fabrics, design, coverage, and features on both hoodies and button-downs. Our team of experts examined breathability, durability, and versatility through extensive field and laboratory testing. Whatever your activity, if you plan to be out in the sun for hours, you'll want to invest in a great sun shirt that will keep you safe.

Need a gift for a woman in your life? Check out the best women's sun shirts. Need even more sun protection? We've tested tons of sunglasses and sun hats with wide brims, as well as other summer gear like flip flops, sandals, and water shoes.

Related: Best Sun Shirts for Women

The REI Co-op Sahara Shade Hoodie is a king of comfortable sun shirts, and that's the main reason it has won our top award. However, that only begins to describe what we found so attractive. The thin, light, and stretchy fabric also packs a UPF 50+ sun protection rating punch, the excellent hood with cinch strap is one of the best we've ever tested, and reinforced thumb loops keep the sleeves covering your arms and hands up to your knuckles. All this attention to detail proves that this hoodie is an expert at keeping you covered.

A few features you won't find on this hoodie are a front zipper or pockets. That said, the loose fit allows for easy air circulation and more than makes up for the lack of a zipper, and we appreciate its light weight more than we missed having pockets. From thru-hiking to trail-building, the REI Sahara Shade Hoodie will keep you protected while looking and feeling great. However, if pockets and zippers are necessary, the 1/4 zip Outdoor Research Astroman Air Hoodie has a zippered chest pocket.

Read more: REI Co-op Sahara Shade Hoodie review

As the sun peaks over the horizon for another day of adventure, the Mountain Hardwear Canyon Long Sleeve is the shirt we reach for. Whether you're planning to work in the yard, bike commute, or go on a trail run followed by beers and tacos with friends, this shirt has you covered. It's versatile enough to excel at any mini-mission while still looking stylish, keeping you cool, and, most importantly, protecting you from the sun. Durability is also top-notch, making the Canyon a true all-around winner.

The Mountain Hardwear Canyon Long Sleeve pulls off this brilliant equilibrium using a few tactics. It has a looser fit than a regular shirt and employs a tough dobby weave fabric with a UPF 50 rating that's still light enough to be attractive and comfortable. It also has many features you'll find useful: buttons, pockets, and sleeves that can easily roll up and stay in place with the help of discreet tabs. Add your favorite wide-brim hat, and you're ready to wander on your own canyon adventure. We also like the similar style of the button-up Columbia Silver Ridge Utility Lite.

Read more: Mountain Hardwear Canyon Long Sleeve review

Protecting yourself from the sun should be a priority when setting out on your next adventure. If your budget is rather tight, the Baleaf UPF 50 Hoody is priced for you. The basics are covered with a price tag well below most others: 50+ UPF-rated fabric, a generous hood to protect your neck and head, and thumb loops to let the extra-long sleeves rest over your hands up to your knuckles. Sure, it's not the most fashionable accessory — the fit is quite relaxed — but knowing that you're avoiding a sunburn while on the water or on top of a mountain is comforting for mind and body.

There are a few details about the Baleaf Hoody we wish were more thoughtful. The hood tends to fly off in a slight breeze, and the fabric is thicker than most other shirts we've tested, making it a little less breathable. There's no anti-microbial treatment, so you'll want to wash this shirt regularly. But fret not; it's made of tough enough material to survive regular washings. Regarding value, this one is hard to beat, and we think you'll be pleased. If you'd prefer a cover-up that requires less laundering, check out the NRS Silkweight Hoodie with an antimicrobial-treated polyester/spandex blend. The Silkweight also has a loop and button hood closure, keeping it snug around your face in the wind.

Read more: Baleaf UPF 50 Hoody review

It's hard not to love all the high-octane horsepower of the Black Diamond Alpenglow Pro Hoody. The front half zip and lighter, more air-permeable mesh panels on the sides help solve the seemingly impossible paradox between breathability and sun protection. And this shirt is surprisingly breathable for how much sun protection the UPF 50+ rated fabric provides. All the usual sun hoody features abound in the Alpenglow Pro, including thumb loops, an oversized hood, a drop hem, and an extra long and loose cut in the torso. These features add up to one high-performance race car of a sun shirt.

But like any highly tuned gear, it comes with some sticker shock. The Black Diamond Alpenglow Pro is far more expensive than other similar options. You'll have to weigh the shirt's cost with its features to judge if the expected performance is worth the admission price. In our opinion, it's absolutely worth it if top-notch sun protection is at the top of your priorities. However, the Mountain Hardwear Crater Lake Hoody may suit your fancy if sun protection and saving money are both priorities.

Read more: Black Diamond Alpenglow Pro Hoody review

The Ketl Nofry Hoodie pulls off a feat we didn't think was possible: a hooded sun shirt that we feel extra breathable, comfortable, and dry wearing while we're out running, hiking, and cycling all day in the hot summer sun. The secret to its performance is its thin, breathable fabric. Although lighter weight than others, it's rated at UPF 30+, which still blocks 97% of the sun's radiation and is enough for us to be outside all day and not get burnt. The absolutely enormous hood will swallow up helmets of all kinds and cover up your exposed face better than most. Button snaps are found on the chest in lieu of a zipper — a lighter solution that we came to love.

But the Ketl Nofry won't pack the very best sun protection that's available, so if you are planning on being out on a glacier, on a sport fishing boat, or in the middle of the Mohave for days on end, you'd be better off wearing something that blocks out even more sun. The lack of pockets may turn off some, and an extra large hood does mean that wind gusts will blow it off your head. The cut is also pretty trim and athletic, which fits much tighter than most other shirts in this lineup: if you're between sizes, we recommend sizing up. If serious coverage and protection are tantamount, a pick like the Coolibar Andros Fishing Hoodie will give you some of the best.

Read more: Ketl Nofry Hoodie review

If a well-loved Coolibar Andros Fishing Hoodie could speak, it would tell you tall tales of all-day sunny summer days outside. Uncompromisingly designed to the last thread to help you avoid sunburn, no other sun shirt we've reviewed has so many features to help you keep covered, starting with the soft, four-way stretch UPF 50+-rated fabric. Like many other shirts in this review, it also sports a hoodie to cover your head but continues with a built-in gaiter/face mask to cover your head nearly completely. The extra-long sleeves end with enough cloth to cover your entire hand past your knuckle, helped out by a small loop to slide over your middle finger. The extra-long center back length complements everything we've listed, keeping your lower back covered while you bend down or reach up.

The Andros Fishing Hoodie isn't without its quirks. Being so focused on sun coverage and protection, it won't be the most versatile shirt in your closet. If you venture farther than outside the marina, prepare to look and feel like a fish out of water. The soft and stretchy fabric will also take a beating while in an unforecasted Nor'easter, but it won't breathe well if you go for the local FKT hill climb. Stick to life's simple, sunny pleasures, and this shirt will do you right. If you want a high-performing sun shirt that's comfortable and more breathable, check out the zip-neck Black Diamond Alpenglow Pro Hoody.

Read more: Coolibar Andros Fishing Hoodie review

Our testing process begins each time with extensive research on the hundreds of sun shirts on the market. We hand-picked the best candidates and purchased them at full retail cost. Then, we spent weeks wearing these shirts for every imaginable activity. We ran, hiked, biked, climbed, scrambled, wandered, slacklined, and napped — all under the eyes of the glorious sun. These sun shirts even made it onto job sites and lumberyards to see how effectively they worked while we worked. We noted each shirt's strengths and weaknesses in different scenarios and used that data to produce great advice to help you pick the best product for your needs and budget.

Justin Simoni is a Boulder, CO-based athlete, adventurer, and backpacking guide. He specializes in ultra-long distance, self-powered, and self-supported challenges in the mountains of the American West. Simoni has put these shirts to their limits while wandering all along the Front Range of Colorado on long bike rides, trail runs, outdoor workdays, and at the crag. He has worked closely with outdoor gear companies for over a decade, bringing his experience and expertise to the table.

UPF is an acronym for “Ultraviolet Protection Factor”. A higher UPF number will correspond to more protection from Ultraviolet radiation. A UPF of “50+” is the highest you'll ever realistically see on any clothing and equates to 1/50 or 98% of UV being blocked from reaching your skin. Similarly, a UPF of “20” corresponds to 1/20 or 95% UV blockage. All the sun shirts in this review are between UPF 20 and 50+. You can think of it similarly to SPF, but it's specific to clothing. Only clothing tested for its UPF should be labeled as such. Clothing that doesn't have a UPF associated with it doesn't mean it has no sun protection; it's just that the sun protection amount hasn't been tested/determined.

The main way a sun shirt protects the wearer from UV radiation is actually very simple: the fabric itself blocks sunlight from reaching your skin by absorbing or reflecting the light away. Sun shirts also try to cover as much of the wearer's skin as possible, often with extra long sleeves, torso lengths, and even included hoods. Some sun protection clothing may also contain an additional chemical treatment that absorbs UV light, but they generally wash out over time, making the garment less effective.

Several different fabric strategies are used to give sun shirts different qualities. Tightly woven fabric — often made of nylon — can be manufactured very thin and lightweight but still block out a lot of sunlight. Woven fabrics may also lack breathability, as air also cannot easily pass through either. You're most likely to see such fabrics in shirts made for activities like fishing, where you're likely to stand in one place for a long period of time, or as a swim shirt that also keeps you warmer in the water.

More breathable, knit fabrics — usually made of polyester — can also make a great fabric for a sun shirt. Often, knit fabric is thicker or even multilayered to compensate for that looser weave, but air and moisture have an easier time moving through it. For a small weight penalty, you may get better breathability and drying performance. These sun shirts are usually designed for wearing on the go: hiking, backpacking — or even on a run.

The color of a sun shirt can have an effect on sun protection as well. Darker colors will absorb more light than lighter ones, while the pigment particles themselves can contribute towards what the fabric physically blocks out. White sun shirts more than likely contain no pigment, so will add nothing to UPF. Black dye adds the most to the UPF rating. Darker colors can make for marginally hotter garments, though, as absorbing light transforms that light into heat. Additionally, the fabric itself can reflect the sun rather than absorbing it. The shinier the fabric, the more the fabric reflects light.

The answer to this depends on how much sun protection your skin naturally possesses, how long you plan on being out in the sun, and how intense the sun is at your location. For fairer-skinned people, on all-day adventures out in the sun, in locales with a high UV index, a higher UPF shirt may be the best choice. Our main tester comes from Northern European stock and loves to adventure all day in the — frequently snowy — mountains of Colorado, and a high UPF shirt is usually the best bet. If someone naturally tans easily and is only going out for a few hours at a time sporadically in a setting that's usually underneath heavy tree cover, they may be just fine with a lower UPF-rated shirt.

If you're at all worried about getting the most protection, aim for a UPF 50 or 50+ shirt to be on the safe side. Even though a UPF 20 shirt has only a little less protection than a UPF 50 shirt, the total amount of sun you're exposed to is multiplied by how many hours you're out each day you're out. It adds up!

Our review contains two main sun shirt designs. The first design looks much like a blousy button-up shirt. Usually, these button-ups utilize more sun-protective fabrics than a work or dress shirt and have multiple pockets to conveniently place often-used items. You'll probably want to pair these button-ups with a large-brimmed hat, as these shirts do not have anything for your head. They also tend to lack the extensive hand coverage of models with thumb holes. These shirts are a good option when style matters — like exploring upscale urban centers in summertime.

The second typical sun shirt design looks like a loose-fitting hoody and is typically made from lightweight fabrics. Like the button-ups, the fabric is chosen for its sun-blocking properties. The hood is attached to the shirt to allow you to conveniently always have a way to cover and protect your head. A few have helmet-compatible hoods (i.e., larger and with more coverage), and some even feature holes in the back for threading a ponytail through. Though not always, many of this style of sun shirt have thumb holes or some sort of loop to connect the ends of the sleeves to your hands, helping to keep your wrists and backs of your hands covered. Some of these hoodies have chest zippers and small pockets. This style is generally geared toward long hours in the sun when coverage matters more than appearance.

In general, the better the fabric is at sun protection, the worse it is for breathability. When you go to choose the best sunshirt for yourself, read reviews to learn how breathable it is. Often, sun shirts offset the poor breathability of the fabric by using front zippers, buttons, and snaps to allow you to open the shirt up to quickly expel hot and humid air off from your body. Button-up sun shirts are quite frequently less breathable than hooded sun shirts, so they tend to have ways to keep rolled-up sleeves from creeping down and may feature additional back vents. Generally, the lower the UPF rating of the sun shirt, the more breathable the fabric itself is, so balance how much sun protection you need with how much breathability you desire.

The primary job for all these seemingly simple shirts is to protect the wearer from excess exposure to the sun, be durable enough to make it through life's adventures, and offer enough breathability that it's realistic to wear in the hottest of situations. Versatility is also important — if one shirt can fulfill multiple roles, it's one less piece of gear you need to pack, which delights pack-weight-conscious folks. This is also important when you're trying to pack a bag with everything you'll need for a once-in-a-lifetime trip. We made sure to use each shirt in this review as thoroughly as our testing period would allow — read on to learn about what we discovered.

Value is of great importance and something we pay mind to when making our recommendations. Ultimately, we want to ensure you're investing in your gear wisely. However, since value is subjective, price never factors into our performance evaluations of each shirt. With some gear, the more you pay, the more you get — but that trade-off point is different for everyone. Here are some top, high-value options we stand behind:

The Baleaf UPF 50 Hoody is sold at a hard-to-beat price and bestows upon you a durable shirt that will last for many of your future adventures. While it doesn't quite compete with the more technical and feature-rich options from the big brand names, it's still a solid choice, especially if you're shopping on a budget. We've had ours for multiple years, and through all the adventures, the only wear and tear we've noticed is a slight fade of the yellow dye used.

The award-winning Mountain Hardwear Canyon Long Sleeve and REI Co-op Sahara Shade Hoodie cost more but offer better overall quality and performance. The Canyon is a traditional button-up that provides some of the best performance in our lineup. The Sahara Shade excels at almost all our metrics except absolute durability.

The most critical facet of any sun shirt is how it feels when it's on. After all, UPF protection won't mean much if the article of clothing it covers doesn't feel good to wear. Most every shirt we selected for our test largely did well in this category.

Our top-scoring hoodie, the REI Sahara Shade Hoodie, is an absolute winner. With soft, thin, and stretchy fabric and a loose-but-not-too-loose fit, this shirt feels good on the skin and lets air circulate. There are no tight spots, and the hood is highly versatile size-wise, with an excellent cinch strap.

The NRS Silkweight Hoodie's smooth fabric feels luxurious in hand and on the body, but its standout feature is the generous cut for your shoulders and arms. The appreciable amount of elastane in the fabric's blend also makes this one of the stretchiest shirts in our review. If you're aiming for a sunny day out paddling, rowing, or casting, you'll appreciate this frictionless mobility.

We were impressed by the Mountain Hardwear Canyon Long Sleeve and the Columbia Silver Ridge Utility Lite — two button-up shirts featuring an updated classic cut. Generally, this means the cut is slightly more fitted than the almost smock-like options that flood the market. Both felt great while wearing them, which made us want to wear them for everything. The Silver Ridge Utility Lite is going to fit a little more loosely than the Canyon.

The Outdoor Research Astroman button-up also rates high for comfort and fit, no doubt due to the very stretchy nylon/spandex blend of its fabric. This shirt works really well where mobility is tantamount — like at the climbing crag where gymnastic moves at the crag are a place where this shirt excels. You can also find this same stretchy fabric used in the Astroman Air Hoodie.

Regarding hooded sun shirts, it's really hard to beat the extremely stretchy and accommodating Black Diamond Alpenglow Hoody when it comes to comfort as well as its brethren, the Black Diamond Alpenglow Pro Hoody, which includes a front zip the former lacks.

UPF, or ultraviolet protection factor, is a rating system specific to apparel's ability to block ultraviolet radiation. The rating runs from zero to 50+, and each number indicates a percentage of the sun's rays allowed through. Thus, UPF 25 is 1/25th, meaning that 4% of the sun's radiation can pass through the fabric. It's one important factor but certainly not the only one.

Fabric type is another key to sun protection. Synthetics perform the best, while more natural garments, like something made out of bleached cotton, have a natural UPF rating of around 5. Polyester has been rated as the top option, with a few shirts in our lineup comprised of nylon. We're noticing a recent trend where companies are releasing more shirts that utilize stretchy fabrics, blending a spandex or elastane material into the polyester or nylon weave. Even with this blend, UPF ratings of 50 or 50+ are generally maintained. But be aware that the stretchy, elastic blend may need gentler laundering practices.

The cut and fit of a sun shirt also play a big role in ensuring you're protected. Many of the button-up shirts we've tested feature generous sleeve and seam lengths and collars that can be popped up. The hooded sun shirts (obviously) feature a hood to keep your head covered, and most have thumb loops to keep the sleeves partially over your hands.

Almost every shirt in this review does a great job in sun protection, and what's the “best” often comes down to physical coverage. The Coolibar Andros Fishing Hoodie is the most sun-protective shirt we've had the pleasure of testing. Sporting a hood, an integrated neck gaiter/face mask, and exceptionally long sleeves to cover up and over your knuckles, this is an impressive shirt. If maximum sun protection is your ultimate concern, seriously consider this sun shirt's capabilities. If the Coolibar's outrageous water-ninja look is too much, the more conventional NRS Silkweight is also genetically engineered, first and foremost, for the water.

Check out the Columbia Silver Ridge Utility Lite for button-up coverage, as it performs well in this metric. The fabric is tough and slightly more breathable than other button-ups we've tested, aided by features such as its pass-through back vent. If you're hanging around casually in the sun for hours on end, it's the shirt you want — as long as you pair it with a floppy hat. It's not a great shirt for active users, as it will probably cause you to overheat. It was designed for all-day fishing missions, where the sun reflects off the water, and you may be thigh-deep in a freezing creek.

For more active pursuits, consider the button-up Mountain Hardwear Canyon Long Sleeve, which boasts a high UPF 50 rating but features a thinner, more breathable fabric and most of the bells and whistles you'll need and want. The NRS Silkweight has a phenomenally large stretchy hood that easily accommodates a paddling or climbing helmet to keep you covered all day. Although we will drown the Outdoor Research Echo with accolades, one we cannot bestow upon it is absolute sun protection. This extremely breathable fabric used only has a UPF 20 rating for the darker colorways.

For casual and fashionable, the The North Face Adventure Hoodie and the Cotopaxi Sombra Hoodie have you literally covered. Both feature soft, stretchy fabric that protects by being a little thicker than some of the other hoodies in our lineup.

A shirt won't be much fun to wear in the sun if it feels like you're wearing a wet blanket 30 minutes into your hike. And on top of that, some fabrics become less protective when wet. Thankfully, polyester and nylon — which almost all of the shirts in this review are made from — aren't one of them.

Most of the shirts in our test dried equally quickly when left to the sun after a soaking. But one standout, the Outdoor Research Echo, dried far more rapidly thanks to its very thin, lightweight fabric and minimalist design. The UPF 20-rated fabric is one of the lowest in terms of sun protection, so it's not what you want to rely on solely if you're going to be in the sun for long periods.

Compared to others we've tested, the Ketl Nofry Hoodie is another quick-drying top, be it after a wash, after a swim, or after a particularly long and sweaty hike across exposed lowlands. It also has a V-neck that can be unbuttoned for quick ventilation when you need it.

In our real-world tests, we were amazed to see the Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily Hoody go from soaking wet after a dip in the local creek to completely dry after a quick bike ride down the hill and back into town, thanks to its own lissom fabric. A fabric's air permeability also helps it resist odor by letting air easily pass through. Specialized treatments — such as the HeiQ Pure, 'permanent' odor control used on the Capilene — performed well in our campfire smoke test.

The Kuhl Engineered Hoody is another great pick for more active pursuits. It employs panels of looser knit fabric in strategic locations (arms, shoulders, and hood), allowing air to pass through more easily, keeping you cooler. Do note that this shirt's ratings of UPF 20+ to UPF 25+, block around 96% of the sun's UV rays — but are lower than most other shirts in our review.

The Black Diamond Alpenglow Pro Hoody is made with a much thicker and, thus, more protective fabric, but it still has some interesting tricks up its sleeves. The most obvious is the half zip on the front. The sides of the chest and inner arms also feature a more ventilating mesh material to help dump excess heat. The stretchy fabric of the shirt also makes rolling up your sleeves over your elbows to catch the breeze simply a breeze.

If you don't need so many bells and whistles, the non-Pro version of the Black Diamond Alpenglow Hoody drops them but keeps the super-stretchy material to help keep you cool and comfortable. It also lacks thumb loops, though, so if that's a dealbreaker, the comparable Mountain Hardwear Crater Lake Hoody is what you want to grab.

Can you wear the same shirt to the crag and the dinner table? Can you go to work in the morning, then go fishing in the evening without changing your top? Can you backpack for six days and then check out the next mountain town in the morning without having to pack two shirts? Can you travel cross country, make the regional board meeting, and then take off on a trail run? Those are the scenarios we're thinking up when we write about versatility. This doesn't contribute as much to the overall scores as other metrics, as it's rather subjective. But it's still an important facet for many folks to consider. Many of the top performers in this category are button-ups, which can pass undetected as regular shirts by casual observers.

The Mountain Hardwear Canyon Long Sleeve scored high in this category thanks to its unique dobby polyester, which looks and feels great, especially in the neutral, sleek color option we tested. The Columbia Silver Ridge Utility Lite also looks good, feels good, and has just enough features to make it useful on and off the trail without looking too weighed down with accessories no one really needs.

The Outdoor Research Astroman Air Hoodie may have been designed for long days of multi-pitch climbing first. Still, a shirt that's good for climbing usually works admirably for almost any all-day outdoor adventure, as well as looking good back at the campsite, brewpub, or Sprinter party while swapping stories. With a quick rinse, then left to dry out while taking a nap, you could take this shirt on a cross-country backpacking trip and still feel comfortable on the flight back home.

Patagonia's Capilene Cool Daily Hoody is also worth mentioning here. It simply looks great, in our opinion, and we wouldn't feel strange wearing it off-trail to casual events or just when hanging out around the house all day. The REI Sahara Shade Hoodie carefully balances great sun protection, style, features, breathability, and value, making it work well in many applications. It's hard to doubt that this shirt is nothing but a wise investment in the goal of avoiding sunburn.

A sleeper shirt in this category, the Helly Hansen Lifa Active Solen Hoodie looks great. Its baked-in, unique anti-odor and cooling technology can help you go from trail to table without anyone getting a whiff of you and losing their appetite for hors d'oeuvres.

Fabric integrity matters in a sun shirt because worn and loose material exposes the skin to a greater risk of UV radiation. Thankfully, testing revealed most of our shirts could hold up to what was thrown at them with no problems.

The Baleaf UPF 50 Hoody is a knockout regarding durability. It's what the cockroaches will be wearing after the apocalypse. Durability and sun protection often go hand in hand when the material used is thick, and that's the case with the Baleaf.

If you're looking for a button-up with similar durability, the Columbia PFG Super Tamiami shares many of the same characteristics of the Baleaf UPF 50 Hoody, and durability is one of them. Utilizing a burly, thicker, and less breathable fabric than other options, it's firmly in the “traditional” camp of shirts we've tested.

For an extremely feature-rich hooded sun shirt with exceptional durability, the Coolibar Andros Fishing Hoodie is something to consider. The tough fabric is made to last through long seasons of choppy seas. The fabric is a little thicker than other shirts we've tested, which helps with its sun protection qualities, and almost every panel of fabric is stitched with reinforcing flatlock seams.

Fishing shirts excel at durability, and the NRS Silkweight also uses a heavier fabric that'll take some abuse from its wearer. The material is also soft, ultra stretchy, and comfortable for being one of the heavier shirts we've reviewed (against its nomenclature).

The Cotopaxi Sombra Hoodie also scored well in durability, mostly because of its excellent stitch work and quality fabrics. It has an additional lining at the bottom, cuffs, and around its hood, and keeps features to a minimum, having a simple and small back pocket as its only real accouterment.