Gore have a reputation for incredible attention to functional detail, so it probably shouldn’t come as any surprise that the company have turned to traditional, but fiercely effi cient, polypropylene for their first base layer.
The body fabric has a sleek, very synthetic handle, but it doesn’t wear that way – in fact you hardly notice that it’s there. The windproof panel has a much more supple feel than we’d expected too and overall the feel is much softer than other windproof base layers.
What grabs you first, however, isn't the material but the weight – or rather lack of it. This is one featherweight top and out of the box it was stretching our credulity that it would provide effective windproofing as well as wicking base layer performance. But incredibly, it does.
Heading out in a favourite jersey that usually needs pairing with a gilet on breezy days it was just as effective as wearing an outer layer but with a much higher comfort level. The fit is neat but not skinny tight and although this isn’t super-cheap we have become too spoiled by its lightweight performance to give it up.
