Gore-Tex maker decides it's time to demand attention

— -- For years, W.L. Gore & Associates has made a worldwide name for itself by speaking with a quiet voice, content to stand in the shadows while its partners making apparel with its fabrics took the main marketing stage.

These days, Gore's no longer acting so shy.

The Elkton, Md.-based company that makes Gore-Tex performance fabrics has launched a global, multimillion-dollar advertising effort to elevate its image. It has enlisted a menagerie of wild-animal models to show how outdoor apparel made with its fabrics helps users adapt, survive and excel.

In one print ad, a prowling fox — its coat naturally suited for harsh weather — visually morphs into a crouching man who's being wrapped by strands of Gore waterproof fabric.

In other ads, human shapes meld seamlessly and strikingly into other creatures, such as a butterfly, a bear and a shark.

Steve Shuster, global brand manager at Gore, would not specify how much Gore is spending on the advertising campaign, other than to say it is the costliest such effort in company history.

The multiyear campaign now being introduced in Europe and America aims to put the Gore identity prominently onto retailers' floors along with the apparel brands for the first time.

Through the use of four new "product classes" for its fabrics — each designed for a different level of enthusiast — the rebranding effort also tries to give those retailers a new method of steering customers toward the right products.

The overall aim is to create a brand identity that stands out unmistakably from the competition in performance fabrics.

Traditionally, "standing out" is not necessarily something that has concerned this proudly unorthodox firm. The familiarity of its name in the outdoor apparel market has come despite Gore's preference for playing a support role in the products of other brands.

It's an approach that has worked, leading many consumers to prefer products with "Gore inside," even if they weren't entirely certain what it was or how it worked.