General washing instructions for your outerwear to keep your gear around longer.

You wash your dog, you wash your bike, you wash your car, why wouldn&apos;t you wash your waterproof outerwear?Giving your technical shell jackets and pants a good schvitz helps improve performance and extends the life of your gear. We love nothing more than seeing a high-mileage jacket that&apos;s been well cared for by its owner.&#xA0;Specific care instructions come inside each garment (look at the tag!), but for the YouTube generation we&apos;ve created this handy video for sprucing up your dirty hardshell and softshell pieces. Two-layer garments can be washed in a similar fashion, however we recommend using spray-on DWR rather than the wash in products. Lastly, when you dry an insulated piece, throw a tennis ball or two in the dryer with it. This will help keep the insulation evenly distributed.When washing any technical garment, we always recommend Nikwax products.&#xA0; <iframe title="vimeo-player" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/124848503?h=d91c50c7a7" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>&#xA0;&#xA0;</iframe>

How do I... Take Care of My Gear?

<h2 id="new-vents-no-bueno">New vents, no bueno!</h2>Don&apos;t leave the house without some Gear Aid tenacious tape on hand. It&apos;s waterproof, peel and stick and should hold over any rip (unless you tore off a whole sleeve) through your season. NoSo patches are also a great option if you want to get funky with it.&#xA0;

How do I... Repair a Tear in My Gear?

Our gloves come pre-treated with a waterproof coating. So, you should be good from the get-go.&#xA0;But after a season or two of heavy use, it&apos;s always a good idea to treat your leather with a re-waterproofing balm. Many of the leather gloves &#xA0;we sell comes with a little packet of Nikwax glove treatment. We recommend Nikwax, Sno-Seal, or any similar leather balm for reinvigorating those essential hand ovens. &#xA0;The pre-bake is key. Heat the oven to 165, or as low as it&#x2019;ll go. (Any hotter and it&#x2019;ll melt the plastic clips). Warm the gloves first to open the pores. Then slather them all over with Sno-Seal bee&#x2019;s wax treatment (sold at most hardware stores). Back into the oven for a few minutes. On the second treatment of the wax, focus on the palms and the seams. Put them back into the oven until they look dry.For any of our leather gloves, you can also just rub the balm on any areas of open leather (try to avoid the fabric, but it won&apos;t hurt if you get some on there). Make sure to get all the nooks and crannies like you&apos;re moisturizing your own hands. Leave them to dry for about a day and head back out there, ready to be knuckle deep in powder. Watch the video below for the how to.<iframe width="100%" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/461950999" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen class="fr-draggable">&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;</iframe>

How Do I... Re-Waterproof My Gloves?

A few crowd sourced ideas for cleaning up stains on technical gear.

So Fresh and So CleanSo you dropped a chicken wing in your lap, or got too close to a greased lift? First, sounds like you had an awesome day! Second, we have a few crowd sourced ideas for stains on technical gear. Please keep in mind that these are all just suggestions, and we can not guarantee this will improve the look of your gear, so proceed at your own risk.&#xA0;Some folks think a combo of baking soda and water is good (make sure to spot treat somewhere inconspicuous to test), leave it on overnight and rinse in the morning. Some folks have had luck with lemon essential oil on grease, just a small bit at a time. OxiClean can work but use it sparingly and definitely spot test first! For sticky sap for those tree hugging Flylow friends, we recommend freezing it as best you can and chipping away with a credit card.&#xA0;We also highly recommend your local gear shop or your local outdoor gear clean and repair shop. Those folks who have been through it all.

How Do I... Clean Unwanted Stains?

Make your jacket last longer and stay drier by re-upping your Durable Water Repellent coating.

<div itemprop="articleBody"><h2 id="weve-always-encouraged-our-customers-to-take-care-of-their-products-which-means-fixing-repairs-washing-gear-and-reapplying-durable-water-repellent-or-dwr-to-help-extend-the-lifetime-of-your-jacket-or-ski-pants">We&#x2019;ve always encouraged our customers to take care of their products, which means fixing repairs, washing gear, and reapplying Durable Water Repellent, or DWR, to help extend the lifetime of your jacket or ski pants.</h2><iframe title="vimeo-player" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/312007143?h=dfcfa9d949" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen class="fr-draggable">&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;&#xA0;</iframe>A DWR coating is a factory-applied treatment that goes on technical waterproof/breathable outerwear to help boost that water-resiliency of the membrane. That coating helps the fabric shed water droplets&#x2014;like rain rolling off a wetsuit&#x2014;so you don&#x2019;t get wetness or dampness on the inside of your shell. In short: You need your DWR to be working at its finest in order to stay dry in a storm. But DWR fades over time and gets worn down by dirt, oil, and other contaminants, as well as frequent wet storm days or friction against the fabric.First, see if your DWR is still holding up. You can spray water on your jacket or run it under the sink and see if the water beads up on the surface. If it does, you&#x2019;re good to go. If the water gets absorbed by the fabric&#x2014;you&#x2019;ll see wet, dark splotches as it wets out&#x2014;you&#x2019;re likely due for a DWR reapplication. It doesn&#x2019;t mean your jacket is done&#x2014;it just needs a little TLC (or DWR, to be exact) to get through the next storm cycle.Step 1: Wash Your GarmentGrab a Nikwax Combo Pack, which comes with your washing treatment and your DWR treatment and is 100 percent fluorocarbon-free. You can often find this product at your local ski or outdoor gear shop. First step is to wash the jacket or pants to get rid of grime, dirt, body oil&#x2014;all the stuff that can get in the way of your new DWR treatment sticking to the fabric. Follow the instructions on the Nikwax Tech Wash. This is something you can do at home in your standard front-loading washing machine. (Just make sure you clean out your detergent drawer beforehand to get rid of any residual detergent.)Step 2: Apply Your DWR TreatmentRead the directions on your DWR treatment&#x2014;the Nikwax version says to apply the wash-in coating while the garment is still wet (others may say to dry it first, so just follow the instructions). You can get a spray-on or wash-in DWR&#x2014;both work great. We typically recommend using a spray-on DWR for two-layer garments and the wash-in for shells, but you can&#x2019;t go wrong either wayThe one we sell in the two-pack is the Nikwax TX Direct Wash-In, which means you run the jacket or pants through the washing machine one more time, with the wash-in DWR treatment added to the machine and set to warm water and gentle&#x2014;but follow specific care instructions inside the garment. Make sure all the zippers are zipped up and pockets closed before you toss the jacket into the machine, and make sure you&#x2019;re washing the garment alone or with no more than two other garments (not, say, with a load of your regular laundry). If you use the spray-on DWR, it&#x2019;s best to do that outside.Step 3: Let it DryAfter you&#x2019;ve washed and applied the DWR, let it dry. You can pop it in your home drier for 20 minutes on medium heat. Or let it completely air dry in a warm space. After that, feel free to test the water repellency again. If done right, you should be fully outfitted for the next powder day.How Frequently You Need to Reapply DWRYou can reapply DWR as many times as you want. And there&#x2019;s no hard and fast rule as to how frequently you should re-coat your outerwear in DWR. Some skiers do this at the end or beginning of every winter season, part of their take-care-of-your-gear ritual. If you use your coat every day in a downpour, you might need to do it mid-season to keep things waterproof. In short: We recommend washing and replenishing your DWR at least once per season, or more if the piece gets heavily used in wet conditions.You Can Outsource This If You WantIf you don&#x2019;t feel like dealing with this process yourself, see if you have a local outerwear repair shop that cleans and fixes technical gear&#x2014;places like <a href="https://www.tectahoe.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none;">Technical Equipment Cleaners</a> in Truckee, <a href="https://rainypass.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none;">Rainy Pass Repair</a> in Seattle, or <a href="https://bouldermtnrepair.com/repairshop/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style=" text-decoration: none;">Boulder Mountain Repair</a> in Boulder do this type of service with the highest level of professionalism. &#xA0;</div>

How Do I... Re-Waterproof My Outerwear?

Help Center

Tips for keeping your gear around longer, from washing to repairs to reapplying waterproof treatment.

Product Care

How do I... Take Care of My Gear?

How do I... Repair a Tear in My Gear?

How Do I... Re-Waterproof My Gloves?

How Do I... Clean Unwanted Stains?

How Do I... Re-Waterproof My Outerwear?