Paramo's Directional Clothing System has always been slightly
confusing, okay, in fact the way it works has always been very
confusing, something not helped by the fact that in hydrostatic head
lab tests, which measure the water pressure a fabric can withstand,
Paramo's fabrics are not technically 'waterproof'.
Strange
analogies with animal fur notwithstanding, a lot of people simply
don't really get it. In the end it seems you either accept that
Paramo works to protect you in real life conditions and get on with
it, or scratch your head repeatedly until a bald spot appears.
Until now that is... Paramo always seems to provoke lively debate
on the OM forum and a recent thread was no different, with different
theories and explanations being bandied back and forth. Then,
unprompted by us, who should appear but none other than Nick Brown
himself.
The Man In Person...
Nick is the man who put the 'Nik' into Nikwax and invented
Paramo's clothing concept of a windproof water-resistant outer
coupled to a 'pump liner' designed to move liquid outwards away from
the body. He tested the prototype garments in the Colombian Andes,
where the high altitude scrubland is known as 'paramo', hence the
name. And the clothing is still manufactured in Colombia - not a lot
of people know that...
Anyway, Nick very patiently took the time to explain in both
layman's and highly technical terms exactly how Paramo clothing
actually works. It's fascinating stuff, if you're into that sort of
thing, and underlines the value of the forum - the manufacturers
really do read OM and take note of what you say.
Thanks to Nick for taking time out of his busy boot-proofing
schedule to explain what's wha and if you want to read it, the forum
thread is linked to below.
shiperton Henethe 2
It's now much easier to make clickable links in your forum postings, plus if you're feeling really expressive, you can even format your text. Cool or what????
