Dutch Turtleneck Shirt, Cotton Terry Knit, Surplus

A simple, robust and very affordable turtleneck shirt with a zippered collar from the land of the tulips. Available in green and blue as long as they are available. Fairly thick, so quite a nice additional layer for those colder days.

Features

This is a pretty basic turtleneck with a tall zippered collar and elastic cuffs, just well made yet cheap. The color options are navy blue and green that varies from woodland to olive drab. A good additional layer for winter use or mid-layer for chilly fall and spring evenings. There's always use for a cheap, durable shirt that can take all kinds of abuse so you can save your fancier garments from wear and tear.

Materials and care

These turtlenecks are 80/20 cotton/polyester. The surface is smooth but the inside is terrycloth, which is rough enough that tender-skinned individuals might not want these on bare skin. Besides, having a Merino wool shirt underneath is the ideal option anyway. Wash at 60 degrees Celsius (140 F). We got shirts at least from the 1990s and 2000s, so the thickness, feel, and shade of the fabric vary a bit from batch to batch.

Choosing the right size

First, you get the recommended height and then the recommended chest circumference of the user. Finally, there’s the NATO size code. The collar is fairly tight, so if you have a wrestler’s neck you might want to keep it unzipped unless you wanna choke yourself to submission.

With the gray ones we noticed that the sleeves and hem are short for the recommended person height. This is a good thing, if you don't want that many layers all the way over the wrist. Pick a size meant for a taller person if you want sleeves of a more ordinary length.

Just to bring you some extra insight, we have given the US equivalents to both height and chest circumference. First NATO size, then US size. Some of the height classes fall between the US standards.

NATO-US Size conversions

Condition

Used Dutch military surplus. Some of these have been worn very little, some more, but quite nicely so they are clean and intact. Some seams might be a bit frayed and the colors a tad faded but all are perfectly serviceable.