The Meili Shirt Is Back. For Good

Some things are too good to keep scarce. 

When Unbound Merino and Carryology first collided, the goal was deceptively simple: build the definitive travel t-shirt. It couldn’t just be good. It had to be the only one you’d need to pack.

It was released as a limited edition, and then again. A brief flash of obsessive engineering. And then it vanished, leaving a wake of emails and DMs demanding its return.

We heard you. We’re bringing the Meili back, and this time, it’s staying in the rotation. It is officially moving from a limited edition into our Essentials line, available year-round.

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For those who missed the initial drop, here’s the design story:

Magic of Merino

Seasoned travelers and professional explorers have long known that for performance apparel, there is only one hard-won favorite: Merino wool and its versatility. Unlike the scratchy wool of the past, ultrafine Merino is exceptionally soft against the skin.

The performance benefits are staggering. It actively regulates body temperature, keeping you cool when it’s 115ºF in Texas and insulated when it’s -20ºF in Iceland. It manages moisture and breathes better than any synthetic. Crucially for travel, it is antimicrobial. It does not retain odor. You can wear it for weeks on end without a wash, and it remains fresh. It is wrinkle-free, dries rapidly, and is one of the best performance fibers in existence.

Carrying Less, Engineered

Why discuss apparel on Carryology? Because the most effective way to improve your carry is to carry more effectively. Volume and weight are the primary enemies of efficient travel, and clothing is usually the main culprit.

Merino changes the packing equation entirely. You can pack sufficiently less tops. Rotate them for weeks. If one needs cleaning, wash it in a sink, hang it, and it will be dry within hours. By switching to Merino, you immediately recover liters of space and pounds of weight. Carry less, but better.

Elevating the Staple

Unbound Merino has long been our benchmark for quality. After years of field-testing their gear globally, a collaboration felt like the logical move. 

But how do you improve something as elemental as a t-shirt? A Merino tee is already near-perfect in its simplicity. To build the definitive travel shirt, we had to identify the few areas where standard Merino could be upgraded for demanding users. We didn’t just select a fabric; we obsessed over the entire supply chain, traveling to rural Australia to inspect the wool grading and auction process firsthand. We needed to understand the fiber at a molecular level before we could engineer it.

The Material Enhancements

100% Merino has one Achilles heel: long-term durability against hard use. We solved this by custom-blending ultrafine Merino with Honeywell’s Spectra®, one of the strongest fibers on Earth—fifteen times stronger than steel by weight. The resulting 95/5 blend retains the soft handfeel of wool while doubling the abrasion resistance. It is space-age tech meets natural performance in a versatile 150gsm weight.

The Blackest Black: The color had to be black. It’s the most versatile colorway when it comes to travel, dressing up and dressing down equally well (while also hiding stains—which inevitably happen on the road).

But we really wanted to push the needle here, so we partnered with the color scientists at Coloro to formulate a custom dye. Scientifically speaking, it is the blackest merino wool dye ever utilized.

In-Built Shades Cleaner

Because Merino is hydrophobic, it smears glasses rather than cleaning them. We engineered a discreet microfiber panel hidden inside the hem for lenses and screens.

Dyneema Drying Cord

Furthermore, to maximize quick drying on the road without needing clothes hangers, we integrated ultralight, stronger-than-steel orange Dyneema cording into the inner side seams for easy hanging anywhere.

The Meili

We named the project after Meili, the obscure Norse God of Travel. To visualize this unillustrated deity, we enlisted design legend Aaron Draplin. His vision of Meili is immortalized on the screen-printed, tagless interior label.

The Specs:

Classic slim fit designed for trail and city.

150gsm blend: 95% ultrafine Merino wool, 5% Spectra® for ease of movement and unrivalled durability.

Total odor, wrinkle, UV, and abrasion resistance.

Integrated microfiber cleaning panel at the hem.

Hidden Dyneema hanging loops for rapid air-drying.

Woolmark® and WRAP certified production.

This shirt was built without compromise, engineered from the fiber up for ultimate performance.