The Joe Brown Gore-Tex Jacket
Since our doors opened in 1966, Joe Brown’s has been at the forefront, providing the best kit available for heading outdoors. Joe himself, designed and made a wealth of climbing hardware, offering some of the earliest affordable climbing safety equipment for the boom in adventure sports throughout the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s.
From helmets to harnesses, from slings to crampon straps - the range of items grew to include the iconic Joe Brown wool shirt, a windproof anorak, heavy duty PU waterproofs and even base layers. However, none of our current team had even heard of a Joe Brown Gore-Tex jacket!
It was earlier this year, in response to our 60th Anniversary when a lovely lady: Wendy Tout Hughes came in and asked if we would be interested in seeing her old jacket. Seeing the Gore-tex label we knew it was something special and inside was proof it had been made in Llanberis just around the corner from the shop.
Snowdon Mouldings originally operated from Snowdon Street, owned by climbers Mo & Jackie Antoine. Mo had begun making the iconic Joe Brown fibre glass helmet with Joe in 1968 eventually selling to climbers all over the world as well as NATO & the FBI. He then went onto create the Curver Ice Axe and after getting fed up with tents leaking on his expeditions his interest turned to making tents and bivvies from a new fabric called Gore-Tex. The Snowdon Mouldings Limpet tent became a favourite with UK special forces and over 1000 Snowdon Mouldings bivvy bags were used during the Falklands War.
Gore-Tex, of course, required special machinery for taping etc and to make the best of their investment and in the early 80’s Jackie Anthoine began to create clothing - working with Val & Joe Brown; the Joe Brown Gore-Tex jacket was born.
Looking good Wendy!
But the story got better……
Wendy mentioned that she had known Joe and was, in fact one of two novices who travelled out to the Alps in 1964 to climb with him and Tom Patey, completing the Frendo Spur before climbing on the Matterhorn. Five of them and all their gear (including an accordion) squeezed into Tom’s small car and Wendy has happy memories of Tom playing and singing songs to entertain them of an evening. Joe even describes the trip in his book The Hard Years.
With kind permission from Wendy, the jacket will remain on display in our window until September, playing a key role in showing how Gore-Tex jackets have changed over the past 40 years, not just in design but in performance and how we need to care for them as they evolve to work for the environment as well as protecting us from the elements.
If you are visiting our Llanberis shop take a moment to look at this little piece of Joe Brown history, check out the amount of taping and the incredible skill required to build a Gore-Tex jacket alongside the slimline, 3D patterned fit of modern technical Gore-Tex jackets and trousers. You’ll also see information on how to care for modern Gore-Tex products and listen to why in our series of great podcasts, where we talk with industry specialists about why washing your Gore-tex jacket is a good thing.
Part 1 - with Debbie Read, Head of Corporate Communications and CSR at Equip Outdoor Technologies to discuss why chemicals that have been used in waterproof garments for years are being phased out and how this will effect performance.
Part 2 - with Laura Howe, Fabric Technologist at Mountain Equipment, to discuss how new waterproof fabrics are chosen, tested and built in to technical garment design.
Part 3 - with Tim Francis Regional Trainer and Account Manager for Grangers International, to discuss why new waterproof fabrics will need to be washed and re-proofed more frequently than older garments and how you can do this simply and easily at home.
We love seeing old Joe Brown kit. If you have any you would like to donate or simply a favourite piece you are happy to share a photo of - pop in or e-mail!
