1938
Insane in the Membrane
Read MIKE KESSLER’s account of the battle between the iconic Gore-Tex brand and its waterproof-breathable fabric, and the newcomers who want a piece of the billion-dollar market.Roy Plunkett, a chemist with Kinetic Chemicals, discovers polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a fluoropolymer that will later be branded Teflon.
1958
Bill Gore leaves聽 and launches in the basement of his home in聽Newark, Delaware.听
1969
Gore鈥檚 son, Bob, discovers that聽rapidly stretching PTFE聽results in a microporous structure鈥攍ater dubbed聽expanded PTFE, or聽ePTFE. This will become the main ingredient in聽.
1976
Seattle outdoor-gear company Early Winters uses Gore-Tex to create and market one of the first waterproof-breathable jackets.
1980
Gore files its patent for ePTFE. Gore-Tex is first used in boots (); two years later, it debuts in gloves ( and ).
1991
Future Gore rival聽Malden Mills introduces 鈥攁 performance-fleece brand. The company will later manufacture soft-shell fabrics and, eventually, waterproof-breathable ones.
2000
Jackets made with , an ePTFE membrane similar to Gore-Tex, appear from , , and .听
2004
acquires ; acquires , creators of eVent, for $260 million and mounts the first large-scale effort to compete with Gore-Tex.
2010
Columbia and Italian subsidiary file with the Commission of the European Union about Gore鈥檚 business practices. A is filed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commision.听
2011
Columbia develops its own聽proprietary waterproof-breathable technology, , and starts using it in jackets and gloves, publicly vowing to 鈥渢ake down Gore-Tex.鈥 Polartec launches with an aggressive marketing campaign. Mountain Hardwear debuts , its聽proprietary fabric.
2012
Official investigations by the EU and FTC are ongoing.