Is it possible to make a fabric more breathable?

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lostplanet

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Got a couple of soft shells but even though they are supposed to be breathable, would be nice to have more breathability even with pit zips open than water resistance? is there anything out there to help with this?
 
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C_Claycomb

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You can remove the water proof performance and make it less breathable when rained on. That would by by washing with detergent and scrubbing to remove any DWR finish, so allowing the fabric to wet-out. Once wetted out, it ceases to be breathable, irrespective of what it is made of.

You can maintain the level of breathability by maintaining the surface finish that allows water to bead up and run off. Nikwax, Grangers or Fabsil make products for this.

A softshell will have a max breathability, a function of its construction, tightness of weave of the shell, thickness of the shell. Nothing you can do to increase this, without using a hole punch, which won't help your water resistance much.

People who need more breathability (through hikers, people in the tropics) tend to use umbrellas.
 
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Toddy

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I think it has a lot to do with the cut of the garment too.

"athletic cut" means close fitting, and there's no room for moist air to move, so it lands on the underside of the garment and basically blocks it.

Close fitting wool is one thing, but close fitting plastic (most modern garments) is entirely another.

Traditionally outer garments could be 'vented' by opening up the hem and neck, and since warm air rises, and warm moist air does too, the ventilation worked much better than our modern tied in close garments.

Modern fabrics are very good waterproofs, but breathability is quite easily compromised.

M
 
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lostplanet

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thats what im thinking get a load of needles and press them into a cork and let rip haha, if i took some time to think about it i could get mesh panels sewn in around the hotspots, to be honest i think its just cheap material that is apparently breathable.
 

Erbswurst

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In my experience three layer Gotetex is the most breathable waterproof material I know. It works very well if I don't move and if it's dry.
If it starts to rain or if I start to move it becomes whet inside.

Here only old techniques can help, like open the zippers.

Theoretically the new Goretex which Carinthia uses for bivvy bags works better.

I use exclusively polyester cotton mix clothing over merino base layers in winter times and fleece jackets over it, as outer shell the water proofs, which I open if possible. That works fine.

In my experience softshell jackets are sweaty or cold, nothing in between. I think, that's rubbish.
 

Erbswurst

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Usually that's right.

But not with the softshell jackets I owned.

It's always sweaty or to cold. Never something in between. They are never comfortable.

My conclusion is that I do not have to buy every plastic clothing that exists on the market. I'm slowly returning to the stuff from the twenties, which works fine for me.

In my opinion the old stuff was mainly changed against the new stuff, because they could make it cheaper and sell it for the same price like the good old stuff.
 
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Janne

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Is G1000 fabric considered to be what you talk about?

never had a problem with overheating with my G1000 Gronland jacket. Just pull the zip down.
Learn to dress 'for the occasion' so you do not get sweaty in the first place.
Once you get hot and sweaty, the next step is cold, clammy, eventually smelly.

I want my clothes to be versatile and adoptable.
Trousers need to be baggy and have a zip. Jacket should have a hood, large pockets and a full length zip.
So no Parka.....
 

Erbswurst

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G1000 is such a polyester-cotton mix I recommend.
I never used it, but similar fabrics from other brands. In my opinion it doesn't really matter, if it's 65% polyester and 35% cotton, like G1000, or 50:50 like the Austrian army field shirt, or 65% cotton and 35% polyester, like other Austrian Army stuff , Bundeswehr Flecktarn uniforms or several Decathlon Solognac hunting clothing for example. I guess, other armies use it too and I know a lot of other civil brands who offer it as well.

All that polyester-cotton mix clothing dosn't produce that problem, I described, but that mountaineering 100% plastic softshell fabrics produce this problem.

Perhaps that's good for climbing or whatever. In my opinion it's bullshit for trekking. Fleece jackets are OK, but not that stretch materials.

Even 100% cotton shirt and T-Shirt and woollen pullover , thin woollen jacket, leather shorts and other stuff like that from the twenties of the last century was better than that 100% plastic softshell stuff.
 
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Janne

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Got a couple of soft shells but even though they are supposed to be breathable, would be nice to have more breathability even with pit zips open than water resistance? is there anything out there to help with this?

Get a pure cotton jacket for summer use, nice and loose.
Get a pure Wool long jacket/coat for winter use, nice and loose.
 
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Erbswurst

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In the summer leather shorts with two buttons at the flap are better, because there is more ventilation.
And usually the zippers are the weak point at the leather shorts. After 20 or 30 years you have to replace them, buttons last like the shorts, if the pockets are made like the rest from deer leather ... I don't know. 100 years for sure.
Yes, expensive in the beginning, but that's really long lasting stuff!

For the knee long trousers for winter use I prefer a zipper. ;0)

.......

I came to the result, that the Defcon 5 poncho currently is the best poncho on the European market for universal use all over Europe. It weights only 400 g, covers the arms of adult men and can be used as a small tarp like the old NATO ponchos.
In warm conditions it's better than the poncho with sleeves. I think even in Finland during the summer.

I think in very windy conditions such a poncho with sleeves is probably the better option. So it depends, where you use it mainly, in the forest the Defcon 5, at the coast line a poncho with sleeves.

But of course: In combination with a bivvy bag the defcon 5 works very well as a little tarp. In most European areas we don't need a tent!

Yes, in Finland I would use a tent during the summer... ;0)
With two moskito mesh inner tents!
;0)

We were hiking there in the summer holidays in leather shorts.

It really was a pleasure!

Really a pleasure to get in the evening a smoky fire started inside our large lavvu, to get rid of the midges!

;0)
 

Janne

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Magerkäse.
Magerkäse is much nicer than the version from Austria. They glanced to much towards Italy!
:)

The only eay to make an existing jacket more breathable would be to create more ways for air to enter and exit, basically modifying it. Slots, holes.
Complicated. Better to buy something that is right from the beginning.
 
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Erbswurst

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Friesische Fischbrötchen they can't make in Austria, and they have no idea how to make a Buddelschipp.

Long under arms zippers would probably help to get air into the jacket.
 
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