Tropos drysuits are Kokatat's answer for those who want a waterproof/breathable drysuit but can't afford or can't justify the cost of a GoreTex drysuit. Tropos drysuits are about half the price of a simalr featured GoreTex drysuit, and they are good enough for some people for certain water-sports (i.e. kayaking, canoeing, and rafting). However, most commercial work activities (dock installers, pool cleaners, swiftwater rescuers, fish biologists doing stream studies, etc.) and certain water-sports require the greater strength and extra waterproofness (to withstand greater pressure or extended time in the water) that only a Kokatat GoreTex drysuit can provide (unless you want to go back to a non-breathable drysuit, but then you'll be wearing a sweat bag).
Tropos fabric is waterproof and breathable, but the GoreTex drysuits are still the most breathable of all. There's no good way to measure "breathability", but field tests always favor the GoreTex suits. So if you sweat heavily, either becuase your sport is requires a high activity level or just becuase you sweat more than most peoople, then you may not be happy with anything less than a GoreTex drysuit. This is one reason why we only recommend GoreTex drysuits for certain sports such as sail-boarding and kite boarding. Even for lower activity levels, the better breathability of GoreTex is often a decisive factor for people with lots of natural insulation or those who are just always warmer than most other people.
Another concern for certain sports is that no-one designs drysuits for high speed water impacts, and it is possible that the fabric or seams could fail from the stress of a crash. The seams on the Kokatat GoreTex drysuits are the strongest that we know of for any waterproof/breathable drysuit, and the fabric on the GoreTex drysuits is among the strongest too (it is a heavier weight of fabric than is used for GoreTex rain gear). So if high speed crashes into water are a possibility, then a GoreTex suit is going to protect you better than any other breathable dry suit we know of.
Like GoreTex, Tropos fabric is totally waterproof. You can swim in a Tropos drysuit and not get a drop of water leaking in through the fabric or the metal toothed zippers (metal toothed zippers are standard on all Kokatat Tropos and GoreTex drysuits). Tropos fabric is also breathable so your perspiration will go out through the Tropos breathable coating even though liquid water won't come in. Gore-Tex was the first such waterproof/breathable fabric, and it is still the best, but Tropos is the second best waterproof breathable drysuit fabric for drysuits that we have found. There are a lot of other fabrics that claim to be waterproof and breathable, but if it's not a Kokatat drysuit, you need to ask, "how waterproof is "waterproof" and how breathable is "breathable"? Another factor is how durable is the suit, or how long will it be waterproof assuming it ever was? Drysuits are the ultimate test of a fabric's claim to be waterproof and breathable. We've tested a lot of new "waterproof/breathable" drysuits at our own expense, and most suits leaked right from the start and the rest breathed so poorly that we got soaked in sweat before we even had time to get into the water. The only non-GoreTex drysuits that have worked well in our testing are the Kokatat Tropos dry suits. Tropos suits don't breathe quit as well or last nearly as long as a Gore-Tex drysuit, but all in all, Tropos dry suits are the next best thing to a Gore-Tex drysuit. Yet there is more to a good dry suit than just the fabric. Kokatat has the best seam sealing and overall quality of any surface water-sport drysuit manufacturer -- not a good place to cut corners. Kokatat was the first manufacturer to build a waterproof/breathable drysuit; so Kokatat has many more years of experience designing, testing, and manufacturing waterproof breathable dry suits than any other brand. We're confident you'll be happy with the quality of a Kokatat brand suit whether it's Tropos or GoreTex.
If you can't decide between Tropos and GoreTex, then we recommend renting one of our Kokatat Tropos dry suits to try it out for yourself. You can apply your rental (up to $150.00) toward the purchase of a new dry suit (Tropos or GoreTex) from us until the end of the year (Dec. 31).
Back to the main drysuit page Drysuits
© George Gronseth 2003 - 2007, all rights reserved.