How MTN Gear Keeps Rental Apparel Ready for Action
Keeping Rental Apparel Ready for Action
A key difference between MTN Gear and traditional retail is the capability to rent our outdoor apparel and gear. If you choose to rent a piece of gear with us, we want it as close to new condition to ensure an exceptional experience. We feature brands like Helly Hansen, Marmut, Mammut, and Outdoor Research that invest in innovative fabrics and technqiues, plus sustainabile practices for best in class gear. They build outdoor gear that is extremely robust and built to withstand the harshest mountain conditions over many seasons. The most important step to keeping technical gear in top shape is cleaning - regardless if you rent or own!
Clean Gear is Top Peforming Gear
Not only do we want you to have a fresh garment to wear and feel comfortable in for your outdoor adventure, our cleaning process ensures the garment performs at an optimal level. Removal of dirt and grime from the material promotes breathability and the drying process refreshes the Durable Water Repellant (DWR) finishing of the materials used in technical outerwear. The goal is to keep external moisture and wind at bay, while allowing body moisture (sweat) vapor to escape away from the body. This keeps you dry and allows for efficient and consistent body temperature management. It's the key to staying comfortable in the often inclement mountain conditions.
MTN GEAR Rental Cleaning Process
Our cleaning process depends on the type of garment and the stage at which the gear is in its lifecycle. We use a wide range of products from NikWax®, the leader in environmentally friendly outdoor gear cleaning products. Here's our process:
- Inspection – Cuffs, areas near the face, or hems near bottoms of pants are typical areas that require attention for damage and use.
- Pre-Treatment – Based on inspection, we pre-treat required attention areas. We always pre-treat areas near the face and cuffs by hand to ensure a deep clean.
- Clean – We wash each garment using a specific NikWax® product: NikWax® TechWash for Gore-Tex or other technical waterproof fabrics, and NikWax® Down-Wash for insulators. These detergents are specially formulated to gently clean the highly engineered fabrics. We only use residential style washers / dryers in small batch loads; commercial units are too harsh for this type of cleaning process.
- DWR Treatment – Depending on the number of days on a garment, we perform a Durable Water Repellent (DWR) application using NikWax® TX Direct Spray On DWR. We focus on high wear areas such as shoulders, sleeves, thighs and backsides.
- Dry – Drying garments fully helps to re-engage the DWR finish on the fabrics and keeps the water shedding capabilities at a high performing level. We use low heat and adjust the dry time depending on garment type.
- Final Air Dry – After a low heat dry cycle, we use fans to promote complete drying allowing the fabrics to settle and gives us confidence the garment is ready for the next adventure.
Ready for Your Next Adventure
Providing gear in awesome condition is at the core of what we do. Our cleaning procedures ensures that what you’re wearing will be in great shape and protect you from the elements. We also offer an outdoor cleaning service. Your current gear may just need a good cleaning versus a discard. Our inhouse service will help you reduce waste and promote a more sustainable environment for the next generations of mountain explorers!
