You already know GORE-TEX Brand. Maybe it was the trusted shell that got you through a whiteout, or the boots that kept your feet dry on a questionable river crossing. What you might not know is how far the brand’s reach extends. Since Bob Gore’s 1969 discovery of a lightweight, microporous material sparked its founding, the GORE-TEX Brand fabrics have grown into a platform. It’s trusted by more than 400 brand partners across the globe — spanning not just outdoor apparel and footwear, but safety gear for firefighters and first responders, workwear for professionals handling hazardous materials, and advanced protection systems built for armed forces operating in the world’s most extreme environments.
Fifty years in, GORE-TEX Brand is the quiet backbone running through vast amounts of the gear — and protection from the elements — the world depends on.
And its track record was built in every corner of the world. In 1978, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler summited Everest without supplemental oxygen wearing GORE-TEX Gear, demonstrating what breathable protection could do at the limits of human capability.
Not long after, GORE-TEX Fabric carried the 1990 International Trans-Antarctic Expedition (and its sled dogs) through sub-zero storms that would define the brand’s GUARANTEED TO KEEP YOU DRY promise. And in 2012, a custom GORE-TEX Brand suit protected Felix Baumgartner on his sound barrier-breaking freefall 24 miles above Earth.
From summits to the poles to the edge of space, GORE-TEX Product technology has spent five decades supporting countless expeditions where failure isn’t an option.
Over that timeline, relentless innovation has always been a constant: GORE-SEAM Tape and its seam-sealing machine solving seam leakage in 1979; WINDSTOPPER by GORE-TEX LABS products extending protection beyond rain to wind in 1990; and then the 2022 debut of the ePE membrane after more than a decade of development, a light and thin PFAS-free* membrane engineered for durable performance.
A half-century later, GORE-TEX Brand’s fabrics business isn’t resting on its storied past. It’s still setting the benchmark in fabric technology that makes adventure (and plenty else) in adverse elements possible — not to mention ongoing work reduce its environmental impact through the use of renewable energy, recycled and lower-impact materials, and responsible manufacturing practices.
So this year, to celebrate five decades of GORE-TEX Products, we’re doing a different kind of giveaway. We’re going big to award a grand prize, a runner-up, and then a series of five weekly giveaways, each with a customized GORE-TEX Brand partner winter kit. Consider your winter covered.
The grand prize of “Winter, Covered” sends one lucky winner and a guest to Jackson Hole Mountain Resort for a weekend this winter season. The stay includes two nights of lodging, ski passes, $1,000 toward airfare, plus a GORE-TEX Product kit from Arc’teryx (the Beta SV Jacket and Pant) to enjoy the prize. It’s a combo package worth more than $6,700.
Then, to mark five decades of GORE-TEX Products, we’ll be giving away a new customized prize kit during each of the following five weeks.
- The Big Mountain Kit includes by a Patagonia PowSlayer with GORE-TEX Pro setup (which earned the top overall marks in our Best Snowboard Pants of 2026).
- The Resort Kit features The North Face Dawnstrike and its GORE-TEX 2L Fabric.
- The Freeride Kit has the competition-proven Burton [ak] Cyclic GORE-TEX 2L setups.
- And two separate Mountain Athlete Kits, highlighted by Mountain Hardwear Mythogen GORE-TEX Pro jacket-bib setups, each paired with GORE-TEX Gloves and Sorel footwear.
And in the spirit of GORE-TEX Brand, you can breathe easy once you enter: You’re only allowed a single, one-time entry for your chance to win, though we’ll be announcing winners over the weeks of the ‘Winter, Covered’ giveaway.
* Made without intentionally added per- and polyfluorinated substances; may contain trace amounts.
This article is presented by GORE-TEX® Brand.
