Where do people buy boots in Chch nowadays?

how old were your leggings?

the earliest generation of gore tex was inferior to the current generation, all sorts of issues like delaminating

I'm guessing, but maybe the July 6th 2011 edition of Fair Go? http://tvnz.co.nz/fair-go/july-6-4289407 "They say to keep Goretex working properly, it must be washed regularly. If you wear it daily, wash it daily, and dry it thoroughly. "More importantly, Kathmandu say it's not designed for farming use, because chemicals and effluent, certain soils, oils, grime, and even high pressure water - all things found on farms - can all affect the waterproofing and breathability of Goretex. "Kathmandu say farmers can successfully use Goretex clothing but only if they strictly follow the care instructions."

yeah well how much gore tex do the rural supply shops like RD1 sell? i'm guessing none... how many farmers want to wash their wet weather gear every day?

From memory it was on the third day of use that the goretex leggings started leaking badly. After a wash only a couple of hours work in the rain and they were leaking again. Interestingly on my recent tour of Tower Junction only one shop R & R Sport correctly advised that a goretex jacket would be unsuitable to use track cutting. (I'm not prepared to do daily care) Two other shops reps more or less said their goretex products would be ideal. Yeah Right! It would be nice to think modern goretex garments are better than they used to be but I'm still wary. Are they better now? It is impractical, especially if camping out, to "strictly follow the care instructions" if you are daily getting sweaty & dirty doing Forestry, Farming or hard out recreating!

it was quite a few years ago when they had the really dodgy gore tex.

Izogi I've just looked at your 2011 Fair Go link. "They say to keep Goretex working properly, it must be washed regularly. If you wear it daily, wash it daily, and dry it thoroughly" Most retailers don't tell you that! My experience (pre 2011) was that on complaining I wasn't offered a refund but told about the cleaning which to be fair I hadn't been doing. After a clean the leggings failed again after a couple of hours of work in the wet. I didn't go back to the retailer again but gave away the leggings to an op shop & have been wary of goretex garments ever since.

when you buy macpac event clothes, they come with a big cardboard sign attached that says "wash me often"

Apparently so, I've never used the stuff. The R&R sales rep did tell me that cleaning Event is even more critical than cleaning goretex! Looking back a few pages wayno your reply re goretex where you said, "you shouldnt have to clean goretex daily for it to remain effective" has been proven to be wrong for the type of use I was contemplating. It's a shame that goretex garments don't come with a big sign as per the Fair Go outcome, "to keep Goretex working properly, it must be washed regularly. If you wear it daily, wash it daily, and dry it thoroughly" Sorry people it looks like we hijacked this thread but it has usefully served to illustrate some shortcomings of goretex and perhaps Event?

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