Dreamspun Merino Cut One T-Shirt

An ultralight dream of a merino t-shirt experiment [#591], spun with nylon to new levels of relative durability. Clocking in at just 110gsm, the experimental new Dreamspun fabric combines 79% super soft 16.5 micron top-capped merino with 21% nylon filaments to ratchet up the durability for its weight. Cut One is our classic cut, straight and long.

Now available in Midnight Black and Dust Olive

Dreamspun Merino Cut Two T-Shirt

An ultralight dream of a merino t-shirt experiment [#592], spun to new levels of relative durability. Clocking in at just 110gsm, the experimental new Dreamspun fabric combines 79% super soft 16.5 micron top-capped merino with 21% nylon filaments to ratchet up the durability for its weight. Cut Two is our box cut, squared out with broad-shoulders and a high neck.

Now available in Midnight Black and Dust Olive

Futurebigflowers - Expected Tuesday, May 19th, 1pm NYC.

Dreamspun Merino Halfdome

An ultralight dream of a merino sun hoodie experiment[#593] with a less-is-more approach to the hood. Designed to be worn in conjunction with a hat, the halfdome hood protects the neck and ears while leaving the front exposed. Because why cover what a hat will anyway? Sewn in the 110gsm experimental new Dreamspun fabric that combines 79% super soft 16.5 micron top-capped merino with 21% nylon filaments to ratchet up the durability for its weight.

Now available in Dust Olive and Midnight Black

Futurebigflowers

A big, long and flowing pleated short experiment [#589]. A short cut so long some people even call them pants. Two forward facing 3” pleats at the elastic waistband ratchet up the volume of lightweight and strong Futurecloth utilized. An inside-outside paracord + 3Bar drawcord system, key loop and big fifth pocket round out the details.

Now available in Black

Hi folks! I wanted to post a review of Outlier’s nycogaze tees. Unlike my recent reviews, I did not receive a review unit, I bought these shirts. 

Tl;dr Nycogaze fucking rocks for hot weather and travel, but it’s expensive. The new cut is even better. 

Photo gallery here.

Sizing

I typically take medium in outlier tops. I’m 5’9 and 170-180lb. In the cut two tees, I have sizes M, L, and XL (2025). L (2025) probably fit me best, but even XL worked (just a bit too long). In the 2025 run, M could feel a bit too snug. In 2026 the cut was made a bit wider and shorter. So I take medium in the 2026 run. I think the 2026 run is by far the best in terms of sizing. Taking L and XL in prior runs didn't necessarily work best for my torso length (I was sizing based on comfort rather than aesthetics).

Fabric and Such

Nycogaze is basically gauze: sheer, extremely thin, stretchy, and surprisingly rough to the touch. 

I am at a point where I resent wearing basically anything except nycogaze as a base layer in the summer. I live in New York City, and it’s humid as fuck here – our climate is apparently now considered subtropical. I do not handle extreme heat very well, and I did not realize until relatively recently how much my clothing can influence my heat tolerance. Nycogaze lets me handle sauna weather much, much better than other materials I’ve tried. 

My first experience with it was a tight tank (TTS), and I hated the abrasive handfeel against skin. Fortunately, the looser cuts solve that problem for me. In the Cut Two and Loose Tank, the fabric has enough room to float away from the body, which makes it dramatically more comfortable. I think nycogaze works best in looser cuts. 

I find nycogaze handles humidity very well. Nycogaze is absorbent, but unlike 100% cotton I find that it dries super fast. Even if I’m sweating a ton while out and about, the shirt doesn’t feel wet for very long.

Even outside of extreme heat, nycogaze is an excellent base layer—so long as I have layering options, I’d feel comfortable wearing it anywhere from 55-100+F. When I travel to warmer climates, I like wearing a nycogaze tee underneath a hoodie on the plane. Nycogaze packs down to basically nothing—you can fit 2-3 tees in the space of one normal cotton shirt—and it weighs almost nothing. Unlike merino, it doesn’t have rewearability, but I personally hate wearing merino tees above ~65F anyway, so they’re not really competing. 

I don’t baby these shirts at all. Mine go through wash-and-fold services, meaning warm wash and full high-heat drying unless I pay extra to stop them. So far they’ve handled the nuclear treatment just fine, and the 2025 run doesn’t seem to shrink at all. That said, I wouldn’t call nycogaze durable. I wouldn’t wear it hiking through dense brush or around pets with sharp claws, and there’s at least one Discord horror story involving someone destroying a shirt with a seam ripper while trying to remove the lightning label.

On transparency: The white color of this shirt is, well, pretty damn sheer. Outlier product copy mentions you’ll see tattoos through it. You are also gonna have visible nipples, lmao (nipplegaze). For every other color, though, this isn’t really a concern. So, I wouldn’t wear the white shirt by itself for work or to meet my girlfriend’s dad. Still a great white summer tee though, and you can easily wear a lightweight button down over it. 

Gripes (Mostly Other People's Gripes)

The only negative thing I have to say about the nycogaze tees relates to branding. The Outlier swan logo on the back of the neck is pretty visually apparent from the back and I don’t think it is an aesthetic benefit. Though I guess if I had to choose between the lightning label and the circle-on-back, I’d choose the latter. The lightning label isn’t something I hate in all forms—I think it looks cool on the deux back pocket and on the warmshirt front pocket—but on nycogaze tees, I notice it sometimes rubbing against my side when lying down/sleeping. Ordinarily I’d just seam rip the label off, but I don’t trust myself to do that with a shirt this fragile. 

Oh, and I think the loose tank is much better than the muscle tank. Oh well.

There’s been some Discord debate about whether nycogaze is safe for gym use. I lift in it all the time without issues, but I also don’t do exercises where barbell knurling would scrape directly against the fabric. For cardio or lifting without barbell contact, I think it’s fantastic: it stays comfortable while sweaty and dries quickly. The only mildly unpleasant experience I’ve had was occasionally feeling the rough fabric rub against skin, one time, while doing incline bicep curls. So IME they're good for the gym. That being said, I wouldn't treat these as like dedicated "gym shirts" per se (pretty expensive shirts for just one short use); I work out in the mornings, so I wear nycogaze tees for a day/sleep in them and then wake up and wear it to the gym.

The other perpetual Discord gripe revolves around “bacon collar,” i.e., the collar of these shirts being wavy/crumpled. I just do not give a shit about this. I haven’t really noticed the issue with my own shirts, but I admit I don’t think about it very much. When I have noticed it it’s on my larger shirts (XLs). You can see in the pics here that it’s not really happening much; I didn’t select photos specifically based on collar waviness, either. To the extent that it does happen, though, I think that's just the nature of the super-lightweight material.

Comparisons

Although Outlier recommends ramielust for hot and humid, I really don’t find that ramie wears that much cooler / better for me than nycogaze in humidity. I have one ramielust tank, and I like it, but I have no desire for any more items in that fabric. By contrast, I had like 10 nycogaze shirts earlier this year and picked up more in the 2026 drop. The other Outlier material maybe worth mentioning is overkill mesh. In my experience, the temp ceiling of OKM is lower than nycogaze (around 90F max), and in direct sunlight I often feel like it starts to really absorb heat and transfer it to me. Love OKM, but if it’s a scorcher, I won’t reach for it. 

I think the main 'competitor fabric' outside of Outlier is probably just synthetics made for exercise. I admit I don't have a ton of experience with these so I'll just refrain from saying much there except that nycogaze probably handles long-term stink better while also being much more expensive.

Value

A few years ago, the idea of paying serious money for t-shirts would have sounded insane to me. Merino was probably the gateway drug. Now here I am, writing: “The shirt that costs triple digits and is meant to be worn only in the summer is really worth it, I promise!”

So what is my price sensitivity for nycogaze? I never buy it retail without the BBE discount (~$104), and ideally I combine it with the private sale or Upfront discount (~$90). Several were obtained secondhand for prices between $50-75. I apparently wrote 9 months ago that I owned 3 shirts and wanted 10. Well, now I own 13 and am thinking about more… 

Personally, I’d love to see the nycogaze C2 dip below $100 at retail. Part of the issue is positioning. Brands like LWC sell MiUSA cotton tees at $50–60 each in two packs, while Merz occupies the “luxury cotton” lane around $120. Don’t kill me, Abe—a lot of consumers are going to look at “70% cotton” and think, “Where’s my 30% discount?” I obviously don’t feel that way, but I do think it affects how people evaluate the product. I wonder whether something like 2-packs or steeper multi-item BBE discounts (at 5? 7?) could broaden the audience. 

Conclusion

If you can afford to get nycogaze, and you live in a climate where you regularly deal with intense heat, I can’t recommend it strongly enough. If I ever feel this stuff is in danger of becoming unavailable for good, I will be hoarding it like a doomsday prepper with canned beans. 

Nycogaze Longsleeve

A longsleeve t-shirt contemplating nothingness. Cotton is wrapped around a nylon filament core and enzyme cleaned to create a hyper-light cotton jersey that combines a dry open airiness with a solidly respectable durability. Bulk buy eligible.

Now available in Mauvegauze, Blackgauze, Shadowgauze and Whitegauze

I’ve got a few pairs of f.cloth pants and they all tend to do this. Was just curious if there’s any way to relax this upward puckering of the material at the side seams. I see this in the images on the website as well so I assume that’s just how it is. It’s the only thing really preventing me from trying to dress up these pants a bit more.

Any other jean would’ve needed replacing 3x by this point. Convinced that these things are going to last forever.

Nycogaze Cut Two T-Shirt

A t-shirt contemplating nothingness. Cotton is wrapped around a nylon filament core and enzyme cleaned to create a hyper-light cotton jersey that combines a dry open airiness with a solidly respectable durability. Cut Two is our box cut, squared out with broad-shoulders and a high neck. Bulk buy eligible.

Now available in Shadowgauze, Whitegauze, Blackgauze and Mauvegauze

Nycogaze Longsleeve - Expected Tuesday, May 12th, 1pm NYC.

My quest to collect em all of my favorite (discontinued 😭) pants continues with a mystery eBay purchase of a new-to-me SD color

Left to Right, all Slim Dungarees colors I’m quite certain of:
- Bluetint Gray
- Midindigo
- ???
- Zinc
- Olive Gray

Help me identify the middle ones!

Nycogaze Cut Two T-Shirt - Expected Tuesday, May 12th, 1pm NYC.