Time for some serious openness

Construction
We feel we can achieve some improvements in terms of construction; reducing bulk and weight, while optimizing movement and durability. To achieve this we have teamed up with the multiple award-winning, technical experts of Sugarhouse Creative, based in Salt Lake City, USA. Having worked for Arc’teryx and Black Diamond in the past, they help us bring our next products to the top level of the industry.

DWR – Durable water repellency
We’d like to go a bit deeper into the DWRs here: the coating that keeps the water rolling of the fabric. It is repelling the water beads on the outside of the jacket. Note: This is something different than waterproofing, which is guaranteed by the membrane on the inside of the fabric.

Over the past years, the use of PFCs in DWRs has been a discussion point. Until recently, many outerwear brands used the (as we now know) highly toxic C8 DWRs. These featured long chain chemicals, being a threat to nature as well as to human health.

Therefore many brands changed to a so-called short chain, less toxic C6 DWR. However, the effects of these chemicals are still very unclear and they might potentially be equally toxic and damaging. Therefore we, as Open Wear, decided to only use a so-called C0, a PFC-free DWR that contains no toxic or harming chemicals.

In contrast to his toxic brothers C6 and C8, C0 sometimes causes the wetting out of the first, outer layer of the fabric. This doesn’t mean you’ll get wet on the inside, because a high-quality membrane, like Sympatex, will prevent the water from coming through.

But the jacket might become slightly heavier and could feel a bit colder. As many brands have the intention to use C0’s from 2020 on, we see a lot of development in this area.

We’ve spoken to several innovative DWR suppliers and hope to implement the latest DWR techniques into our next products, guaranteeing an optimal eco-friendly, sustainable functionality.

We are running tests at the moment to determine which one would bring the best results. Since we sell directly to you, we can bring DWRs to the market that would otherwise only be available to you in two years, because of the slow sell-in cycle.

Another point we want to improve here is our communication towards washing. In contrast to common belief, washing and drying your jacket will revitalize its performance.

What’s next?
We are working very, very hard to incorporate all the feedback into six new products that we will launch in a couple of weeks. More details on this in the following weeks.

Feel free to comment on this update and let us know your thoughts.