Built Different: Part 2 - Engineered to Resist Hydrolysis
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Time to read 6 min
Part 2: Engineered to Resist Hydrolysis
Introduction
Most waterproof gear is built from mixed components that were never designed to work as a single system. This mash up creates inherent weak points, which leads to early breakdown under the stress of real-world use. In accelerated testing (known as The Jungle test), the performance of many big brand fabrics begins to decline after 1.5 years compared to the 10+ years for Torain. By building a fully integrated system with Toray International Inc., Torain maintains waterproofing, breathability, and durability far longer, reducing early failure and waste.
Most waterproof gear doesn’t fail all at once. It breaks down slowly, from the inside out. Long before you see it, you feel the performance drop. That process is called hydrolysis. And it’s one of the biggest reasons high-end outerwear loses performance faster than it should.
This is Part 2 of our Built Different series. Here’s what we have learned from Toray about how Torain is engineered to resist hydrolysis.
Torain is Toray’s premier fabric technology for winter sports, built entirely in-house from start to finish under meticulous supervision. From the fabric mill to the membrane, lamination, construction, stitching, and seam tape. Every step is tightly controlled and calibrated for precision. When it’s not right, they start over.
Most outdoor products are sourced and assembled across different suppliers and factories with varying standards, lower quality control, and components that were never designed to work together. Torain is a fully integrated vertical system, and that consistency shows up in performance.
What Is Hydrolysis in Waterproof Fabrics
Every waterproof jacket is made of some combination of bonded layers. Face fabric, membrane, backer, and seam tape. Over time, moisture, heat, and sweat start to attack those layers and the bonds holding them together. That breakdown is hydrolysis. It leads to loss of waterproofing, reduced breathability, and eventual delamination. The reduction in performance happens long before the delamination is visible. A lot of gear on the market can perform well in a lab and achieve high waterproof and breathability ratings when it is brand new. But what happens with repeated hard use? Most gear doesn’t fail because of one big day. It fails because it cannot handle repeated exposure to real world use.
What Is Hydrolysis in Waterproof Fabrics
Every waterproof jacket is made of some combination of bonded layers. Face fabric, membrane, backer, and seam tape. Over time, moisture, heat, and sweat start to attack those layers and the bonds holding them together. That breakdown is hydrolysis. It leads to loss of waterproofing, reduced breathability, and eventual delamination. The reduction in performance happens long before the delamination is visible. A lot of gear on the market can perform well in a lab and achieve high waterproof and breathability ratings when it is brand new. But what happens with repeated hard use? Most gear doesn’t fail because of one big day. It fails because it cannot handle repeated exposure to real world use.
How Waterproof Fabrics Are Typically Built
In most outerwear, these layers are sourced separately. Different suppliers, different chemistries, different standards. They are assembled into a single product, but they were never truly designed to function as one system. That’s where failure starts. The bonding points become weak, with each material reacting separately to moisture and heat, and as they break down individually, they create a vicious cycle of degradation that increases the rate of hydrolysis and total failure.
How Torain Is Built to Resist Hydrolysis
Torain, on the other hand, is not a mix of parts. It’s a system. The face fabric, membrane, backing, adhesives, stitching and seam tape are all designed together and produced by Toray International Inc. under the same strict standards and control. No mismatched components. No weak points between layers. It’s designed, tested, and refined for maximum performance that is greater than the sum of it’s parts. It’s that fully integrated alignment that allows it to resist hydrolysis longer than standard outdoor gear.
Hydrolysis Testing: The Jungle Test Explained
Lab tests don’t always reflect real-world use, the conditions can be set to create favorable results, and very few outdoor gear tests are regulated by a governing body. So, while we use them to form theories of how we think fabrics will perform, we also take them with a grain of salt. The real test is sending the gear into the mountains with our pro athletes to see what happens when it’s asked to perform in extreme conditions and at the highest level.
Simultaneously, Toray runs a compelling test of their own to analyze a fabric’s ability to resist hydrolysis. They call it the Jungle Test. This is a high heat, high humidity environment set at 158°F and 95 percent relative humidity to accelerate hydrolysis degradation. It simulates roughly one year of real-world use per week and runs for ten weeks. They tested Torain against many of the fabrics used by leading brands. Around the equivalent of 1.5 years of simulated use, the other fabrics began to fail, and were fully delaminated by the end of the test. Torain, in contrast, maintains its integrity and performance through the full duration, reaching the equivalent of 10 plus years under the same conditions. Same test. Same environment. Different outcome.
Why Hydrolysis Resistance Matters in Real-World Use
If you are skiing, riding, or working hard in your gear, you are exposing it to the exact conditions that drive hydrolysis. Sweat, moisture, heat cycles, and repeated use. So the question is not if your gear will be exposed. It is whether it was built to handle it. When a fabric resists hydrolysis, it keeps its waterproofing longer, maintains breathability, avoids delamination, and performs season after season.
It also stays out of the landfill longer. Bonded waterproof fabrics are extremely difficult to recycle because the layers are fused together, making separation inefficient and often impossible at scale. Once those layers have broken down from hydrolysis, the material integrity is compromised, which means it cannot be effectively upcycled into new products either.
Technical gear should be built to last—not made to be fast fashion.
Legacy Collection Featuring Torain®
The Final Word
Most gear is built to perform when it is new. Torain is built to keep performing. It takes more time, more control, and higher costs to build a fully integrated system this way. But, by selling direct, we avoid retail markups allowing us to use the best materials and construction from around the world to deliver long-term, top-tier, performance.
FAQ
What is hydrolysis in waterproof gear?
Hydrolysis is the breakdown of waterproof materials caused by moisture, heat, and repeated use over time. It weakens the bonds between layers in a fabric, leading to reduced waterproofing, lower breathability, and eventually delamination.
How long should a waterproof jacket last?
It depends on how it is built. Many standard fabrics begin to lose performance within a season or two of hard use. In accelerated testing, some fail around the equivalent of 1.5 years. Systems engineered to resist hydrolysis, like Torain, are built to maintain performance significantly longer—up to 10+ years.
Why do waterproof jackets delaminate?
Delamination happens when the bonded layers in a jacket separate. This is often caused by hydrolysis, where moisture, heat, and sweat break down the adhesives and materials holding the layers together.
Does waterproofing wear out over time?
Yes. All waterproof gear is exposed to conditions that degrade performance. The difference is how long it takes. Fabrics built as integrated systems resist that breakdown longer than those assembled from mismatched components.
Can waterproof jackets be recycled or upcycled?
Most bonded waterproof fabrics are difficult to recycle because the layers are fused together and cannot be easily separated. Once a jacket has degraded from hydrolysis, the material integrity is compromised, which also makes upcycling into new products difficult.
Summary
What is hydrolysis in waterproof fabrics?
How hydrolysis causes waterproof breathable fabrics to break down, delaminate, and lose performance over time.
Why most waterproof gear is built from mixed components that were never designed to function as a single system.
How Torain® is engineered as a fully integrated waterproof system to resist hydrolysis longer.
The difference between laboratory waterproof ratings and long-term real-world durability.
How Toray’s “Jungle Test” simulates years of hydrolysis degradation in accelerated conditions.
Why hydrolysis resistance improves long-term waterproofing, breathability, durability, and sustainability.
