I'm training for a Spartan race and hiking was a big part of my training plan. I have used this on a few hikes now and it works pretty well for about 3-4 hours without re-wetting then it starts to dry out quickly and gets really stiff. Since I've been hiking longer and longer distances it has been nice to help with cooling and then I don't need to consume as much water on the hike. But on one hike at hour 5 I ran out out of water and then it was more of a hindrance than an asset. There wasn't anywhere on the trek to re-hydrate it so it got stiff and i didn't have a good place to store it.

Overall I think I will use it on hikes that I know will last under 4 hours or will have a water source somewhere along the way.

I really don't like this thing:
1. It stinks! It smells like some weird chemical. I rinsed it a bunch of times, but it's still there
2. It doesn't really conform well around your neck (like the picture shows). It's not long enough and too stiff to stay
3. This is basically a rubber towel that holds water. It doesn't get as cold as it should

I used the neck wrap/scarf that uses the little beads before. They expand inside the wrap after being soaked in water. I've found that to be much better around my neck and will be going back to that!

This seems like more of a thin rubberized mat than a towel however it's definitely cooling. Right when you take it out of the packaging, before you wet it down it is cool to the touch. I actually purchased this for our dog to lay on outside during the summertime to stay cool. Not sure it would be comfortable on my skin / around my neck but I would use it after a work out or being outside just as it suggests. No odor to it either which is nice.

Wow, this is crazy stuff. I was shocked that this really works. I wet it down and put it around my neck on a 100 degree Arizona day. It keep my neck cool for hours. When I took it off at the end of the day I tossed it into a pile of clothes and forgot about it. Sometime later, the next day, I found it and it was hard like cardboard. I put it back in the water to make it pliable and then folded it up to put it away properly.

We live in Florida and I had the bizarre urge to go to Disney World in mid July! Ok, this is crazy because if you have ever been to Florida in mid summer, you know how incredibly HOT and HUMID this state is. Like ridiculously hot. But I planned ahead and purchased this cooling cloth and another brand (Frogg Toggs.) I purchased specifically based on colors. I thought gray was less obnoxious and a good color for my husband. I thought all cooling cloths are created equal...I was wrong. These work the same as the Froggs Toggs, you wet, wring out excessive amounts of water, shake and then they are cool, wrap/drape around neck. They do get cool and they do work, HOWEVER, the other brand (FT) was remarkably cooler than this one from Ergodyne. My husband and I were both fighting over who got to use the other cooling rag...because this one didn't pass muster in comparison. Again, this one works, but not as well....it didn't get as cool or stay as cool as the FT. This one cost the same as the FT, so it isn't even like I bought a "discount" item. They are both brand name products that are priced comparably. If I didn't have the other brand to compare on the same day in the same heat conditions, perhaps I would have thought this one was a 5 as it did still help, BUT the Froggs Toggs was certainly the better buy.