I tried five different brands, from $40 to $120; only one was decently comfortable (most were itchy, stretched weirdly and were uncomfortable) and the extra burden of washing and maintenance, not to mention cost, made them a non-starter.

For $5 a shirt, Gildan 100% cotton v-neck t-shirts allow you to buy a couple dozen and rotate through them for years.

That's where I'm currently at, I wanted to love wool, but I just didn't. I've had it on my list to give linen a shot.

Interesting, I haven’t found any of them to be itchy, but maybe some are more sensitive to it them than others. Do you remember which you tried? I like the linen shirts I’ve tried for hot weather, but haven’t tried many yet. Luca Faloni makes nice linen dress shirts.

Outlier was by far the most comfortable, but $120 per shirt and fairly fragile.

Woolly, Icebreaker, Minus33, and I forget the other brand. These were all very bad, I kept the Icebreaker for a couple wears, but everything else I immediately returned.

Same experience here. Bought a couple for 60 usd each at amazon. Way more comfortable and keep fresh longer than synthetic/cotton t-shirts.

Yeah, completely counterintuitive if your mental association growing up is with super hot sweaters.

Exactly this. Every man made fibre makes me sweat buckets. I don’t sweat at all in merino.

Any brand recommendations?

I’m currently trying Duckworth, I’ve been liking them. They’re a bit of a novelty in that the entire shirt is made sheep to shirt in the US. Only a couple of their lines are pure wool, though, so read carefully. The fabric seems a bit heavier/less soft than others, but they’ve been holding up better so far. Maybe related?

Icebreaker seems like the biggest brand in merino, and their shirts are pretty good, very light and breathable, but a bit fragile (my jeans buttons seem to be forming holes in them somehow, all in the same spot). Big fan of their long underwear, too, makes a huge difference in the winter.

Woolly shirts are super soft, probably the most comfortable, and not too expensive, but even more fragile than icebreaker IME.

Still looking for the perfect shirt, but I’ve liked the ones I’ve had from all of these.

Outlier makes expensive but very nice wool tshirts. I have accumulated a fair number over the years and only see issues with the ones that are over seven years old.

This one? https://outlier.nyc/products/ultrafine-merino-cut-one-t-shir...

Definitely pricey, but looks promising.

John Lewis own brand pure merino in the UK.