While your ordinary wool coat comes from sheep, GORE-TEX® outerwear is a combination of man-made fabric and a thin layer of Teflon, the same material used in non-stick pots and pans. Gore scientists first combined the membrane with fabric more than 20 years ago, and the process has been revised and improved ever since.

Let it rain...

In the late 1980s, W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. the group that makes GORE-TEX® fabric started looking at why some jackets were being returned. Many times the reason stated by the customer was, "I got wet."

At first Gore assumed that its fabric was leaking. But when it started running tests, it found that 75% of the time, the problem was with the design of the garment and not the material it was made out of. So the company established a "Rainroom standard." Now all new styles made with GORE-TEX® fabric must go through a laboratory storm chamber. The "Rainroom" is 12 feet long by 12 feet wide by 24 feet tall that can simulate a 3 inches per hour rainfall from overhead sprinklers, and up to 22 inches per hour from side jets attached to the wall.

Rainroom tests can show all kinds of problems in design and construction. One test showed how a badly placed pocket can make a waterproof jacket useless. Other trouble spots have included collar designs, front closures, and seams.

From the test results, scientists and engineers have worked out new manufacturing techniques to create special seams to prevent water from leaking through needle holes. Problem solved!

Art and science,
working together.

Britt Manero is a designer for Timberland, an outdoor clothing manufacturer. He says his biggest challenge is combining style with functionality.

The needs of the fabric can force the decisions he makes as a designer, and often there is not much room for fashion innovation.

Companies that make performance jackets and boots must consider the everybody’s needs. Manero says there are two basic kinds of people who wear the clothes he designs. Some people use his jackets to climb Mt. Everest, but most wear them walking to school.

"There’s not too many people hanging off cliffs," he observed.

From the mountain top
to city streets.

There may be no logical explanation why high-performance jackets and boots have become so popular in cities, but he says most consumers want something they can use in a variety of situations. "Manhattan can be cold sometimes!" Manero said. "It can be just as cold as when you’re in the woods." His job is to keep people warm and in both locations.

Manero sees his job as an outgrowth of interests he had when he was young. Manero became interested in designing jackets and coats because he spent a lot of time hiking as a kid in New England. He learned to sew and made his own clothes, then studied fine arts in college.

High-tech fabrics
go to extremes.

If you’re into extreme sports, chances are you know of Robyn Hall’s work. As Columbia Sportswear design director, she builds gear for people who play hard, like snowboarders, skiers, backpackers and mountain climbers.

She points out that color is one of the keys to design. Columbia Sportswear researches color for a world-wide market. "We offer a combination of successful colors, but we always introduce new colors into the line to stay fresh and current," she said.

Most people want a jacket that serves several different purposes, Hall said. "We offer a lot of bright colors for safety, but we find people in a more urban setting need performance and are more comfortable in earth colors." Hall and her team work to combine fashion with performance. For instance, the classic technical look uses contrasting colors, but the same coat without contrasting colors may work better in the city, she said.

Tested by guinea pigs,
like you.

Hall says her team builds prototypes, just as a team of scientists would build a first experimental model of a new machine. Their guinea pigs are people like you who wear-test the products and evaluate them on elements of fit, style and function. The goal is to make you forget that you’re even wearing a coat, she says.

Though performance is a top consideration in designing a coat, it’s also important to make sure the coat looks good. "People don’t want to wear ugly things," she said.

But, again, when designing high-performance outerwear, style takes its lead from function; that doesn’t give designers much leeway. "I would say the styling is secondary, for sure," Hall said. "We don’t reinvent the line every season; we evolve it."