The Demise of Waterproof/Breathable?

Is it the End of the Waterproof/Breathable (Vapor Permeable) Age? Maybe...

Each of the companies that have promoted this non-sense are now engaged in the chemical industry trying to making the best ever water repellent treatment; Gore being probably the first to enter that field of chemistry. Others have followed. What existed before these companies entered the business worked fine and did not harm the world as these companies suggest or claim.

Why is this happening (?), I believe because the outerwear garment marketing companies are now jumping on the band wagon to sell outerwear garments that have and I quote from an article I read in Sporting Goods Industry’s online publication; “products that are incredibly breathable, allowing airflow up to 40 CFM (cubic feet per minute)”. Can you imagine 40 cubes of air that are 12x12x12 inches moving away from your body at that speed? Think about it for one minute, a section of air that is 12 x 12 inches square and forty feet long moving away from you in one minute that is incredible. Now multiply the number of cubic feet that can be measured from your feet to your head and all around your body that is a lot of air that moves away from you. Not being a mathematician I cannot calculate the speed that the air would be moving at. That is equally remarkable as the story of waterproof breathable that has been around for 40 years. Is there anything new about the outdoor industry offering erroneous information to the potential customer in an effort to make a sale? The correct answer to the question is NO!

Is there a difference between being an actual manufacture as I am (Wiggy’s Inc.) and a marketing company as all of these other companies (most of them) are that serve the outdoor market place, YES. As a manufacturer I strive to improve my products and service on a daily basis. As a marketing company I am always looking for a new product that I can capture the attention of the next customer. Once the product is sold the marketing company is finished with the customer as many find out when the product does not perform as advertised. The customer has made the purchase through a retail outlet and the retailer never wants it back. As the marketing company hears about the lack of performance they strive to get a new product to “hawk” with improvements, you see and hear it all the time even from companies that are not associated with the outdoor market place. This is how marketing companies operate. Always looking for the next best thing to sliced white bread, but of course they never do find it, and my observation is that they would never know it if it smacked them in the face. That is because they do not care.

From the information being told to me the fiberfill insulating mediums being used are very light in weight, how about 60grams or 2.11 ounces per square (36 inches square) yard, When fiberfill batting is that light which means there isn’t much fiber so there isn’t any density to deter the flow of moist warm air away from your body. The shell and lining materials made of nylon but from what I am told they are very sheer light in weight again to allow the moisture and heat to flow easily out of the garment. In the minds of the marketers the fact that the air flow is so significant and again I quote from the article; “you do not have to take off layers of clothing to stay comfortable as you build up heat from your activity’’ even if you are in the mountains. That statement is correct, but, when you stop the activity if you are in the mountains in short order you will chill. From my experience of being in the mountains during warm weather, once the cloud cover showed up the temperature would drop in 10 to 15 minutes and a chill sets in if you have generated any small amount of sweat and do not have a jacket to put on.

One marketing company states in their literature and I quote; “garments use 60 gram insulation weight for versatility in a wider range of temperature.” They never divulge what that range of temperatures is. Considering what I know of fiber weights etc. I expect these garments will perform well while bone fishing in Key West, Florida in July.

Remember marketing companies have one goal in mind all of the time and that is to offer regardless if it is true or not the best product available of its type and when it proves otherwise they have no conscience and will offer up an upgraded product that does do the job until it shows otherwise. Sounds like a round robin situation to me.

They function on the basis of a sucker is born each and every minute philosophy.

Always remember buyer beware!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!