fasinating articles

FASINATING ARTICLES

“Gore makes its own weather, in pursuit of the science of comfort”.

This headline is for an article by Joseph N. DiStefano, staff writer for The Philadelphia Enquirer that I received November 26, 2016 from one of my customers and reader of my commentary. Dan asked my take on this facility and what it means.

Prior to receiving this article I read an article of the very same subject that appeared on the web site for “businesswire.com”. This article I read November 17, 2016.

What follows are excerpts from the two articles and my opinion of their environmental laboratory.

Gore has built a new environmental chamber and its purpose is and I quote; “The new lab facilities allow Gore engineers to measure the properties of component materials, Gore laminates and fully constructed garments, and footwear in new, expanded and relevant conditions. The new world class facilities further Gore’s ability to develop innovative fabrics products with distinct functionality to perform in real-world conditions before they are even brought to market”.

Had Gore had this facility available to them in 1977 (?) when they started marketing Gore-Tex they would have learned the product they call Gore-Tex a waterproof and breathable entity would not work, but that is history.

Gore engineers (?) are going to “measure the properties of all of the fabrics” used I guess in the outdoor market place and tell the world that they are not as good as they can be unless approved by Gore.And that is the essence I believe of their investing in building this testing facility. These “garments and footwear in new, and expanded relevant conditions” will be tested I guess. What are the “new and expanded conditions” they are referring too? BLANK! What I think they should do is study the effect of trapping moisture in footwear that has a Gore film so they can learn by observation the moisture emitted by each foot does not get out of the footwear and provides a warm moist area for infection to develop as the Marines found out six years ago.

Another outrageous comment I read is and I quote; “Gore works from a science-based culture. [Our product does what we say it does. Everyone else is just out there making claims,] boasts Christian Langer, Fabrics Division leader. “But we can actually prove it”. I and hundreds of thousands or millions more are waiting for proof that they have the ability to create an inanimate material that has these two characteristics; 1- that is completely waterproof as well as vapor permeable versus breathable since it is inanimate therefore cannot breath. Those I am referring to are dissatisfied customers who bought products made with Gore-Tex.

They have a remarkable piece of equipment that does quite a bit and I quote; ‘Gore conducts extensive testing in the new Biophysics lab to predict the effects of apparel, activity, and environment on the human body. This state-of-the-art facility has the capabilities to measure performance, protection, breathability and comfort benefit for the end-user, and can recreate a wide range of conditions such as: adjusting the temperature from -50 to +50 C, relative humidity from 5-98 percent, wind from 0-10 m/s, and rain conditions (water and air temperature 2-25 C, rainfall rates between 0-76 mm/hr, and wind from 0-5 m/s). The data and analytics gathered during the testing process are a critical component for understanding the potential impact on the end-user (the end-user is you) in a variety of relevant environmental conditions for instance exposure to heat and solar radiation (solar radiation, are you going into space), cold, rain, or high wind. The impact is measured through benchtop testing (whatever that is), censored mannequins (what can a mannequin tell you), and human testing in the environmental chamber”. As far as I am concerned when it comes to environment chambers I have never known of one that produced any test results that are even close to being accurate, Gore is going to change that, a joke!

As you can see the Gore Companies arrogance that they want to be the final word on what fabrics are to be used by manufacturers. They will sanction the end products based upon the results they want to present to the manufacturers. They will also put promotional dollars in the hands of the companies they are married to as is stated by Christian Langer. I quote; “As a private company Langer says, Gore is free to focus on firming “log term” partnerships with manufacturers and retailers who use Gore-Tex materials-including familiar retail names such as Adidas, Nike, North Face, Patagonia, Timberland and dozens more. [I compare it to a marriage: You have common values and principles, otherwise it doesn’t work out, he says]”

I do not believe the word “principles” applies here neither does the word values since you do not get values for the money spent on an product made with Gore-Tex since these products do not work as advertised. Principles and values are a contradiction when used in an article about Gore, since they in my opinion are not principled or offer value in the products made with Gore-Tex. 

In a socialist system all are supposed to do that which is sanctioned by the state, right or wrong, good or bad. This is the tactic that the Gore Company in my opinion is taking. They have become financially successful marketing a bogus product and based upon that financial success they have developed very large heads and believe they can do no wrong!

Also, I wonder if they will also get into the business of dictating as they want to do about insulations! Maybe they have hidden someplace in their environment chamber an expert in the field of insulation!