(BRAIN) — GOREWEAR, the cycling and running apparel division of W. L. Gore & Associates, will leave the market next year, a source familiar with the company’s decision confirmed to BRAIN on Thursday.
W.L. Gore, a privately held company with annual sales of about $5.3 billion, will remain an OE supplier of textiles including GORE-TEX to apparel brands in cycling and other segments.
The materials science company does most of its business in the medical, electronics, automobile, aerospace and other industries. It launched the GOREWEAR brand in 1984 with a GORE-TEX cycling jacket; in 2015 it celebrated its 30 years in the market with a special “1984” apparel collection.
The brand began offering running apparel in 1997; in 2018 the company combined its GORE RUNNING WEAR and GORE CYCLING WEAR brands into the GOREWEAR brand.
While GOREWEAR is operated independently of the company’s OE fabric business, it was sometimes described as a “proof of concept” endeavor, bringing Gore's latest technologies to market.
BikeBiz, a German publication, reported Thursday that German retailers recently received a letter from the company saying it would accept wholesale orders until march 2026 and then wind down the brand. A U.S. source familiar with the company’s decision confirmed to BRAIN that the news was correct.
