Gore ShakeDry now comes in bright colors
If you’ve been delaying purchasing a Gore ShakeDry jacket because of its poor visibility, your time has finally come.
Gore’s ShakeDry material is truly amazing stuff: genuinely waterproof, extraordinarily breathable, and exceptionally lightweight and packable. However, it’s also quite fragile, very expensive, and with the exception of some bright accent panels, has only been offered in dark colors, which is problematic in low-light conditions. The challenge with adding color to ShakeDry has always been with the material itself. Typically, waterproof-breathable jackets are multi-layered garments, with the vapor-permeable membrane laminated to a more durable outer shell (and sometimes an inner liner as well). But ShakeDry garments are single-layered, so there’s no conventional outer-layer material to color, and ShakeDry’s ability to shed water also makes it inherently resistant to dyes.
But that’s now set to change thanks to a new digital printing technology and special inks that finally add some much-needed visibility. Gore is applying this new digital printing technology and special ink in a limited-edition run of jackets made in collaboration with British apparel brand Romance. Just 200 of the GORE x RMNC GTX SD jackets will be offered, each with a bright blue tie-dye finish that is far easier to spot than ShakeDry’s usual black or dark grey hues. Retail price is US$300.
The new brightly-colored Gore ShakeDry jackets should certainly be more visible in low-light conditions than the current offerings.
“We are really stoked to collaborate with the team at ROMANCE to develop the stunning GORE x RMNC GTX SD Jacket,” said Gore Wear sales and marketing associate Ben Washington via a press release. “Merging their creative genius with Gore’ technical innovation, we have really pushed the boundaries of modern design to offer riders an unprecedented level of function and form. Using a modified membrane and new printing technologies, we have unlocked a new palette of colors for ShakeDry products and look forward to the possibilities this opens up for the future.”
Gore has yet to announce any official plans for this new technology moving forward, but it seems like more than a safe bet that the company will expand the range of inline ShakeDry color options sooner than later. At least as far as ShakeDry is concerned, the future certainly does appear to be bright.
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