Warranty departments at outerwear companies all have customers complaining that their fancy waterproof/breathable (w/b) jacket no longer works. It wets out on the outside, and bathes them with sweat on the inside. “Don’t worry,” the customer always says, “I’ve never washed it”.
The irony? Not washing them is why they’re not working.
Everyone’s heard of Gore-Tex. Virtually no one really knows how it works – or how to make it work best for them.
Every time we test a high-end riding jacket – which will, more often than not, use Gore-Tex as its waterproof/breathable membrane – there will be commenters stuck in two camps: the first will extol the virtues of their Gore-Tex equipped jacket and how well it’s worked for them for years. The second group will rail about the cost, the risk of ripping it in a crash, and the fact that their jacket no longer works like it did when it was new.
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