News & Reviews

gear notes

Care and Information: Technical Clothing

Lots of technical clothing is over-engineered to ensure adequate performance in even the worst possible combination of events. If your needs are for extreme protection on big-mountains, be prepared to buy at the top of the price level. But if you need a shell for walking or riding to work, adequate performance may be available at intermediate price points. Consider your needs prior to purchase to avoid disappointment later on, and take the time to become informed.

FIRST LAYER (100)next to your skin
The FIRST layer against your skin must work in cooperation with your body’s natural heating and cooling processes. Wicking, passive or dynamic, is the key "moisture management" characteristic to expect of your FIRST layer in cool or cold conditions, and in all conditions for aerobic or active users. Wicking keeps your skin drier by aiding your body’s release of moisture (up to a litre per hour) that in turn cools muscles that are burning calories. There are two ways you can make clothes wick; either by treating the fabric with a ‘finish’ that promotes wicking, or by making the fabric with yarn that has inherent wicking characteristics. Improved ‘dynamic’ wicking can be achieved by creating a ‘polarity’ between the outside and inside of the fabric. This push/pull characteristic can be created by knitting the face with hydrophobic yarn and the interior with hydrophilic yarn, or varying the density and surface area by constructing a very dense face and leaving the interior brushed or loose. These various technologies will make a world of difference if you are not yet familiar with ‘performance underwear’.
Examples: Polartec® M100, Polartec® or BiPolar® with lycra or ESP® yarns, CoolMax®, ThermaStat®, Duofold®, Field Sensor®, MicroMax®
Design Options: form fitting to wick better, flat-seam construction for comfort, venting options like deep front half-zips, minimal pockets for comfort, thin or no collar, longer back to keep ‘tucked’ in.

SECOND LAYER (200)
insulating layer
In cool or cold weather, the next layer is primarily for insulation value. Complex considerations are: how active or aerobic you will be, what physical condition you’re in, what weather you will face, and how warm you like to keep yourself. Generally, the idea is not to keep ‘the cold out’, but to regulate how much of your own heat you should retain. The ‘CLO’ value, or insulation ability of any insulator is a measure of how effectively the insulation traps air and reduces convection within the insulation, creating a thermal barrier. If your climate is moist and you are concerned about weight, look for light weight products that don’t hold moisture, like Polartec®, ECOfleece®, or BiPolar® fabrics. Down is the lightest and among the warmest insulators around, but is of little use if it becomes wet either from internally-generated moisture, or from the weather. Synthetic fibres like Thinsulate®, LiteLoft®, PrimaLoft®, and Polarguard 3D® are all efficient, robust insulators that !
can work well for you (be prepared for some compression over time with all fibres). ‘Wool’, the other ‘natural’, is an excellent insulator AND it can perform well in wet conditions. However, wool is much heavier than synthetics, more difficult to dry, and care can be a problem.
Examples: Polartec® 200 and 300, BiPolar®, ECOfleece®, Thinsulate®, PrimaLoft®, Polarguard 3D®, Down and Wool.
Design Options: Venting options like pit zips and flow-through pockets, pit zips that correspond to outer shell placement, flat-seam construction for comfort, tipped hems to cover kidneys, high wear reinforcements, water-repellent shoulder yokes, well placed pockets with secure closures, adjustable hem.

THIRD LAYER
protective outer shells
In wet, windy, snowy, changeable or extreme weather, a protective layer must go over your first and second layers. Discussions about the third layer can be reduced to waterproofness, breathability and durability. If you are very active and aerobic, you will be primarily concerned with breathability and lightweightness. If the climate is wet or snowy, you will need waterproofness AND breathability. If you plan on carrying a pack, working (or playing) around equipment, or bushwhacking through the forest then durability will be a concern.
Generally, there are three technologies to make a fabric waterproof AND breathable:
1. Extremely tight weaves that shed naturally.
2. Coatings that go on wet, like butter on hot toast and actually ‘become one with the fabric’.
3. Laminates that are first either ‘peeled’ or ’extruded’, then glued onto the back of a fabric using heat.
The final results vary: coatings are generally ‘softer and quieter’ than laminates when applied to identical fabric. Stated another way: a coating can be applied to a much more rugged fabric and still be as soft and quiet as a laminate applied to a lightweight fabric. Surface repellency (also called DWR - durable water repellency) is applied separately from the coating or laminate. Surface repellencies are like ‘silicon’ spray that makes water ‘bead up’, and stops the fabric from soaking up water without affecting the breathability. Unlike the coating or lamination, surface repellency degrades quite quickly and can be easily reapplied in the wash.
BEWARE: water resistant is not waterproof! Although the words may look and sound similar, the performances are not. The cost of making a fabric waterproof (and breathable) is often 4 to 8 times more than water resistant.
Examples: neo-dri® (coating), 3-layer neo-dri® (laminate), Gore-tex®, Ultrex®, Super-Microft®, Ventile.
Design Options: proper wind and water protection over zippers and openings like necks and cuffs, venting options like pit-zips, venting pockets, Torso-Surround mesh liners, roomy fit with high-lift sleeves, adjustable closures, cinch waists, hems and hoods, hood visibility and volume adjustability, tipped hem to protect kidneys, high wear reinforcements, articulated elbows and knees, zippers that vent as well as open.
Cotton is a fair-weather friend: Throughout these discussions of technical fabrics and performance, we have never mentioned ‘cotton’. Yet we offer lots of cotton styles in our clothing. The reasons are obvious: cotton absorbs moisture, is almost impossible to dry once you leave civilization, and is a terribly heavy insulator. In short, performance is poor, and if the weather turns ‘ugly’, cotton will be the last fabric you’ll want to have on. However, 9 days out of 10, you’ll reach for cotton as your fair-weather friend for "around the ranch" or "down to the store".

Care of Technical Fabrics
for Clothing:
Two reasons should convince you to take some time to consider the ‘care instructions’ of technical clothing:
1. if you follow them, your clothes will last longer and you can spend your extra money on other stuff, and
2. if you follow them, your clothes will work better when you really want them to.
The VERY first thing you do: READ the care instructions to avoid any nasty surprises. And remember that colours may bleed out of even polyester and nylon until after the first wash (especially black and red). If you have any doubts about bleeding, wash separately the first couple of times.
Shrinkage: Synthetics shrink just like cotton or wool. Nylon taffeta and taslan, polyester knits and fleece, and insulation will all shrink 2-5% without any heat other than a warm wash. When subjected to heat in the dry cycle, they could shrink A LOT. Any clothing with lycra, spandex, or micro-fiber content will shrink A LOT if the temperature gets too high somewhere through the cleaning process. In general, you will have better luck if you wash your stuff more frequently in COLD water and hang (or lay) to dry than if you wait until they’re really in need of a serious wash and feel you should use hot water (which you shouldn’t).
Detergents (NEVER) Soaps (YES): Detergents are rough on everything, including the environment. Use a mild powdered soap that works well in cold water. Keep your detergent for getting your sheets white again. Never use them on anything you value. Wash your neo-dri® products often to keep them free of dirt, oils and salt (salt is a desiccant and will wick water to it). Wash your technical underwear to keep them free of Body-Odour! From 1996 on, most underwear will have an anti-microbial finish to help combat the smell problem. We recommend adding a ‘surface repellency’ every fourth wash or once a year (whichever comes first) on your neo-dri® products.
Never dryclean your technical clothing. Drycleaning is a funny word because it isn’t a ‘dry’ process. They use solvents to lift oil that holds dirt, thereby cleaning without heat (great for silks and wool suits). Not only are drycleaners VERY tough on the environment, but the solvents can strip off everything else too, like your wicking agents, your surface repellency (DWR), the glue that holds your laminate onto the fabric, the natural oils on your wool sweater or down sleeping bag.
Spots: If you get a spot on an article of clothing, either learn to live with it, add another spot on the other side to balance the ‘look’ or try to remove it with a spot-remover that doesn’t require rubbing. Your Polartec® sweater will look just as bad with this horrible rubbed-up spot as it did with a spot. The type of spot-remover that you spray on, then drop into the machine to wash is the best.

Confidence and Credibility:
At Valhalla Pure Outfitters, we design and manufacture technical clothing in our own factory in the mountains of Western Canada. And we guarantee our products! If a problem does occur, we can fix it promptly. Our commitment to ‘customer satisfaction’, quality and the outdoors is something you can count on.
At Valhalla Pure Outfitters, it’s to our advantage for you to be informed, to compare our designs, our materials and workmanship, and our product knowledge. We know the ‘outdoors’ and how to supply the clothing and gear you’ll need to have a successful adventure. If you have any further questions or comments, please ask your outdoor retail staff member or contact us directly.

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