The eVENT Single Wall Tent: Here, Then Gone – What’s Replacing It?

Single wall tents made of the more-breathable-than-Gore-Tex eVENT fabric caused a lot of excitement upon their introduction a few years ago. At last, a nearly condensation free single wall tent was possible. Then suddenly, eVENT tents were no longer available. Now a new wave of fabrics touted as “highly breathable” are appearing in single wall tents. What happened? Are these new fabrics as good as eVENT?

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eVENT tents were shaking the market back in 2005 and Backpacking Light was on top of it. We tested several single-wall alpine four-season ("bomber") tents made of eVENT, and gave them rave reviews. We were flying high on the excitement of emerging technologies like ultra-breathable fabrics and Easton FX carbon fiber poles advancing the performance and reducing the weight of single wall tents.

Just when eVENT began to gain critical mass attention as a superior fabric for single wall tents, with the introduction of the NEMO Tenshi, Exped Polaris, and a full tent suite from Integral Designs... POOF! - eVENT tents were gone from the market. What happened? New tent fabrics are now on the market that claim eVENT-like properties. How good are they?

ARTICLE OUTLINE

What's So Great About eVENT?
It Was Here, Then it Was Gone
Is eVENT Really the Gold Standard?
Will eVENT Tents Come Back?
Is an eVENT Replacement in Our Future?
- What are these fabrics?
- How well do they perform?
The State of the Breathable Fabric Tent Market
Conclusion

# WORDS: 3400
# PHOTOS: 6
# TABLES: 1

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Viewing 10 posts - 26 through 35 (of 35 total)

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Author

Posts
Mar 2, 2007 at 10:57 am #1380770

EndoftheTrail
BPL Member

@ben2world-2

PJ:

You're welcome. Hey, your Chinese ain't bad either. You are a good multi-linguist yourself. :)

Mar 2, 2007 at 11:36 am #1380777

paul johnson
Member

@pj
Locale: LazyBoy in my Den - miss the forest

Ben, you're too kind. I do remember that you've had to correct my Chinese – for which I sincerely thank you.

Mar 2, 2007 at 1:58 pm #1380795

Tim Heckel
Spectator

@thinair
Locale: 6237' - Manitou Springs

Ok, I read the article and discussion to this point with some interest.

I had a first-generation gore-tex tent that was my only tent for 20 some years. It was light, for the time, expensive, durable, and performed well for me from Hawaii to New England to the American Southwest to the Rocky Mountains. I have never been able to find a replacement that works as well for me.

The BD and Montbell tents I've read about and/or looked at are too short.

I haven't been able to find, in the US market, a light tent of breathable fabric. I see in the article the reasoning for eVent dropping out; but surely there is a market here.

The article title to paraphrase is “what's next in single wall breathable fabric tents”, but comes up short in actually stating what is next. It focuses a lot on the technical details of the fabrics and less, in my interpretation, on the practical matter of available tents.

Does anyone expect to see more single wall breathable tents for the American market anytime soon? I would “kill for”, an American expression meaning “pay a lot”, an identical or similar tent made of modern materials to replace my worn out old tent. Where is it?

Mar 2, 2007 at 3:24 pm #1380801

Woubeir (from Europe)
BPL Member

@woubeir

Thanks Ben for the link.

PJ, you're just to kind. My English is OK (it helps that have to use it a lot in my professional live).

Mar 6, 2007 at 9:26 am #1381271

Bob Chilson
BPL Member

@bob-chilson
Locale: eastern high sierra

In 1975 I bought a somewhat expensive, breathable car cover that I now recall looks very similar to the Bibler tent material. The same cover is still available as an Evolution Car Cover. I'm just wondering if this was perhaps the start of the breathable tent material, and perhaps some smart individual picked up on the use of this fabric?

Mar 6, 2007 at 10:14 am #1381276

John S.
BPL Member

@jshann

http://tinyurl.com/2h8b3f

A gore-tex timeline.

Mar 17, 2007 at 1:13 pm #1382662

eric levine
Member

@ericl
Locale: Northern Colorado

Great info and discussions, but unlike other subjects, this one just has me depressed.

I've been looking forward to ultra-lite, cheap, very breathable and very waterproof fabrics for so long, and now we seem to have taken a real step backwards…..

Oct 1, 2008 at 6:29 pm #1452932

David Ure
Member

@familyguy

Nm

Jul 13, 2010 at 8:56 am #1628565

Willem Jongman
Member

@willem

Is there any recent news on eVENT or similar fabric for tents?
Willem

Jul 13, 2010 at 9:26 am #1628577

David Ure
Member

@familyguy

Nm
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Posts

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