"It has taken us 7 years, but a hard problem worth tackling," our founder, Jun Kamei, told the BBC about the challenge of replacing PFAS in textiles.
In recent years, the prevalence of PFAS in performance textiles, and the dangers that come with it, has entered mainstream industry dialogue. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a class of around 10,000+ synthetic chemicals prized in textiles for water, oil and stain repellency. In apparel they show up most often as durable water repellents (DWRs) on rainwear, sportswear and technical outdoor gear, and in waterproof membranes.
What makes these substances dangerous is the very same characteristic that makes them effective from a performance standpoint: they do not break down over time. This persistence comes from the carbon-fluorine bond, one of the strongest in organic chemistry, making PFAS highly resistant to most types of degradation, which is why they’re sometimes referred to as ‘forever chemicals’.
The toxic downside
Research links PFAS exposure to liver damage, thyroid disease, immunotoxicity, reproductive issues, and various cancers. Early awareness of these dangers began in response to an initial group of 'long-chain' chemicals, such as Teflon and Scotchgard, early waterproofing innovations from the 1950s. Since the early 2000s, many of these have been phased out in waves, by regulation or by their major manufacturers. But the short-chain replacements brought in to replace them have themselves proven persistent and linked to health concerns, showing that swapping one PFAS for another within the same chemical class does not resolve the underlying problem.
Legislation is beginning to catch up. EU-wide regulation expected by the end of 2026. And many member states aren't waiting: France banned PFAS in textiles in January 2026, Denmark followed with a ban from July 2026, and Sweden recently announced their own legislation, which will roll out from 2028.
In the United States, bans have rolled out state by state. New York has banned PFAS in apparel with exemptions for outdoor gear until 2028, and Colorado is phasing out PFAS in outdoor clothing toward a full ban by 2028. Other states pair broader bans with disclosure carve-outs for severe-weather gear, the "Made with PFAS chemicals" label approach.
While the legislation is fragmented, the global reach of large-scale brands makes a robust approach the sensible one. A brand selling across the EU and the US is now navigating several sets of rules. Designing to the strictest applicable standard avoids maintaining multiple product specs.
The future of outdoor finishing
Over the past decade, a new generation of PFAS-free membranes has entered the market. Expanded polyethylene, polyester-based and polyurethane-based alternatives now offer waterproof performance without fluorinated chemistry, and major outdoor brands have committed to eliminate PFAS across their lines.
But as they arrived, two questions became harder to ignore: how they feel and what happens at the end of life.
The first consideration is softness. The membrane sits at the heart of the laminate, and its character shapes the feel of the whole fabric. A softer face fabric enables more natural silhouettes and everyday wearability, but only if the membrane beneath it is equally soft. Alternatives built on stiffer polymer structures feel papery and rigid once laminated, producing a garment that rustles, resists movement, and gets worn less. For the wearer, it is the difference between a jacket reached for every day and one that stays in the wardrobe.
The second is end-of-life. Most PFAS-free systems still follow the same logic: a face fabric, a membrane and a knit backer, each from a different polymer family. Recycling that structure means separating the layers, which is not currently viable at scale. Removing PFAS from the membrane does not change this, so the mixed-material problem remains.
Amphitex™ is where Performance Meets the Real World
A membrane that solves chemistry still has to earn its place in a jacket. It gets worn in the rain, on the commute, through long days outside, and ideally the person wearing it never has to think about it.
For Amphitex™, getting the chemistry right was only part of the challenge. A membrane that ticks the safety boxes still has to feel right, and that is harder to engineer than it sounds. It needs to move with the fabric rather than against it, and to balance the things that matter in daily wear: hand feel, breathability, and protection.
Usually there is a trade-off. A 2L construction feels softer and more supple, while 3L offers greater durability and protection. Amphitex™ Balance removes that compromise. Paired with a soft face fabric, it delivers a 3L construction that is genuinely soft, durable, and protective, without PFAS or toxic solvents. Its natural softness lets it work with the fabrics designers actually reach for, including wool jersey and nylon, materials a stiffer membrane would compromise.
Circularity Embedded in Architecture
Amphitex™ also solves the end of life consideration through mono-material construction.
From early ambition, we set out to build a system with improved recyclability and material coherence. Polyolefins are inherently water-repellent. Their molecular structure resists water naturally, without any chemistry applied to the surface. That native repellency became the foundation for building waterproof breathable performance from within the material itself, rather than relying on what is added to it.
Amphitex™ enables a polyolefin membrane to be paired with a polypropylene face fabric and knit backer, using a polyolefin-based adhesive. Every layer belongs to the same polymer family. Because the entire laminate is a single polymer family, it can be recovered and recycled as one material stream, rather than being sent to landfill as the mixed-material composites that conventional membranes typically become.
Soft, circular and safe from toxic chemicals
Replacing PFAS was never only a chemistry problem. The membranes that define the next decade of performance apparel will be the ones that get the chemistry, the feel, and the end of life right together, rather than solving one and leaving the others for someone else. That is the work Amphitex™ set out to do, and seven years on, it is the standard we think the industry should be building towards.
To explore Amphitex™ in more detail, including technical specifications and laminate configurations, visit the Amphitex™ page or get in touch at hello@amphico.uk.
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