Why is gore tex so expensive

Mar 02, 2019 at 9:14am ET

I live in New England, where they say "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute." Even fair weather riders, like me, sometimes get caught in a freak storm that pops up out of nowhere. (Hail hurts at 50 mph, even through thick leather.) I always keep a light rain jacket and rain pants in my luggage. They're relatively cheap, not the good stuff like Gore-Tex, but for as rarely as I use them they're fine. What about rain gear for die-hard riders, though, people like Long Haul Paul who ride thousands of miles through any and all conditions? Are the extra bucks for the name brand gear worth it? Or can more affordable knock-offs provide the same protection?

FortNine puts several brands of waterproof material to the test in this video. They range from the top-of-the-line name brand Gore-Tex to cheap Frogg Toggs and everything in between. Gore-Tex is up against some stiff competition from expensive name brands like AlpineStars, Dainese, and RevIt, as well as more budget-friendly brands like Olympia, Scott, and Rainguard.

FortNine runs each of these materials through two tests. The first one is obviously how waterproof the material is. He uses a clever pressurized chamber and bicycle tire pump to inflate and measure how much pressure it takes to force water through the membrane. The higher the pressure, the more waterproof the material. The second test is just as important: breathability. If you don't care about aesthetics you could just wear a garbage bag and stay perfectly dry, but you will get quite uncomfortable as the impermeable bag traps your body heat and water vapor from sweat. The second test shows how well each material allows vapor to pass through it. This is the tricky bit, allowing vapor to escape while preventing water from getting through.

The end result is that Gore-Tex is absolutely worth it for keeping you dry, being the best performer in that test. It's not the most breathable material, though, with the budget-minded Scott taking that honor. The best all-rounder is Dainese. It doesn't match the maximum performance of Gore-Tex or Scott, but it comes close in both areas, while the other two are strong in one area but much weaker in the other.

If you're really cheap, Frogg Toggs work extremely well at keeping the water out for not a lot of money. Just don't expect much breathability. When it comes to rain gear, it seems you do get what you pay for, even if it's not specifically Gore-Tex.

In reply to withey:
What planet do you live on? Chouinard has estimated assets of over $500million and you don´t think he´s rich? I doubt Heiner Oberrauch (Oberalp Group-Salewa) is rummaging through the bins for a bite to eat either, to say nothing of the owners of Petzl, Vaude, TNF, Marmot.......

In reply to The Lemming:

> Take my simple theory You make a garment out of one single piece of fabric and you tailor a coat. You then make another coat out of two different fabrics, one being an outer layer while the other makes up an inner drop lining.
>
> I'm guessing that it is technically harder, for the eastern world machinist, to make a garment out of two pieces of differing material rather than fashioning a single garment out of one piece of cloth, even if it is something like a three layer gore-tex piece of cloth.

Well, yes, but presumably it costs more to weld the three layers together than to sew them next to each other? And try cutting the three individual layers that need to be sewn together so that they end up collectively lighter... It shouldn't really come as a surprise that manufacture costs can be lower than the cost of the material - surely the whole point of running sweatshops is that they reduce your manufacture costs to a minimum?

In reply to psd:

> (In reply to The Lemming)
> [...]
>
> surely the whole point of running sweatshops is that they reduce your manufacture costs to a minimum?

Three cheers for Rip off UK..

Hip, hip...

In reply to LastBoyScout:

> Gore, however, have the market pretty much sewn up at the very top end of the market, because of their reputation.

Surely, the top end of the market will be stitch free, ultrasound or RF laminated...?

Danger Dawkins 04 Jan 2010

In reply to gembobs:

> Whilst I can't talk for all companies, I do know that 10 years ago Arc'teryx made all their clothing in their factory in Burnaby, Vancouver.
> Patagonia at that time also made all their clothing somewhere in the US.

Hmmm. I'm not going to contradict you because, for all I know, that sentence is strictly true.

However, Patagonia are no strangers to offshoring and outsourcing the manufacture of their garments. To quote Yvon Chouinard (from his book "Let My People Go Surfing"), "Patagonia has never owned a fabric mill or a sewing shop."

In the early 70s, Patagonia were sourcing rugby shirts from Umbro here in England, New Zealand and Argentina, and in 1974 they "conracted directly with a garment factory in Hong Kong for three thousand shirts a month".

My Patagonia Liquid Sky jacket, which I bought in 2001, says "Made in Portugal" on the label.

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