Review of Desoto Cool Wings Arm Coolers

Update October 2009: Be sure to read the comments on this post.    Some folks do like them.   One guy in Nevada, so I was thinking maybe humidity had something to do with it.  But then someone else chimed in from Miami that they like them, and I’m guessing Miami is humid like North Corolina.  I did get a full refund on them (minus shipping costs, which seemed fair).

Original Post, dated July 2009:

I recently purchased a pair of Desoto Cool Wings Arm coolers. They look like arm warmers, but with a section that goes across your shoulders connecting the two arm pieces. They are white, and made of a fabric that is supposed to have a cooling affect on the skin.

I purchased them from the Trisports.com website. I wanted them for my upcoming long bike rides for B2B training…mostly to protect my skin from so much sun exposure. I figure sunscreen plus fabric = good protection.  Problem is, they felt HOT.  Just to be sure, I tested them under several conditions.

Bike Test #1, with wings
The first test was at an Inside Out Sports Training ride a week ago. I wore my favorite old tri top, with the wings over them. It was 90 degrees at 6pm. I was hot and uncomfortable for the entire ride. Especially when I was going hard and sweating. At one stoplight, I was able to pull them off and tuck them away. I immediately felt so much cooler.

Bike Test #2, no wings
A couple of days later, I went out for a midday ride, with a short sleeve bike jersey on, in 95 degree heat and sunny.  No cool wings, just bare arms.  I felt comfortable the entire ride.   So, in my opinion, bare skin feels better than the cool wings.

Run Test
I decided to test them out on a hot run.  It was 90+ temperature, midday, full sun. I live in NC and we’ve had it hot lately. I have acclimated to the heat, and it doesn’t bother me much.

Here are pictures of my run test.  Further details below:

Before running, I doused the wings with 16 ounces of tap water. The cool wings did feel very cool when they were wet.    However, the wetness only lasted about 6 minutes. Then I felt very very hot.   Since I can only carry just enough water for drinking during the run, I could not douse the fabric with water in order to cool myself off.

After 2 miles, I took one sleeve off, and tucked it into my shirt. That way, I could compare the bare arm with the covered arm. The bare arm felt cooler than the covered arm.

A mile later, I swapped which arm was bare and which was covered, just in case the direction of the sun was a factor.    The arm that had been tucked into my shirt, had picked up sweat dripping from my face. So it felt cooler than the bare arm. For a few minutes, that is!  As soon as it dried off, the covered arm felt much hotter than the bare arm.

Sunscreen Factor
Before heading out on the run, I used my Sunblock Face stick to draw an X on each arm. That was the only suncreen I used that day. I wanted to test how the fabric worked as a sunscreen. I was running for about 50 minutes.   I half expected to see an X sunburned into my arms.  Nope!   I had no sunburn whatsoever that day.  (Still, if you use these things, I would use full sunscreen underneath them, just to be doubly safe).

My conclusion is that these are no good for training. They do feel cool when they are wet. But if  a training day is so hot that I would need these, then I also need to be drinking alot of water. I cannot carry enough water to douse myself every 6 minutes, on top of meeting my hydration needs.   And apparently, I don’t sweat at all out of my arms.  Only from  my head and face.   I would be curious to hear if others do sweat enough from their arms for these cool wings to work.

They might be good for really hot races, Kona for example.   Perhaps you could run through aid stations and douse yourself with water to get the cooling affect. But you better be able to run fast, because they dry off in about 6 minutes!

I am really bummed that they aren’t going to work for my long hot sunny bike rides.    Sunscreen alone just doesn’t cut it for 6 hours in the North Carolina sunshine.