Can you dye Goretex?

[Mick F]

I have a lined Goretex cycling jacket. Must've had it more than 25years and it's rather faded and tired looking, though in great condition otherwise.

Our daughter dyed some bath towels the other day and I was mighty impressed how easy it was and how effective the dye gave the towels a new lease of life.

Maybe dying my jacket would give it a new lease of life?
It's yellow (faded in patches) but any colour might be nice. Blue sounds good.

Can it be done with Goretex?

https://www.dylon.co.uk/en/home/product ... e-dye.html

[philvantwo]

No, it'll block up the pores in the gortex.
Time for a new jacket!!

[Mick F]

I doubt it'll block anything up. It's a dye, not a "paint". Goretex comes in many different colours, so they must colour the thing originally.

I would worry about the membrane being damaged by the chemicals and wondered if my worry was founded or not.

My old jacket is still good, and it's still waterproof. I have a newer one but it's not lined.

[Mick F]

I've contacted Goretex UK and asked the question.
https://www.gore-tex.co.uk/support/contact-us

[Darkman]

I used to print t-shirts for a living and I'm 99% certain you won't be able to dye it. Man-made materials require a completely different process and you'd usually need to use dye-sub.

A dye that's been successfully used on cotton towels will not take to that kind of fabric. And even if it did, the dye will come out all over your skin and it definitely wouldn't survive a wash.

[RickH]

Whether or not it will affect the goretex membrane, the other thing to consider is what the fabric is (& possibly how it was originally dyed) as that will determine the likelihood of subsequent dyes working, or not.

[Darkman]

Just found this on the Dylon website:

Doesn't specifically mention Gore-Tex but as before, man-made fabrics just don't work with the same dyes as cotton.

[Mick F]

That info there says you can dye viscose and polyester. Both man-made fibres.
You can't dye dry-clean only items, but Goretex is machine washable.

There's no info label on my jacket except for the care instructions.

[AndyK]

Which synthetic fabrics can I dye?
This is a trick question. The answer is: none. Synthetic fabrics cannot be dyed with either DYLON Dye – they just won’t hold the colour. In case you want to identify synthetic fibres (so you know what to avoid), some of the most common ones are:

Goretex
Lycra
Nylon
Polyester
Spandex

- https://www.dylon.co.uk/en/home/blog/dy ... i-dye.html

[Darkman]

Viscose isn't man-made.

It says you can dye a polyester/cotton or polyester/viscose mix to a lighter shade. The reason it's lighter is because the dye will not take to polyester. The higher the polyester content, the paler the result will be. You can't use this dye on pure polyester - it says so.

You can get a lot from care instructions if you read between the lines. I.e. if it says to wash only with similar colours, or on a cool/warm only wash, that basically means the fabric isn't colourfast and the dye will come out. Likewise if it says "do not iron", 9/10 times that's because the heat from the iron resublimates the dye (or it will damage the fabric itself i.e. silk).

[Mick F]

You can iron silk quite nicely.
I had a silk shirt and Mrs Mick F still has a silk scarf somewhere.
Both have been ironed many many times.

Viscose is man made. It's a sort of Rayon artificial silk I understand. Some man made fibres are from naturally occurring sources and some are from the petro-chemical industries.

Here's the label on my old jacket.
Rather inconclusive.

[Mick F]

Got a reply.

Dear Mr Fairhurst,

Thank you for contacting GORE-TEX Brand Services.

We do not recommend dying GORE-TEX® products. Dying at home works and suits cotton products, however not synthetic material such as PES or PA.You could dye your garment only at your own risk.

We would like to inform you that you also can address our GORE Wear division for further information; below is the contact information for the GORE Wear division.

https://www.gorewear.com/uk/en-uk/home? ... ctor=en_GB

00800 4508 4508 (Mon-Fri, 08:00 - 16:00)

CUSTOMERCARE@EU.GOREWEAR.COM

It's what they don't say that's interesting.
They say I could, not that I shouldn't.

Maybe I'm being optimistic about all this?
The jacket was bought in Devon Cycles at Frankfort Gate, Plymouth city centre in the late-ish 1980s .......... it owes me nothing, so it could be worth a punt in dying it.

Had to look up what PES and PA was.
https://www.joelandsonfabrics.com/uk/fa ... reviations

[Mick F]

Devon Cycles used to be there.
Long since gone.
Good shop back in the old days.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.37177 ... 312!8i6656

[andrew_s]

Goretex itself is PTFE, the same as the inside of your non-stick pans, and much the same dark grey colour. Consult the colour choices available in Shakedry jackets to see how far Gore themselves have got trying to dye it.

However what you see as your jacket is the face fabric laminated to the outside of the goretex (usually nylon), and that can be dyed, as can be seen from the wide variety of colours available.
If you can get hold of some dye that will work on nylon, and the DWR (durable water repellent) coating on your jacket isn't intact enough to interfere overmuch, you may get somewhere.
However, I'd expect that there would be enough DWR left that the results would be pretty uneven.

[Polisman]

I'd still be worried about damaging the goretex membrane. The only thing I tried was to iron a goretex jacket on a low heat to get back the waterproof qualities, which worked a treat.