How Gore-Tex Became the Outdoor World’s Ultimate Waterproof Fabric

Serious outdoor enthusiasts live by an old adage: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear.” Brash as it sounds, that statement has probably never been more true than it is right now. High-performance fabrics and other materials have made outdoor gear better than ever. And one of the textiles most responsible for that is Gore-Tex, a fabric invented by accident, which went on to revolutionize the way we work and play outside. 

Way back in 1958, Bill and Genevieve Gore launched W. L. Gore & Associates out of their basement in Newark, Delaware. Bill had just quit his job at DuPont and was tinkering with polymer polytetrafluoroethylene (better known as Teflon) to insulate computer parts.

The company’s big break came in 1969, when Bill and Genevieve’s son Bob — a freshly minted PhD in chemical engineering — was searching for more efficient ways to use PTFE. He tried stretching heated rods of the material, but didn’t get very far. At one point, he gave one of the rods a sudden, frustrated tug, and instead of breaking, it stretched about 800% in size. The new version, dubbed expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE), was filled with thousands of microscopic pores, each smaller than a droplet of water yet larger than a molecule of water vapor. That breakthrough meant it could block rain while allowing sweat to escape—something unheard of at the time.

Trademarked as Gore-Tex, the new material made its debut in consumer products in the early ‘70s. Early uses included plumber’s tape and protective shells for coaxial cables. It would be a few more years before the fabric found its way into outdoor gear, as brands like The North Face and Eddie Bauer struggled to see its potential. So, cracking into the outdoor market took some creativity.

In 1975, Gore-Tex salesman Joe Tanner met with a young Seattle-based company called Early Winters, which was on the hunt for innovative fabrics to use in a new lightweight, single-walled tent. To demonstrate the membrane’s usefulness, Tanner covered a cup of hot coffee with the material. As the Early Winters team watched, steam wafted out of the top of the cup, but when it was turned over, not a single drop leaked out. The demo worked: Early Winters became the first company to place an order.

Other outdoor brands took notice in 1976, when Early Winters released its lightweight tent. A year later, the company added the first Gore-Tex jacket to its catalog, which quickly became a must-have for outdoor enthusiasts thanks to its waterproofing capabilities. Soon, the fabric spread to pants, gloves, boots and just about every other piece of gear, cementing its status as groundbreaking.

Today, nearly every major outdoor brand uses Gore-Tex in at least a few of their products, ranging from high-end mountaineering gear to lightweight and affordable rain jackets. The logo has become synonymous with staying dry — fueling nearly $5 billion in annual revenue for W. L. Gore & Associates.

Not bad for a mom-and-pop that started in a basement.