Tender Loving Care Instructions

All our rainwear is made with high performance fabrics. Our rainwear fabrics feature a membrane that’s waterproof and breathable. For the tech fabric nerds, between 15-20k/15-20k waterproof/breathable. We then treat the fabric with a PFC free durable water repellent (DWR). All seams are sealed which keeps rain from penetrating the stitching.

A little more info about DWRs

DWRs increase the “surface tension” when water contacts a textile. Microscopically, water droplets suspend into a nice round shape — a domed bead. The rounder the bead, the easier it rolls off the fabric.

DWRs coat individual fibers and leave microscopic space between the fibers for breathability.

We sat down with some Chemists that designstate-of-the-art durable water repellents. Their coating formulas are used by some of the best high performance brands. Here are their suggestions for taking tender, loving care of your gear.

- When your garment gets dirty, spot clean gently with warm water and a mild detergent. Put off the first full wash for as long as possible to preserve the DWR.

- If your garment is not performing as well as it did, it's time to give it a wash. Here is how, machine wash the garment by itself, you don't want to introduce new chemicals or dyes. Use warm water and mild detergent on a delicate cycle. Put in the dryer on a lower heat. This is a critical step in reinvigorating the DWR. 

- Never, ever dry clean your rainwear, this will destroy the DWR and damage the waterproof/breathable membrane.

- We do not recommend adding a spray-on or wash-in DWR, this will inhibit the performance of the original DWR. 

We use a PFC-free C0 DWR, the safest available. Being a small company allows us to make decisions quickly. We can use the most current advanced materials, coatings and production available.  We only work with fabric and labor producers that are highly certified in sustainability and fair labor practices (OEKO-TEX Standard 100 and Bluesign).

 if you have any questions or just want to nerd out on garment performance/construction we can be reached at help@cleverhood.com