Why your jacket feels like it is leaking

Nine times out of ten it is not leaking. It has wet out.

A waterproof shell has a durable water repellent (DWR) finish on its outer face. Its job is to make water bead and run off so the face fabric never saturates. When that finish wears down, the face fabric soaks up water instead. The membrane or coating underneath is still holding liquid water out, but a saturated outer face blocks vapour from escaping, so your own sweat condenses on the inside. You feel damp, cold and convinced the jacket has failed.

How to tell the difference: hold the jacket under a tap. If water beads and rolls off, the DWR is fine. If the fabric darkens and absorbs, the DWR is gone and the jacket needs reproofing, not replacing.

DWR wears off from abrasion, dirt, body oils and washing. Dirt is the biggest culprit, which creates the awkward tension at the heart of shell care: the jacket needs cleaning to work, and cleaning wears the finish. The resolution is to wash rarely but properly, and spot clean in between.

Before you wash: spot cleaning

VEAR's own care guide is explicit about this and it is good advice for any shell: avoid washing frequently unless it is genuinely necessary, and use wet wipes or a damp cloth to spot clean stains and dirt instead.

Most of what makes a jacket look dirty is on the cuffs, the collar and the front placket, and all three can be handled with a damp cloth in two minutes. That is the difference between washing a shell four times a year and once.

The wash, step by step

1. Empty every pocket. Obvious, and still the most common way a jacket gets damaged.
2. Leave zipped pockets open. This stops them filling with water during the cycle and makes drying much faster. VEAR's care guide specifies this.
3. Close all velcro flaps. Open velcro abrades the face fabric and catches on itself, and on other garments.
4. Close the main zip. A zip flailing through a cycle damages the fabric it hits.
5. Remove detachable parts and wash them separately. VEAR's guide recommends washing the mask and beanie separately so the other components, particularly the zips, are not subjected to unnecessary wear.
6. Use a liquid technical detergent. Not powder, not biological detergent, and never fabric softener or bleach. VEAR's care guide names all three to avoid: fabric softener, powdered detergent and bleach.
7. Wash cool on a gentle cycle. The care instructions documented on VEAR's SGS test report specify machine wash cold at 30 °C, no bleach, no ironing, no dry cleaning and no tumble drying.
8. Run an extra rinse. Detergent residue attracts water and undermines the DWR, so this step matters more than it sounds.
9. Air dry. Hang in a well-ventilated place, away from direct sunlight and away from heat sources such as radiators.

Why fabric softener is the worst thing you can do. Softener works by coating fibres with a thin lubricating film. That film is hydrophilic, meaning it attracts water, which is the exact opposite of what a DWR finish does. One wash with softener can undo a reproofing job, and the residue is difficult to remove afterwards. There is no situation in which a technical shell benefits from it.

The same logic applies to washing a shell in a machine that has just run a softener cycle. If yours is used with softener regularly, run an empty rinse first.

Reproofing the DWR

VEAR's care guide says to reapply DWR after approximately three to five washings, or as needed, using a spray-on product designed for waterproof garments and following that manufacturer's instructions.

Spray-on is the right choice for a lined jacket, which is why VEAR's guide specifies it. The method:

1. Reproof onto a clean, damp garment. Both matter. Dirt blocks the treatment and dampness helps it spread evenly.
2. Spray evenly across the outer face from about 15 cm, paying attention to the shoulders, upper back and forearms, which wear first.
3. Wipe any excess off with a damp cloth so it does not dry in patches.
4. Let it dry as the product instructs.

A note on heat. Many reproofing products are activated by warmth, and many general guides recommend a tumble dryer on low for twenty minutes. Do not do that with a VEAR jacket. VEAR's care guide is explicit that tumble drying damages coatings, laminates and membranes, and the SGS-documented care instruction is no tumble drying. Follow the reproofing product's non-heat instructions, or ask its manufacturer for a heat-free option.

When reproofing will not fix it

Reproofing restores water repellency. It does not repair a garment. If the tap test shows good beading and you are still getting wet, look at these instead:

• Seam tape lifting. Turn the jacket inside out and look along the shoulder and hood seams. Peeling or bubbling tape means water is entering at the stitch holes. Some tapes can be re-bonded; many cannot.
• Delamination. The inner face looks bubbled or feels like it is separating. This is end of life for that panel, and usually for the garment.
• Zip failure. A split or misaligned zip lets water straight in and is often repairable, unlike the other two.
• It was never the jacket. Condensation from your own body under high effort feels identical to a leak. If the inside is wet but the outside beads well and the wet patches are on your back and chest rather than your shoulders, you are looking at sweat.

Expect performance to decline over a garment's life regardless of care. VEAR's guide says this plainly: with regular use and washing, waterproofness decreases over time as the DWR wears, and waterproof garments eventually need maintenance to retain their effectiveness. That is true of every shell on the market.

Wash rarely, cool, with liquid technical detergent and never softener, then reproof with a spray after three to five washes. If water no longer beads, the jacket has not failed, it needs reproofing.

Care summary for VEAR products

Sources checked 19 August 2026. Where the garment label and this article ever disagree, follow the label.

These instructions apply to the VEAR Jacket and VEAR Pants, whose shell is the coated 100% polyester tested on what the SGS tests actually measured. Check the label on winter products, which use a different shell construction.

Quick glossary

• DWR: durable water repellent, the finish on the outer face that makes water bead off.
• Wet-out: saturation of the face fabric, which stops the jacket breathing and feels like a leak.
• Technical detergent: a liquid detergent formulated for waterproof and breathable fabrics, without softeners or optical brighteners.
• Reproofing: reapplying DWR to restore water repellency.
• Delamination: the membrane separating from the face fabric, which is not repairable.
• Seam tape: bonded tape sealing stitch holes on the inside of a garment.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• VEAR's full care guide: the published instructions this article follows.
• Waterproof and breathability ratings explained: what wet-out does to the numbers.
• Sizing between two sizes: the other common objection.
• Merino vs synthetic travel layers: different fabrics, different rules.
• Our lab test results and the practical travel wardrobe.