But a few companies have stuck with waxed cotton, which remains much more suited to workwear and carries the look and history of a real outdoorsman don’t expect the paper-thin liner of your standard synthetic zip-up to survive a stray edge when you’re cutting down a tree. Since then a slew of synthetic, breathable and waterproof fabrics have been developed - and used in those lightweight North Face jackets everybody wears. The new material made for flexible, warm, durable and waterproof clothing that was quickly adopted by soldiers, outdoorsmen and sailors. Then, in the early 20th century, manufacturers developed a process for impregnating cotton with paraffin wax.
The sailors started cutting jackets out of the oiled sailcloth for themselves, wearing early editions of the rain jacket, but these primitive designs, made with linseed oil, became stiff in the cold and faded in color.
The solution was rubbing oil into the sailcloths, making them more efficient and also water repellent so they stayed light in the rain. Early sailors realized that wet sails caught the wind better than dry sails, but wet sails were too heavy and slowed the ships down. Before there were synthetic fabrics, before Gore-Tex and “weatherproof breathability,' there was thick cotton and a can of wax.
