>>206510Oh boy, we could spend hours upon hours discussing this.
In my opinion, a good start would be to visit your local thrift stores and military surplus stores. At the thrift store, you can find mostly tops such as wool pullovers, fleece jackets, and even soft shells or hard shells if you're lucky, all for a fraction of the price. You seem to understand the benefits of wool and the purpose of layering, so no need to explain that.
At the military surplus, you can find good pants, coats and especially footwear, again for a lighter price. I'm not a hiker at all, so I can't really help you with footwear, I'll let a more knowledgeable anon do it so I don't mislead you. Most of the stuff I do out isn't really footwear-oriented, so I just wear my sneakers or my old boots. Good socks are important. Merino wool is awesome for socks. Just google that shit and they'll explain why.
I'm not sure everyone will agree with me, but I think that good headwear is also essential. For the summer, most hat types are alright as long as the sun doesn't beam hard directly on your head. It can be a bandana, cap, whatever. The fabric doesn't really matter, and it also depends on the activities you do. For example, I found having a cotton bandana is awesome when you're in canoe expeditions in the dead of summer, so that you can dip it in the water and use the ever-drying cotton to cool yourself down for longer. For the winters, it depends where you live in northeastern US, but up here in eastern Canada, it's good to have at least a decent beanie, but a ushanka-type hat is even better on colder days. Wool and fur are the best materials for that, because they tend to insulate better even if there's snow and wind.
As a general idea, you can never go wrong with wool.
