Soft Shell Differences Explained

One for the serious gear geeks out there. We recently ran a news story about the new Gore soft shell which is due to appear later this year from the likes of Mountain Hardear, GoLite and Marmot.

One observation we made was that Mountain Equipment has a Windstopper-based soft shell product out now that sounds quite similar, albeit based on Gore's N2S / Transition Windstopper. Well, for those unable to sleep for wondering what the difference actually is, we can exclusively reveal that there are some significant differences between the two:

1. The ME stuff uses a polyester knit outer fabric (N2S) while the official Soft Shell will use a tougher Nylon Stretch Woven fabric.

2. The DWR treatment on the ME clothing is an aftermarket treatment (from Grangers we think) while the Soft Shell DWR is a applied to the fabric by Gore.

3. The lining 'backer knit' in the Soft Shell is actually a warm microfleece rather than the polyester underwear knit used in the N2S-based ME product, so we reckon the Soft Shell will be warmer.

Thanks to Rob Wylie of Mountain Hardwear for the information and sparing our blushes. Overall it confirms that Mountain Equipment's product is a cunning adaptation of the Gore Windstopper N2S material, while the Gore Soft Shell is a fabric designed from the ground up to be used as a shell and should be tougher with higher insulation values. Will either of them work? Wait and see.