The rain is drenching Darryl "Curtains" Jackson, coming down in heavy sheets from an overhead machine programmed to dump water droplets at a relentless rate of 3.25 inches an hour. Standing inside a grated-floor enclosure, he watches the simulated downpour drain away. "This is a nice, steady rain," he remarks, completely unfazed as the water cascades from the ceiling above.
Curtains, serving as Converse’s apparel director, is positioned right in the middle of the rain tower—a silvery, high-tech testing box located inside the biophysics lab at the Maryland campus of Gore, the renowned company behind waterproof and breathable Gore-Tex fabrics. The specialized tower has been engineered to simulate nasty weather of all kinds, ranging from slanted downpours and harsh winds to an insistent, driving drizzle. This controlled environment allows Gore to rigorously test the efficacy and durability of the advanced materials it manufactures for brands around the globe.
Even in the midst of this fabricated deluge, Curtains does not need an umbrella. On this particular day, he is wearing a hooded black zip-up jacket paired with orange and green high-top sneakers. These items form a core part of the Urban Utility collection, a brand-new line of weatherproof men’s footwear and outerwear that Converse has produced in collaboration with Gore. The Urban Utility initiative represents Converse’s very first foray into truly technical performance products, and Curtains is personally putting them through the wringer. Ten minutes into the intense rain test, the jacket and shoes are holding up exceptionally well, and Curtains remains completely dry. "I feel like I’m walking on dry land," he says, testing the limits of the gear.
This new line marks a significant departure for the historic brand. Owned by Nike, Converse released its first-ever collection of basic apparel only last year, making it a relative newcomer to the broader clothing market. At the same time, Converse’s signature shoes are not traditionally known for their ruggedness or weather resistance. A simple drizzly day can easily make the company’s trademark Chuck Taylor canvas sneakers feel like damp paper towels. For a certain type of loyal consumer, however, the shoe’s lightweight flimsiness is actually part of its enduring charm; within certain subcultures, the more weathered and beaten up your Chucks look, the better they are considered to be. The Urban Utility collection, on the other hand, is designed with an entirely opposite philosophy: to keep the harsh weather completely out.
Kicking Back
Despite its modern reputation as a casual lifestyle staple, the company actually possesses a hidden history of manufacturing utility shoes, a heritage that is rarely spoken about in mainstream marketing. When Marquis Mills Converse originally founded the company in 1908, his enterprise produced strictly galoshes and heavy rubber work boots. Later, during the turbulent years of World War II, Converse shifted production to create specialized footwear for soldiers serving on the front lines. More recently, the company has occasionally collaborated with specialized brands like Hunter to manufacture waterproof versions of Chuck Taylors and has experimented with lines of water-repellent sneakers designed to combat mild moisture.
By teaming up with Gore-Tex, Converse is now attempting to build a much more intentionally high-performance collection of goods that bridges two entirely different worlds. The new shoes and jacket feature Converse’s familiar casual DNA on the outside, while housing Gore’s cutting-edge technology on the interior. Adhered securely to the upper portion of the line’s three new pairs of shoes is a microscopically thin layer of Gore’s eponymous material. "You’ll never see the Gore-Tex unless you want to," explains Doug Crawford, an account manager at Gore who closely oversaw the collaborative project with Converse.
A few hours before Curtains found himself standing in the drenching rain room, he, Crawford, and a handful of other Gore employees were touring a different suburban office building where the company conducts the vast majority of its footwear-related research and development. "This is typically the amount of sweat a human foot gives off over the course of a day," says Jonathan Swegle, a footwear engineer at Gore, as he gently shakes a small vial filled with a clear liquid. "It’s a lot of moisture."
Gore-Tex is specifically engineered to transfer sweat away from the body, turning it into water vapor that can readily pass through the thin lining material, thereby drastically reducing the notorious "swamp-foot" effect common in heavy boots. Meanwhile, the microscopic pores of Gore-Tex are engineered to be extraordinarily small—roughly 9 billion per square inch—meaning that individual water droplets from an external downpour are far too large to penetrate the shoe from the outside. If the technology functions precisely as intended, it should successfully keep a wearer’s foot warm and dry during a cold, rainy day, while remaining cool and breathable when temperatures rise.
Stretch Goals
The foundational material itself has a fascinating origin story. Bob Gore first developed the revolutionary substance in the late 1960s when he abruptly and forcefully yanked a heated rod of polytetrafluoroethylene—a polymer widely known by its commercial use in Teflon non-stick cookware—simply to see how the material would react to the sudden physical stress. When stretched rapidly in this manner, solid PTFE expands by more than 800 percent, creating an
extraordinarily thin, micro-porous material composed of more than 70 percent air. Gore quickly learned that he could manipulate and tweak this bio-inert plastic to suit an array of diverse applications, ranging from critical medical implants to specialized electrical cables. Its most culturally mainstream application, however, came from fashioning the substance into a paper-thin membrane that could be laminated into garments or used as an internal lining to create completely breathable, water-resistant fabrics.
To ensure that the materials utilized in Converse’s new jacket and shoes are genuinely waterproof under real-world conditions, Gore has established an extensive and rigorous testing protocol inside its labyrinthine office park. The main testing laboratory is brightly lit and filled with an array of specialized machines designed to stretch, rub, and poke at the fabric incessantly. "We have 650 different tests we can perform," says Lynn Owens, a testing manager at Gore. She explains that not every single material undergoes every single test; rather, each individual fabric is methodically abused based on the specific environment it is expected to encounter out in the real world.
Consumer products manufactured for fashion brands like Converse do not necessarily require the exact same ultra-rigorous approval process mandated for heavy-duty military equipment, but the standards remain exceptionally high. Testing typically involves standard abrasion evaluations, such as rubbing the material continuously between two weighted surfaces to measure how long it takes to show wear. Furthermore, most materials spend dozens, if not hundreds, of continuous hours inside one of Gore’s 200 modified Kenmore washing machines, which have been specifically re-engineered to run without stopping. "This is the roughest environment they’ll ever see," Crawford notes regarding the punishing wash tests. Beyond the laundry simulations, most consumer products must also pass through the biophysics lab’s rain chamber, as well as a separate specialized room featuring rows of bright overhead bulbs that simulate blazing sunlight and powerful fans capable of creating ambient temperatures that plunge to 58 degrees below zero or soar up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
Street Smarts
While such extreme trials might seem like overkill for casual footwear, both Converse and Gore stand to gain a tremendous amount from a successful entry into the expanding market middle ground where outdoor functional gear meets high-end city fashion. Part of that overarching success depends heavily on technical performance, but an equally vital component relies on cultivating a distinct cool-factor. This exact necessity is why Converse deliberately partnered with the popular Italian streetwear store Slam Jam and artist Cali Dewitt, a creative figure closely associated with Kanye West, to help design several standout pieces within the collection. The new collection officially goes on sale at Slam Jam and select retailers.
The Urban Utility initiative marks Converse’s first serious attempt to capture a meaningful piece of the growing, highly competitive streetwear trend. For its part, Gore has already dipped its toes into this lucrative cultural stream. The company recently participated in a high-profile, highly sought-after collaboration between outdoor label The North Face and hyped streetwear giant Supreme to produce a collection of water-slicking gear. Items from that exclusive collection have since commanded resale prices upwards of $1,100 on platforms like eBay.
Back at Gore’s shoe headquarters, Curtains explains that Converse has historically been known throughout the cultural landscape for being broadly accessible, both financially and culturally. The Urban Utility line, however, is deliberately designed to edge the brand into a slightly more elevated, premium realm. Converse is ultimately hoping that the immediate consumer association with high-end Gore-Tex technology will compel its younger, style-conscious customers to comfortably drop $400 on an Urban Utility jacket and north of $150 on technical boots.
Those elevated price points are unlikely to shock anyone accustomed to buying apparel from brands like Supreme, which frequently utilizes manufactured exclusivity and premium pricing as core marketing tools. Yet, venturing into this territory is hardly the traditional playbook for Converse. Can a heritage sneaker brand truly compete in the rarefied, fast-moving world of modern streetwear? Curtains briefly pauses to ponder the question before answering with absolute confidence. "Absolutely," he says, smiling as he considers the enduring power of style. "Think about the coolest outfit in the history of time—a black leather jacket, a white t-shirt, blue Levi’s, and Converse."
