Rainwear Central Rainwear Forum

Why are PVC and rubber raincoats less common these days?

Because in the mass market everyone went for nylon. In fact PVC does seem to be making a bit of a comeback - see topshop and new look threads.
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What slightly surprises me is that latex has never made a comeback as ecologically more sound than leather or oil-based fabrics.

I live in North America and I believe there are laws to plasticizers that can no longer be used because of environmental factors and the concerns that PVC is unsafe because phthalates. Latex raincoats I do not think were really in fashion at all in America.

There are no laws I'm aware of in North Amereica against PVC and rubber. Most PVC/vinyl products, whereever they are made (China mostly), are phalate free which can be done as a matter of course. The cost of manufacture is much less in China, so we don't have PVC products made much in the USA. The PVC products I've seen and purchased over the last three or four years do not have the odor that goes with the old school raincoats. Science has apparently advanced, so now just need to get the market appeal back!

In Germany the most People use Goretex and similar functional materials. They want high wearing comfort: They want coats that "breathe" so that they do not sweat so much i think. Also it seems that most people want the normal "textil" look instead of the "plastic" look.

In the year 2000, inb germany a ban of PVC was discussed due to the environmental factors but the PVC industry was so mighty that the law never came through, so there is no ban of PVC products in Germany.

I also think latex would fit the environmental protection best as the leathe rproduction is very dirty. As i saw a documentation of about how they produce leather in china, i think even pvc would be more environmental friendly then leather. Also leather contains a lot of poisoning products like chrome, so i think leather is even more unsafe than PVC.

But in germany unfortunately the fashion went to goretex and other nylon-like materials. Yellow Latex raincoats may be more common in "Ostfriesland", d.h. in the northeast of germany, fehmarn and so on as there, near the sea, the weather is really strong with strong wind and strong rain. PVC (or leather with Vinyl look)is seldomly but sometimes worn by some woman in the age of 40-60 and also by turkish woman in the age of 18-30 and also sometimes by italien woman in the age of 25-50. It's not seen often in germany

after buying two shiny pvc raincoats, it is almost like they are made of rubber. I love that creaky sound and the smooth feeling where I never want to take it off. In fact, I try to sleep in them. Gortex and Nylon do not appeal to me because I find the material boring regardless of how practical it is. To me, a raincoat should either be made of PVC or rubber.

The breathability factor of Gore-tex is overrated. I had a gore-tex jacket once, when I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I got just as sweaty in that jacket as I did in any of my rubber, or cotton-backed pvc raincoats, and it didn't do any better of a job keeping the rain out than those other coats, and it had the added drawback of doing nothing whatsoever to give me any kind of sexy feeling . Nothing comes close to a rubber raincoat when it comes to simply keeping the rain off. And nothing makes my dick harder than wearing a rubber raincoat, other than seeing a beautiful woman wearing one.

yes, goretex and so on is boring: functional (but as you say, it does not really prevent sweating) but not sexy. PVC and rubber feel and look fantastic.

Agreed, the shiny appearance and the soft texture are make it more appealing. As for PVC, I go smooth all the way. I don't like the textured because the material feels more stiff and less rubbery like a shower curtain.