This is a tee-shirt fit for an emperor, so soft and well tailored you'd think you were wearing nothing at all. We took ultrafine merino from the Southern Alps of New Zealand and had it cut and sewn in New York City, just blocks from the Empire State building. It cools you in the summer, warms you in the winter and looks great all year round. We call it the Empire Merino Tee after our friends in Empire. Their approach might be different but we are doing the exact same thing, bringing the styles of the New York streets to the world of cycling.

Despite centuries of textile innovation merino wool is still the best performance fabric in the world. Its soft luxurious hand feel is nothing like traditional wools and is also infinitely better than both the plasticky ooze of a synthetic wicking material and clammy stink of wet cotton.

Merino wicks sweat away from your body, cooling you off and keeping you dry and comfortable in any condition. Yet merino retains its insulation abilities when wet so it keeps you warm in cooler conditions too. It's naturally anti-microbial so you can wear it for days without it stinking like cotton and polyester do after just hours. And because it's so much finer of a fabric than regular wools it doesn't itch at all, yet can be machine washed.

Cyclists have known about merino for ages. The classic wool cycling jerseys were all made with merino and the best still are, despite the plague of polyester that infects so many bike shops. Recently hikers and outdoorsmen have caught on to merino too. But the ultrafine merino we use is a higher grade than 98% of the stuff you'll find at shops like REI. It's even softer and more luxurious on the skin, and the heavyweight single knit jersey is more durable than the flimsy stuff used for many baselayers.

The fit on our Empire Tee is tailored and lean with a slightly longer length to compensate for reach. You'll want to go with the size you usually wear in other brands.

The Empire Tee is made with normal washing in mind. We designed it to wash down to the intended size. Just wash and dry it on warm as you would anything else and you'll find that it'll shrink up to 6% and then relax out.