Are white clothes cooler than black clothes on a hiking trip? – Wel.nl

Many people tend to grab a white or light-colored shirt from the closet when it’s hot. But if you look at the wardrobe of the peoples of the desert, then most often the colors are dark or black. Exercise physiologist Maria Hubmann decided to investigate this.

Along with her science team, she rolled up her sleeves during the last Nijmegen Four Days parades and had a randomly selected group of male and female participants march alternately in a black and white T-shirt. The subjects had swallowed a temperature pill early in the morning, with which their body temperature was monitored throughout the day. Skin temperature was also measured continuously via sensors on the upper arm and back.

After all the measurements, the conclusion turned out to be simple: It doesn’t matter what your body temperature is whether you’re wearing a white or black T-shirt. “Partly because the weather is warming, we think it’s important now that it’s been scientifically proven that the color of clothes doesn’t matter at a time like this. That way we can give people better advice,” explains Hopman-Lebel.

During the four-day walks last year, she came up with the idea to test the effect of the color of the clothes. It was very hot during that edition. One day was canceled due to extreme heat. “At that time, we got a lot of questions about what clothes were best to wear. Everyone thought it was white. But desert people, for example, almost always wear black.”

This year it was less warm during the four day marches. That’s why Hopman plans to repeat the research over the boiling years. It hopes to collect data at temperatures above thirty degrees.