You can say goodbye to clothing made from Gore-Tex XCR
later this year with the fabric giants introducing a new fabric
called Gore-Tex Pro Shell, which will come in both three-layer
and two-layer versions.
It's all a bit understated hush, hush at the moment, but the
brands are in the process of showing their autumn/winter 2007 ranges
to retailers, so there's lots of it about.
So what is Pro Shell? Well, officially we don't know, but the big
change seems to be the use of a completely different backing fabric
for the three-layer material.
It's an extremely finely woven polyamide which has a smoother,
tighter, slidier feel than previous Gore-Tex fabrics. As I understand
it, the big pluses are that it's lighter than previous three-ply
Gore-Tex fabrics, the closely-woven material should also slide more
easily over other clothing layers making for better mobility and, of
course, Gore-Tex says it's more breathable. That's it below, note the
smooth, close woven look...
So in simple terms - thinner, lighter, better wicking. And no more
XCR, erm, except in footwear, where it's already different from
clothing fabrics anyway. Confused?
OK, the main change, I think, is simply that three-ply Gore-Tex
jackets are going to get slightly lighter without losing durability
thanks to the use of ruffty tuffty polyamide. I've already seen a
three-ply Haglofs shell that weighs in at 465 grammes. That used to
be considered a reasonable weight for a Paclite jacket, so you can
can see how things have moved on. Even a full-on mountaineering
jacket with all the trimmings is only 570 grammes.
It does feel lighter, thinner and smoother. Not really slick like,
say, classic Pertex, but definitely more glidey than the current
version.
There's also a two-ply version, the stuff with a mesh lining, but
I have no idea what, if anything, makes it different from current
two-ply Gore-Tex.
Will it be more breathable? Closer to eVENT? I don't think so. The
changes seem to be to the scrim fabric and I'm guessing that Gore is
sticking to its proven EPTFE membrane with a PU smear technology. So
that means any change is down to the performance of the scrim
fabric.
Paclite works better than standard Gore-Tex because the grey layer
used with that soaks up moisture faster, so acts as a buffer. Will
Pro Shell do the same? I don't think so, but we'll see.
So... lighter, smoother but probably about the same breathabiliy
as XCR. Should be in the shops late summer. More details when we have
them :-)
oby one
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