[mikestew]

Thanks for the detailed clarification. As to the DWR, my experience says that the best GoreTex jacket is one without a nylon outer layer, and therefore no need for DWR. The GoreTex Shakedry jackets finally delivered on the promise GoreTex had made for 50 years. And they did it by just giving you a jacket made out of a sheet of GoreTex and nothing else. No nylon outer layer, no need to mess with DWR. As it turns out, none of that was necessary to make a workable jacket, save one thing: Shakedry jackets are not very durable. IOW, you don’t want to wear a pack with it, the pack straps will rub through the material. But if you’re not carrying a pack, and just going on a bike ride or a run, this is by far the best jacket I’ve ever owned, and I’ll cry real tears when it dies. Hopefully there will be workable alternatives by then.

[jameslk]

> Hopefully there will be workable alternatives by then.

I think Columbia’s OutDry Extreme tech is essentially the same thing with the membrane on the outside, which they claim is toughened to withstand abrasion, so maybe holds up better than ShakeDry:

https://www.columbia.com/meet-outdry-extreme.html

I haven’t tried it myself but I found it while researching this topic recently

[justinator]

You are correct re: Shakedry. What's interesting to me is that it used the now discontinued ePTFE which manufacturing used PFAS in production, but there is still no alternative PFAS-free Shakedry, despite now having an advantage of not requiring a DWR at all.

I would agree that even with the delicateness of Shakedry, or Shakedry-like product, there would still a use case and market.