Making Great Performance T-Shirts

A black garbage bag stuffed with dozens of our best attempts at an incredible, technical t-shirt sits like a burial ground of sorts on the floor of our headquarters in New York City.

I abused those shirts hiking, biking, and the rest of my everyday life for days at a time. I really wanted to love each and every one of those shirts. But none survived what I put them through.

They showed sweat stains. The fabric started to pill – you know, those tiny fuzzy balls you see on sweaters when they start getting worn out. And after a while, they started smelling like the wrong car on the subway.

I love a beautiful cotton t-shirt because it’s soft and looks great with a blazer. But I want a performance tee that will stretch and wick sweat when I move. Not to mention, my clothes have to perform double-duty when I travel.

It drove me mad having to choose between one or the other. I couldn’t find a performance t-shirt that looked elegant. And anti-microbial enough to wear for days on end.

I went through over 100 of the most advanced tech shirt prototypes and competitor fabrics on the market.

Yes, 100. And yes, it took a long, long time. Two years. And nothing met my standards.

Except one.

So here it is, no matter what you’re doing, the only t-shirt you need, and wearable proof that technical can be beautiful.

You won’t want to take it off – and you don’t have to.

Meet the Fabric

What makes the Threshold T-Shirt unique is that we were finally able to make a shirt with a soft, natural handfeel, ideal for any casual setting, while being no-holds-barred performance-ready.

It was critical that we make a wicking t-shirt that dries quickly and moves moisture away from the body. And has the perfect amount of stretch for movement, without looking drapey.

But also, because I expect all of my garments to be wearable for multiple days, we required superior prevention from odor. We accomplished this thanks to bacteria-killing gold and silver nanoparticles embedded into the fabric.

And the Threshold T-Shirt does all this with embedded, woven technology. So no matter how long you own it, it won’t let you down.

Material is polyester blended with Lyocell and Elastane for softness and stretch.
Designed with heat-press labels for the comfort that comes with a tag-free t-shirt.
UPF 50+ in every color provides sun protection for the guy on the go.
Hyper light-weight material makes it as easy to fit into your bag as on your torso.
And, of course, it is machine washable and resists wrinkles like nobody’s business.

The result is a single everyday or travel t-shirt that you’ll love. What used to be two categories of elegant t-shirts and my workout gear have finally became one.

The Threshold Performance T-Shirt comes in five colors – Peak White, Deep Orange, Hurricane Grey, Mist Grey, and Maritime Blue. We picked these colors to fit in great with the rest of your wardrobe, and they coordinate with our Chino pants, Departure Jeans, Meridian Dress Shirt, Horizon Quilted Vest, and Gramercy Blazer for a range of casual looks.

Breaking the Threshold

All this is to say: normally, a t-shirt is just a t-shirt. That is, until it becomes something no one expects.

We’ve heard your requests for men’s performance t-shirts over the years, but I didn’t want to launch one until it was the right one.

Now we’ve finally made one worthy of joining the Bluffworks line, and I can’t wait to hear what you think of it. It will be available for preorder in a few weeks – sign up to be the first to hear:

Bluff on,

Stefan Loble