thirdcrank wrote: ↑16 Nov 2022, 10:12am
Once upon a time, Soft Shell was a Goretex brand - garments made from a fabric with no waterproof qualities, but with a membrane to keep out the wind . The label "Windstopper" was a clue The soft shell description was soon being applied willy-nilly to all manner of garments. (I must have posted before that I picked up a real bargain at the Musto outlet in York when they had some Goretex jackets with "Softshell" embroidered on the sleeve. It's the best general purpose rain jacket I have, but much too heavy for cycling.)
My memory is the term came from elsewhere (it's notable it doesn't seem to be trademarked) and Gore jumped on the bandwagon. Even though Windstopper is generally considered "soft shell", the original "Goretex Softshell" was (again IIRC) standard Goretex with a fleece backer, so it was by most definitions an insulated hard shell... but there was a bandwagon to be jumped on and various folk got the idea that "soft" referred to the feel as opposed to its waterproofing being distinctly lower than a hard shell.
Another thing is that Windstopper is actually waterproof. It's Goretex Mk 1, in fact, but the reason that was deprecated as a waterproof was if it got contaminated it tended to leak, so Mk 2 and on had a very thin PU smear to keep it clean which stopped it leaking but did reduce the breathability quite a bit. Since Windstopper isn't being relied on to keep folk dry the garments don't have the seams taped either, so they will leak through the needle holes in those.
The practical upshot is that Windstopper and similar membrane-based (e.g. Polartec Winbloc) soft shell fabrics are much better at keeping rain out than those without a membrane and more windproof, but the flip side is they're relatively less breathable and if they
do get wet through take forever and a day to dry.
Moral of the story remains set out your requirements in terms of tangible, measurable things (e.g., is it windproof?, is it (un)insulated?, is it fast drying? etc.) and choose according to those, and if the answer is a garment that happens to be a "soft shell", for whatever marketing definition that is, then that doesn't really matter.
Pete.
Often seen riding a bike around Dundee...