How to Wash a Patagonia or North Face Jacket

Patagonia and The North Face both make three very different kinds of jackets — fleece, insulated down, and waterproof shells built with membranes like GORE-TEX — and each needs its own approach. What they share is a hard no on two laundry staples: powder detergent and fabric softener. GORE-TEX's own care guidance is direct about it — no powder detergent, no fabric softener, no bleach, on any of it. Powder residue clogs a membrane's microscopic pores, and softener coats fibers, killing down's loft and a fleece's ability to wick sweat. Here's how to wash each type correctly, including the counterintuitive step of using your dryer's heat to restore water repellency.

Key takeaways

Never use powder detergent or fabric softener on Patagonia or North Face gear — both clog waterproof membranes and damage down or fleece.
GORE-TEX shells: warm, gentle wash, then a warm tumble dry (or low iron) — the heat reactivates the water-repellent DWR coating.
SHAKEDRY jackets are the exception: no tumble-dry reactivation and no DWR reapplication, since the membrane itself is the outer layer.
Down jackets need a down-specific detergent, a front-loading machine, and a low-heat dry with tennis balls until fully dry.
Fleece just needs a mild detergent and air or low-heat drying — no softener, no iron.
If beading doesn't return after washing and drying, reapply DWR: wash-in for shells, spray-on for insulated or mixed-fabric jackets.

Washing a GORE-TEX or waterproof shell

Close all zippers and velcro before loading the machine.
Wash on a delicate/gentle cycle in warm water, around 40°C/105°F, with a small amount of liquid detergent.
Run a second rinse to clear out all detergent residue, and keep the spin low.
Skip fabric softener, bleach, and powder detergent completely — GORE-TEX's official guidance rules out all three.
Tumble dry on warm/gentle, then run an additional 20 minutes on warm heat — this step reactivates the jacket's water-repellent coating. A low iron with a cloth between the iron and the shell works if you can't tumble dry.
Skip the tumble-dry-to-reactivate step if your jacket uses GORE-TEX SHAKEDRY fabric — that construction has no separate outer face fabric (the membrane itself is the outer layer), so there's no DWR coating to reactivate, and it shouldn't be tumble dried.

Why the dryer's heat matters: DWR isn't the waterproof membrane

The durable water repellent (DWR) finish is a coating on the outer face fabric, separate from the waterproof membrane underneath — so when water stops beading and soaks into the outer layer instead, that doesn't mean the jacket has failed. Washing can leave DWR looking dead when it's really just dormant, and the dryer's heat re-bonds the coating to the fabric, often restoring the beading on its own. If beading still doesn't return after a wash-and-dry cycle, that's when to reapply DWR — a wash-in treatment recoats the whole garment (and can slightly wet out insulation, so it suits shells better than down pieces), while a spray-on treatment only coats the exterior and is the safer call for insulated jackets or ones with mixed fabric panels.

Washing a Patagonia or North Face down jacket

Use a down-specific detergent — Patagonia recommends Grangers Down Wash — since regular detergent coats the down clusters and kills their loft.
Wash in a front-loading machine only; a top-loader's agitator tangles and tears the baffles.
Use the permanent-press or gentle cycle, warm water, and no more than one or two jackets per load so they have room to move.
Don't over-add soap — residual detergent is part of what stops down from lofting fully. Run an extra rinse cycle with no soap to clear it out completely.
Dry on no-to-low heat with two to three clean tennis balls, and expect it to take a few cycles — high heat can damage the down, but some heat is what keeps drying from taking forever.
Never bleach, iron, or use fabric softener on a down jacket.

Washing a fleece

Fleece is the most forgiving of the three, but the no-softener rule still applies — softener coats the fibers, which is exactly what makes fleece pill and lose its wicking ability. Wash in cold or warm water with a mild detergent, and close all zippers and velcro first, since an open zipper rubbing against the fabric is a common cause of pilling. Air dry or tumble on low, and skip the iron. If pilling has already happened, a fabric shaver or pilling stone removes it without damaging the fabric underneath.

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