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 and launches in the basement of his home in Newark, Delaware.
1969
Gore’s son, Bob, discovers that rapidly stretching PTFE results in a microporous structure—later dubbed expanded PTFE, or ePTFE. This will become the main ingredient in .
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 Malden Mills introduces —a 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 .
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’s business practices. A is filed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commision.
2011
Columbia develops its own proprietary waterproof-breathable technology, , and starts using it in jackets and gloves, publicly vowing to “take down Gore-Tex.” Polartec launches with an aggressive marketing campaign. Mountain Hardwear debuts , its proprietary fabric.
2012
Official investigations by the EU and FTC are ongoing.