Goretex Jackets
You know the problem: You’re doing a promenade or a hike, and it starts to rain.
You put on your jacket, and at the first time you seem to stay dry, but after some time you’ll start to sweat because of the non-breathable plastic material of your coat. So the jacket couldn’t hold it’s assurance to keep you dry, because your own sweat cannot diffuse through your cover, and will condense to water. So you’ll get wet from the inside. If you really want to prevent yourself from getting wet, you need a waterproof jacket which is additionally breathable. You have to look after Goretex jackets.
Goretex is a fabric made out of porous polytetrafluoroethylene the chemical constituent of Teflon. If you want to read further about how it works, read gore tex membrane.
If you need a new jacket for cycling tours, trekking, hiking or camping , that keeps you dry, and in the same run doesn’t makes you sweat under your “second skin”, get Goretex jackets. They’ll do a good job attending you on your outdoor activities and are pretty durable too. There are also Goretex coats, gloves, shoes or special Goretex ski jackets or motorcycle jackets to complete your waterproof gear.
As Goretex is only the membrane used for the jackets, you have to find a manufacturer who uses this fabric for his clothes. Some brands you can look after are The North Face, REI, Marmot, Jack Wolfskin and many more. But as always quality has its price, you can find Goretex jackets from $150 up to $700.
Anyway you have to take care of your Goretex clothing to keep them “alive”. You should try to keep them clean, to preserve the breathing effectiveness, and I don’t have to tell you that scratches or leaks would be bad for waterproofness. The good thing is, most Goretex jackets are machine washable, which makes the maintenance easier. Sometimes when Goretex jackets get older, they start to lose their waterproofness. You can try to impregnate them with a Durable Water Repellent (DWR), to make them resistible again. Make sure to check back with the manufacturer first, what repellent to use.