As the textile industry grapples with its environmental impact, we’re reimagining the relationship between durability and sustainability.
The world is waking up to the costs of fast fashion: there is more waste, more carbon emissions generated due to the energy required to manufacture new products, and more clothing that simply isn’t fit for extended use.
At Gore Fabrics, nearly 50 years of materials innovation drive our mission to create products designed for lasting performance and value. Our GUARANTEED TO KEEP YOU DRY Promise reflects our commitment to durability, which in turn supports longer product use and thereby lower environmental impact. Research shows that wearing a garment for twice as long before disposal mitigates the climate impact by almost half . By keeping GORE-TEX Products in use longer, you lower your textile footprint, reduce waste, and conserve manufacturing resources.
Yet while more and more people are becoming conscious of their purchasing habits, the reality is that products with a lower up-front price are often the easiest option for consumers, even if they may not last as long. That’s why we’ve set out to demonstrate the value of durable products—because the extra effort required to produce and look after them is worth it.
Buy better, buy less
To make a durable product, you must pay close attention to each and every component in the supply chain. At Gore Fabrics, we have a unique holistic approach to durability and quality that is rooted in science and in bringing together the right expertise.
We invest in intensive research and development carried out by our teams of scientists, material experts, and textile engineers to ensure that GORE-TEX Products can be relied upon to perform in everyday situations as well as some of the most extreme conditions.
In the lab, materials are exposed to harsh environmental simulations—heat, rain, abrasion, humidity—to understand and ensure they can withstand long-term use. In the field, prototypes are stress-tested by professionals. See how we test.
High performance, lower impact
One of our key focuses right now is to continue developing lower-impact materials like Next-Gen GORE-TEX Products. Built with a bi-component membrane, it is thin yet strong, lightweight, and engineered for performance with reduced carbon emissions*. The membrane is combined with selected textiles with recycled and solution-dyed content, reducing its waste and water footprint.
These advances are only brought to market once they’ve passed rigorous testing and proven they can deliver the level of trusted performance and quality that Gore is known for.
Of course, high-performing materials alone aren’t enough to ensure high-performing apparel. That’s why we only work with brand partners who meet our strict quality standards and construction guidelines for garments, footwear, or gloves. Each product prototype must be tested and approved by Gore before it reaches the market.
Each product prototype must be tested and approved by Gore before it hits the market.
We’ve even partnered with a Swedish university to forensically analyse used jackets for patterns of wear and tear, to help us understand how we can keep improving our products and share our knowledge to find a common method to evaluate durability of the final product.
To further extend the life of our products, we’re educating wearers on the best ways to wash and care for their gear, and supporting a global repair network to keep GORE-TEX Products in use for as long as possible. We want to see more garments being passed down through families, rather than ending up in a landfill.
Making durability the standard
Performance apparel should be trustworthy and reliable; it’s stressful and costly to have to replace things that fail when you need them most. That’s one of the reasons why upholding rigorous standards of durability is so important to us. But it’s not the only reason.
We want to see a future where waste is minimised and more high-quality products are reused, repaired, rented, resold, passed down and worn for years, and we’re proud of the progress we’re making towards realising that goal. Ultimately, if we can get people to see the value of long-lasting products, we can make durability the standard—so that more items are used to their full potential, kept in use for longer, and trusted to perform whenever they’re needed.
*Through laminates with a new lower-mass membrane and select textile(s) (per Higg MSI)
