DuPont to compete with Gore-Tex

www.delawareonline.com � The News Journal � DuPont to compete with Gore-Tex

Waterproof material offers high quality at lower price, company says
BY RICHARD SINE / The News Journal
08/24/2005Gore-Tex, the waterproof, breathable membrane that transformed backpacking, may be the biggest product that DuPont almost invented.

Engineer Bill Gore left DuPont in 1958 to develop new applications for an overlooked DuPont polymer. The result was Newark-based W.L. Gore & Associates, which counts Gore-Tex fabrics as the biggest part of its $1.6 billion annual business.

Now, DuPont is releasing a Gore-Tex competitor. The company unveiled its Active Layer film at the 2005 Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City, Utah, earlier this month. The announcement took some industry observers by surprise.

"There are plenty of waterproof, breathable membranes out there," said Marc Guido, editor of First Tracks ski magazine. "It struck me as odd DuPont is entering the game a little bit late."

While Gore-Tex is still the market leader, lower-cost membranes marketed under the private labels of retailers such as Eastern Mountain Sports and REI are increasing in quality, Guido said.

DuPont business manager Linda Marquess said the company's new membrane aims to capture a growing outdoors market. Participation in outdoors activities such as skiing, running and kayaking has increased 6 percent since 1998, the Outdoor Industry Association trade group reported in June. The market for waterproof, breathable membranes is estimated at $1 billion, Marquess said.

Both the Gore-Tex and Active Layer membranes are laminated onto fabrics. They let perspiration out without letting water in. But the two products are built differently and will be marketed differently as well.

Gore sells clothing made with Gore-Tex on its Web site and enforces a lifetime guarantee that the clothing will keep the user dry. It's unusual for a component supplier to guarantee a retail product, said Gore-Tex brand manager Stephen Shuster, and the guarantee allows Gore to charge a premium.

DuPont will certify the quality of its membrane to its customers -- the laminators -- but not to end users, Marquess said. The film will fill a gap for retailers who are seeking a lower-priced but high-quality membrane, she said. Retailers will have the option of putting on the clothing a DuPont Active Layer hang tag.

The Active Layer film is related to DuPont's flexible food packaging, said DuPont spokeswoman Catherine Andriadis. That packaging keeps food fresh while protecting against water or other contamination.

The film's molecular structure attracts water vapor from perspiration to its inside face, said DuPont product specialist Coreen Lee. Electrons found on the film's and the water's surface are attracted to each other. Absorbed water evaporates through the fabric while the solid film keeps water droplets out.

By contrast, Gore-Tex membranes depends on tiny pores -- 9 billion per square inch, spokesman Ed Schneider said. The pores are 20,000 times smaller than a drop of water, but 700 times larger than a molecule of water vapor.

DuPont's Active Layer technology already has found some uses in other markets, Marquess said. They include as an underlayer in roofing -- to keep attics cool and dry -- and in carpets, to keep the flooring underneath dry.

Introduced in 1976, Gore-Tex was a boon for outdoor adventurers. "Before that, you had a choice," said Guido, an avid skier. "You could get soaked from the outside or from the inside. It was the first thing that actually worked in both directions."

Bill Gore's polymer, polytetrafluoroethylene, became the basis of Gore-Tex as well as hundreds of other products. Schneider said he wasn't aware of other fields in which DuPont and its progeny competed directly.

Contact Richard Sine at 324-2878 or rsine@delawareonline.com.