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Senior Research Paper Jackets
Senior Research Paper Jackets
Ben Bergloff
Mrs. Gatfield
British Lit
3 May 2019
Testing Jackets Matters - How do companies test their jackets for real-life work?
Have you been in a place where you had to buy a jacket for an outdoor activity where you
did not want to restricted from movement or to be too cold, or too hot? Body temperature is very
important for us. A article from Mons Winter Gear Box says, “The purpose of clothing is to
ensure that the proper body temperature is maintained according to the intensity of the work that
is being carried out” (Mons 1). Jackets “should insulate from the cold and offer protection
against wind, rain, and snow. It should also provide the possibility for ventilation so that if
required, surplus heat may be released” (Mons). To end this is showing that body temperature is
Today there are many outdoor recreational activities, and many of these activities require
warmth for your body. For example, activities such as snowboarding, ice climbing, and
backpacking require warmth, yet must be functional for different levels of experience and
rigorous activity. Outdoor recreational enthusiasts need to choose their jacket based on needed
functionality, weather conditions, and their activity level. Jacket manufacturers need to test their
products in order to provide their customers with the products that meet their customers’ needs.
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In order to fulfill customer needs, Jacket manufacturers test the quality of their jackets by using
To begin with, companies such as North Face and Eddie Bauer need to prove quality and
durability with their products, so that they must meet needed functionality and weather durability
standards. These companies test with major experiments and put their products to their limits for
consumer purchasing. In the North Face lab they “place a one-inch by one-inch square tube over
the fabric to measure how much water the fabric can stand before it leaks.” North Face also does
some pressure testing to simulate wind to see if their jackets can withstand Earth's wind (The
North Face 2). Gore-Tex, a company partnered with North Face, provides waterproof fabric for
their jackets. They do some major laboratory testing with their fabric. Gore-Tex does a series of
tests such as, “The Comfort Test,” “The Rain Room,” “ The Cold Flex Test” and “The
Martindale Test (Gore-Tex 4-7) These series of tests will determine if their products can
withstand the conditions of Mother Nature. To start off with the comfort test,
“Comfort is the state in which were neither too warm nor too cold when there’s a balance
between the heat we produce and the heat we lose. We compare laboratory measurements
with personal feelings of comfort from our testers. This ensures the best possible comfort
This test is showing that they are testing the products on a person and doing some major testing
“Our very own weather machine. This sophisticated testing facility is designed to
simulate a wide variety of rain conditions. Using specially engineered rain nozzles
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This test is showing that engineers are making mock rain and testing it to make sure that the
fabric is water resistant or waterproof. Lastly, Gore-Tex is showing that they do some hardcore
testing in other company's products with the help of their testing facilities. Gore-Tex has put
millions of dollars in their testing abilities and labs, and they want to ensure that companies
In addition to Gore-Tex, a company called Prevention, also known as (testing one, two
and three), They have a team of lab techs and they test many, many products, and not just
jackets. For one of their tests, they were testing jackets in August in one of the hottest days of the
year. They “set to test several dozen winter jackets to determine which ones really perform in
below freezing temperatures. Finding the right location,without shipping half the staff to
Antarctica, proved a challenge. But our resourceful we test it team came up with just the place.”
They came up with an ice freezer to test the jackets to see if the jackets can withstand the
freezing temperatures of the ice color. To wrap up we see how companies took the jackets and
put them to the test with artificial lab testing to see if the jackets can withstand elements of life.
As a result of this, we see how labs test their jackets and how it's very important to test because
consumers want the best out of the best jackets out there as possible.
We see that lab testing is very beneficial to companies however we also recognize that
jacket companies want to test their jackets in the real world to see if the jacket can withstand
elements of life. For example, North Face has done their own testing with their jackets that deals
with some famous outdoor enthusiasts. North Face athlete Victor De Le Rue, is a major
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snowboarder but he also tests jackets for North Face to make sure that their jackets can withstand
The owner of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, said that all products get passed by him before
production. The way he tests the product to see if they can withstand nature's elements, he takes
jackets to different parts of “Europe to climb or south america to fish” (Chouinard 2) to test the
Patagonia products. Patagonia made some very great points on how their jackets gets passed by
testing and gets to production for consumer buying. Lastly, Eddie Bauer also does testing in the
elements of mother nature. They took one of their jackets called BC EverTherm and they took it
out on a Teton summit expedition last winter. Eddie Bauer said that this jacket with standard the
elements because it had the long hemline that offered great coverage in the back even while
swinging ice tools overhead.To conclude this section, The North Face testing methods we see
how they test and why. Companies show the buyer why it's important to test their jackets so they
know that the product is well made and that the jacket will withstand mother nature's elements of
life.
To wrap up, jacket manufacturers take lots of time and money into testing their jackets
for our world life elements. For snowboarders, to people in Antartica, we see that jackets need to
meet everyone's needs. Rain, wind, and snow are some of the basic elements in life. This is really
a big so what factor because we can ask why do companies test their different jackets. The
number one answer is that they want to make sure that the human body will maintain its steady
temperature. Over all we see how companies test their jackets and we see how both testing
methods are necessary because it gives us too perspectives on how the jackets will perform
outdoors.
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Works Cited
WELCH, LIZ. “The Way I Work.” Inc, vol. 35, no. 2, Mar. 2013, pp. 94–97. EBSCOhost
Ellis, Rosemary. “Testing, One, Two, Three.” Prevention, vol. 57, no. 1, Jan. 2005, p. 27.
EBSCOhost
www.thenorthface.com/.
www.gore-tex.com/.