What You’re Wearing, Part 1: Synthetic Fibers

GEAR:30

BLISTER

Arts, Design, Skiing, Snow, Snowboarding, Sports, Outdoors, Bike, Technology, Gear

4.9 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2019

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How much do you actually know about the clothes in your closet, and the stuff you wear to go play in the mountains? Today we’re introducing our “What You’re Wearing” miniseries, where we’ll be shining a light on the most foundational part of apparel: the fibers.

In part one, we dive into the world synthetic fibers with Sara Ellis from Gore (the makers of GORE-TEX) to discuss everything from the performance and environmental impact of synthetics compared to natural fibers; the crazy new material that Gore developed with Underarmour; what’s on the horizon in terms of waterproof / breathables; and more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Synthetic vs. Natural fibers (2:15)
Where do synthetic fibers come from? (8:08)
Which synthetics are the most durable? (9:17)
Polyester vs. Nylon (12:18)
What are the environmental issues associated with synthetics? (14:38)
The story behind Gore’s new ePTFE baselayer with Underarmour (24:05)
Gore’s current (and upcoming) waterproof / breathable lineup (36:54)
What’s the biggest misconception about synthetics? (52:12)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Gear 30 on the Blister Podcast Network. I'm Sam
0:10.5	Shaheen, a senior editor at Blister, and you can check out everything we're doing and reviewing
0:14.5	over at Blister Review.com. Ever since Jonathan handed over the Gear 30 keys to me, I've been chomping at the bit to do a mini series about textile fibers.
0:25.6	That's not a sexy topic. But the reason why materials are so interesting is that it's how you get the properties of a garment.
0:33.6	Things like why does one jacket feel softer in another? What makes a certain
0:37.5	fabric more durable or less durable? Why does one fabric wick moisture better than another? All these
0:43.3	properties come down to textile fibers. And whether it works or not, and the way that it works
0:48.6	can determine a lot of how good your day is. In this mini-series, we're going to focus on four different fibers,
0:55.9	synthetic, cotton, hemp, and wool. And to get things started, we're talking with Sarah Ellis,
1:01.1	who's a global product specialist at Gore, the makers of Gorex, about synthetic fibers.
1:06.0	Sarah and I discuss nylon, we discuss polyester, we discuss this fascinating new fabric that Gore has developed with Under Armour and things that are on the horizon with waterproof breathables.
1:16.6	So today I'm sitting here with Sarah Ellis, who's a product specialist at Gore.
1:25.6	How are you doing today, Sarah? Hi, I'm good, Sam. Thank you.
1:29.8	To start off, can you give us a little bit of your background and what your current role is at Gore?
1:37.3	Sure. I am a product specialist at Gore. My background is engineer by educational training. And I joined Gore right
1:48.2	after university. I went to Lehigh University in eastern Pennsylvania, which is a pretty well-known
1:55.5	school for its engineering programs. And Gore found me through some career headhunting and i have been there
2:05.2	for 12 years and various roles and commitments and as mentioned right now i'm in a product
2:11.6	specialist role within our fabrics division focused on consumer apparel.
2:24.0	For our listeners and for you as well, Sarah, I kind of want to briefly explain the idea behind this series because we all have these closets full of garments and clothing and all
2:31.0	sorts of things that are made of all these various textile fibers. But I think in general, people know very little about it.
2:36.9	I mean, even I know very little about these fibers and I do this sort of thing for a living.
	...

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