In this alpaca shopping guide you'll find some favorite brands and products, as well as pros and cons of wearing this kind of wool!
Are you interested in wearing more natural fibers when you're out in the elements? We've taken a number of wool items out backpacking to see how they hold up.
In this alpaca shopping guide, we'll point you to our favorite brands, as well as answer some common questions about wearing wool!
Alpaca Shopping Guide: Our Favorite Products at a Glance
- Arms of Andes short sleeve t-shirt and ultralight long sleeve t-shirt
- Arms of Andes heavyweight hoodie
- Arms of Andes heavyweight half-zip
- Arms of Andes men's boxers and women's underwear
- Hollow ankle socks and crew socks
- Paka "The Hoodie"
- Paka women's underwear (for travel, not for hiking)
Looking for a specific brand review? Click on the brand you're looking for below:
Alpaca Pros
It dries fast. Crazy fast. It also resists odors, almost impossibly well. It’s excellent at helping with body temperature regulation.
If those all sound like the same benefits touted about merino wool, you’re correct. Except I’d argue that alpaca does it all better.
Alpaca Shopping Guide Tips
Remember that, almost without exception, the alpaca brands we've tried are extremely small businesses. (Yay, we love supporting small businesses!)
Because these businesses are tiny, check your expectations. Returns likely cost a fee, and responses to customer service inquiries will likely be timely but less instant than with a big box store.
Expect a small selection and fewer color options than with merino wool. It's also common to see items go in and out of stock.
Alpaca Cons
When I read negative reviews on alpaca products, two things stand out: durability and itchiness. Let’s discuss both.
Durability
Alpaca garments are absolutely more delicate than synthetics, and also (in my experience) more fragile than most merino wool clothing.
If you decide to purchase an alpaca product, commit to taking care of it. This typically includes washing sparingly on delicate (it’s highly odor resistant anyway) and laying flat or hanging to dry.
Itchiness
Wool is (or used to be?) notoriously itchy.
Some people are allergic to merino wool because of lanolin, a waxy substance from the sheep. Since alpacas don’t produce lanolin, any itch is (likely) from the fibers tickling your skin instead of from an allergy. Of course, everyone is different, and don’t continue wearing something that’s making you miserable.
That said, and allergies aside, alpaca can be incredibly soft and cozy. It can also be so itchy that it makes you want to tear your skin off. I speak from experience.
In my opinion, the brands listed below do not make overly “itchy” clothing, but I have seen reviews from some who thought their items were itchy. In my experience, even if an alpaca clothing item feels itchy at first, the garment will likely soften and stop bothering you over a few wears.
However, that’s just my experience, and everyone’s skin is different. If it matters, I tend to be very sensitive to itchy fabrics.
Alpacas of Montana
This small brand is located in Bozeman, Montana. Instead of importing alpaca wool, they have their own small farm, which you can even tour!
This brand is newer to us, and we’ve only recently begun testing their items out, but we’ve found some we really like!
Favorites:
- Quarter socks. These come in fun colors, which I hadn’t seen yet in alpaca socks. They feel the most like my tried and true Hollow alpaca socks, and dry fairly quickly. (Both the endurance socks and the Hollow ankle socks dry faster though.)
- Endurance socks. These have lots of heel cushion, and more elastic through the foot than their standard quarter socks. My husband really liked these socks, and appreciated the heel cushioning. (I’m not a fan of heel cushioning, but that’s a personal preference.) They felt nice on, and dried as quickly as the Hollow socks (despite the extra cushioning).
What else we tried:
- Running socks. These were cut low on the ankle (like no-show socks), and we could feel our sneakers rubbing against our skin with them on, so we worried about blisters.
They also took the longest to air-dry (compared to Hollow socks and the other two Alpacas of Montana socks we tried). - Performance t-shirts. These come in actual fun colors and look more like traditional athletic wear.
We liked how soft felt, but the boxy cut of the shirt seemed less flattering than our usual Arms of Andes t-shirts. After washing and lay-flat drying, they seemed to shrink lengthwise, becoming more boxy. However if you prefer a wider boxy cut, these may be a great option!
Arms of Andes
Arms of Andes is a small, family-owned business, and we already did a full review on their products here, so we'll keep this to our top picks.
We’ve been very impressed with almost every single Arms of Andes item we tried. Their clothing has become a staple in our hiking wardrobe, and I love that their tops, hoodies and half-zips all easily double as casual wear.
One of my favorite things about Arms of Andes is definitely how well the tops help with temperature regulation, which is something I struggle with.
Their t-shirts have helped keep me comfortable in humid, 90+ degree heat and the long sleeve tops and hoodies have been extremely warm in damp frigid cold.
And my other favorite thing is how little odor they retain. It’s absolutely incredible how little these shirts smell, especially when you air them out. They are perfect for multi-day backpacking trips.
I’ve also been impressed with how transparent Arms of Andes has been about how their wool is treated, what fibers are used for the thread, and what they’re doing to try and improve even more to be as sustainable as possible. Listen to an interview with the owners here.
Favorites:
- Arms of Andes short sleeve t-shirt and ultralight long sleeve t-shirt. I like the men's t-shirt for a unisex fit and the women's t-shirt for a more fitted shirt.
- Arms of Andes heavyweight hoodie
- Arms of Andes heavyweight half-zip
- Arms of Andes men's boxers and women's underwear
Hollow Socks
I quite honestly cannot say enough good things about Hollow socks.
We have worn them on some cold, wet and long hikes and trail runs, and have nothing but positive things to say. In fact, these are the socks that made me switch from merino to alpaca for my long, wet or cold hikes.
My husband wore them (paired with some non-waterproof Altra Lone Peaks) on our extraordinarily rainy Art Loeb backpacking trip. I wore waterproof shoes and merino socks. When the trail flooded and both our feet got wet, his were the ones that stayed blister-free. (Mine did not.)
We both wore them in Iceland and our feet stayed warm and dry. Despite multiple water crossings and persistently wet feet, my husband finished a recent 50K trail run blister free. He also packed extra Hollow socks in his race day drop bag.
While your experience may vary, of course, these are now the socks we swear by.
Paka
Quite honestly, I hesitated to try Paka initially, mainly because of the percentages of wool to other fabric I saw in some of their garments. However, I heard good things from readers about Paka and I'm happy I gave them a shot, because we ended up absolutely loving some of their items.
Paka Pros:
Paka makes some of the absolute softest, coziest alpaca garments we tried. Hands down. They weren’t itchy at all, and they made me want to snuggle up on the couch with a blanket.
Possible Paka Cons:
Some (but not all) of Paka's garments contained low alpaca percentages (the percentage of alpaca wool to other fibers in the garment). And that’s absolutely fine, as long as you know that’s what you’re buying and are happy with the percentages.
We noted that the items we tried took longer to air dry after washing than other 100% alpaca items we tried (such as the Arms of Andes half-zip or hoodie), likely because of the other fibers blended into the alpaca.
Favorites:
- Classic hoodie. Guys, I love this hoodie so much that I didn’t take it off for days after it arrived. I was actually ill when it arrived and I wrapped myself up in this hoodie and slept. It also seems to have longer sleeves than the Arms of Andes hoodie, so if you have extremely long arms this might be a better option for you.
- Paka underwear. So far I’m really happy with these. They seem less delicate than the Arms of Andes underwear, but still extremely odor resistant. I likely will not wear them on long, vigorous hikes because they do take longer to air-dry than other alpaca underwear I’ve tried, probably because they only contain 14% alpaca and quite a bit of cotton.
What else we tried:
- Paka women’s bra. The bra is not adjustable so it would have to fit just right, but happily I liked the fit. On a larger chest (C cup or above), this is going to likely be a low support bra. I found it incredibly comfy for lounging, but not supportive enough for a brisk walk. (For a supportive natural fiber bra, my current recommendations are the Ridge merino send-it bra or the Branwyn busty bra.)
- Paka’s trail ankle socks. These weren’t bad, but the fabric was SO THIN that they felt more like a dress sock, and it just wasn’t our favorite to wear with trail runners.
Are there any other brands we should try besides the ones in this alpaca shopping guide? Let us know in the comments!
Leave a Comment: