And why they matter on the water
NO ONE LIKES SUNSCREEN
The sunscreen fishing ritual: Squeeze out a greasy glob, smear it around, spend ten minutes trying to rub it in, wipe the excess on your pants, realize you just stained your favorite fishing pants, curse yourself, repeat every three hours.
Sunscreen’s essential, but it also kind of sucks. Some types make you look like Casper the Friendly Ghost, others leave you feeling dipped in used fryer oil. We’ve all missed a spot—your upper back, the tops of your ears, that strip of skin between your glove and your sleeve. Back in the bad old days when we relied on sunscreen alone, you would often end the day looking like a topographic map of sun damage.
For anglers spending six, eight, ten hours in direct sun—often on reflective water that doubles your UV exposure—comfortable, well-designed high-UPF clothing gives you more coverage and consistency than sunscreen. The fewer areas you need to slather with goo, the better.
what UPF actually means
Sun protective clothing uses the acronym UPF to show how effective it is at blocking UV rays. That can be confusing, because most of us are accustomed to seeing SPF on sunscreen bottles. Though similar, those two acronyms are not the same. Let's break down what these terms mean and why they matter.
UPF stands for Ultraviolet Protection Factor. It measures how much UV radiation a fabric blocks. A UPF 50 garment blocks 98 percent of UV rays, allowing just 2 percent through. Standard cotton t-shirts typically test around UPF 5 to 10, meaning roughly 20 percent of UV radiation passes through to your skin, and that’s when the shirt is dry. Wet cotton is worse.
Now, compare UPF to sunscreen's SPF (Sun Protection Factor) rating. SPF describes how long you can theoretically be out in the sun without getting burned. Assuming you apply sunscreen perfectly, SPF 30 would allow you to rock sun's out guns out 30 times longer without burning.
Unfortunately, sunscreen starts to lose effectiveness after 90 minutes and is essentially useless after 180 minutes, no matter how high the SPF number. SPF also only measures protection from UVB rays—the rays primarily responsible for sunburn. UVA rays penetrate more deeply into the skin causing long-term skin aging and increased cancer risk. Most sunscreens labeled "broad spectrum" do offer some UVA protection, but UPF-rated fabrics are tested against the full UV spectrum—both UVA and UVB radiation—and provide consistent, measurable results.
reliability and comfort
Two practical advantages of high-UPF clothing over sunscreen alone are comfort and consistency. Sunscreen degrades. It sweats off, wipes off, and washes off. Reapplication is easy to forget when you're having fun and don’t feel like restoring that whole body greasy feeling.
A quality UPF garment gives you full spectrum protection all day no matter how much you sweat or swim. It doesn't require reapplication. It protects every inch of skin it covers, without gaps, without degradation, and without mess.
The other argument for high-UPF technical clothing is comfort. Well-designed warm weather fishing apparel, like Skwala’s Sol Collection, moves heat away from your body while blocking infrared light (aka heat). In the baking sun, you'll feel significantly cooler in our lightweight UPF 50 hoodies than you would in a cotton t-shirt, and you’ll be far better protected from UVA and UVB radiation.
you still need sunscreen
We don’t make a full body Sol suit (yet). Sol hoodies will cover the vast majority of your upper body, especially if you keep the hood up, the thumb loops down, and add Sol Gloves to your kit, but you still need to apply sunscreen to uncovered areas like your face. (Also, if you’re wearing sandals, don’t forget the tops of your feet.) Good quality, high-UPF clothing is your sun armor. Sunscreen is the chain mail that covers the gaps.