Better synthetic fibres

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 33

Better synthetic fibres

New Zealanders tend to have dyed-in-the-wool attitudes to synthetic clothing. “In the past, people have gone to the hills wearing wool and more wool,” the sales manager of Macpac Wilderness Equipment, Mr Geoff Gabites, said. “The idea was to take a spare

wool jersey for emergencies.” There still was a vague suspicion that if woollie underwear was not woollie, it just was not good enough, he said. This attitude had been slowly changing, however, and there was now a steady growth in synthetic clothing sales, which Mr Gabites attributed to the development of better synthetic fabrics.

“The new fabrics are definitely the biggest factor behind the growth,” Mr Gabites said.

Synthetics did the same job as wool in keeping people warm, but they also did other jobs wool could not.

Synthetics did not absorb as much moisture (rain, sweat) as wool. This meant they stayed drier than wool when the body was wet, and a dripping-wet synthetic garment could be wrung out and would dry much faster than a wool garment, he said.

Synethics were also more efficient than wool at taking moisture away from the body. This process, called

wicking, was slowed up by tiny “teeth” on wool fibres, which absorbed the moisture rather than letting it go through the fabric into the next layer. “In that respect, wool is fine at keeping you warm so long as you keep moving,” Mr Gabites said. “But once you stop, the water in the wool gets cold and so do you.”

Another big plus for synthetics was that they did not “itch” the way wool did. “Some people nearly go mad wearing wool because of the itch factor,” Mr Gabites said.

With synthetics, the first layer to go on would be polypropylene underwear. Polypropylene was extremely efficient at taking moisture off the skin’s surface and letting it though to the next clothing layer. “Pro-pel (polypropylene) first came out as nappyliners in New Zealand,” Mr Gabites said. “Which baby has the driest bottom translates to which tramper, climber, hunter, fisherman has the driest body?”