W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.

Our company founders, Bill and Vieve Gore, marked the new year — and their 23rd wedding anniversary — by establishing our first operations in their basement on January 1, 1958.

Founding an Enterprise

Gore cables are first applied in outer space on the Telstar satellite launched by Bell Laboratories.

The business remains focused on solving customer wiring problems with a variety of customized products and receives its first major order – 7.5 miles of insulated ribbon cable for the City of Denver.

The company earns its first patent. U.S. Patent 3,082,292 is issued to Bob Gore for the “Multiconductor Wiring Strip” known as MULTI-TET™ Cable. Bob Gore suggested this innovation to his father, Bill, while still a sophomore in college.

Gore supplies cable for the groundbreaking and highly successful IBM System/360 mainframe computer, the first mass-produced digital computer. Gore is the sole supplier of the transmission lines interconnecting the system.

Gore supplies cable for NASA’s Surveyor missions, the first U.S. effort to make a soft landing on the moon.

While experimenting with PTFE, Bob Gore stretches the material as rapidly as possible. Instead of breaking, as he expected, the expanded PTFE takes on new properties: strength, porosity and enhanced versatility. The watershed discovery dramatically expands Gore product offerings, opening the door to GORE-TEX Fabrics and other expanded PTFE products.

July 21: NASA’s Apollo 11 lands on the moon. Astronauts Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. and Neil Armstrong install seismographic equipment connected to the lunar lander with a small, lightweight cable manufactured by Gore.

New high-speed coaxial cables, the first commercialized applications of expanded PTFE in electronics, are introduced for the computer market.

Gore's industrial filter bag business begins. Gore is the first to use expanded PTFE for filtration, pioneering membrane surface filtration to capture contaminants and other particles.

The first GORE-TEX® Vascular Graft is commercialized, launching Gore's medical business.

Gore makes its first sale of GORE-TEX Fabric to Early Winters, Ltd. catalog, which advertises its GORE-TEX Rainwear as 'possibly the most versatile jacket ever made!'

GORE-TEX® Barriers for firefighting turnout gear is introduced to protect first responders from excessive heat stress.

Outfitting the Astronauts

GORE-TEX® Suture launches in the United States.

Gore receives its first major orders for GORE-TEX Fabric for military personnel.

An international team traversing the continent of Antarctica wears GORE-TEX Outerwear. One explorer credits the fabric with saving his life.

The COSTAR optics apparatus is developed for the Hubble Space Telescope with 11 sets of polyester insulated ribbon cable from Gore.

Automotive vents offer superior performance in exterior and under-hood environments, allowing components to breathe while resisting water and oil.

Gore introduces a membrane electrode assembly used in fuel cell technology.

Gore introduces ELIXIR® Strings, which dramatically improve string tone life and reinvigorate the market for coated guitar strings.

Gore introduces its first minimally-invasive endovascular prosthesis, marrying ePTFE grafts with Nitinol stents.

The GORE® HELEX Septal Occluder, used to treat congenital heart defects, is launched in Europe, Africa, Australia and South America.

Gore Microwave Cable Assemblies (GMCA) help NASA communicate with and receive pictures from the Spirit and Opportunity spacecrafts on Mars. Gore also supplied cable assemblies for the rovers' radiofrequency subsystems.

NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander arrives safely on Mars. GORE® Spaceflight Microwave Cable Assemblies help to transmit data required for the spacecraft to position itself for landing.

Architectural fabric woven from GORE® Fiber is used in the new retractable roof over Centre Court at London's Wimbledon tennis tournament.

GORE™ Cable-Based Antennas are introduced to provide internet access to passengers aboard commercial airplanes.

GORE® High Flex Planar Cables played an important role in enabling astrophysicists in Italy and in the U.S. to detect gravitational Waves, the existence of which were theorized by Albert Einstein nearly a century ago. This work earned the scientists the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018.

GORE® Improject Plunger unveiled. Provides the only option for silicone-free delivery of sensitive biologics.

Gore earns recognition for fuel cell innovation at the World New Energy Vehicle Congress.

Our first GORE‑TEX Products featuring our ePE membrane launch. It's a key milestone in our responsible performance journey in our fabrics business, providing high-performing, durable products that are engineered for long product life.

Gore achieves the first human implants of our investigational synthetic cornea in a pilot study in Mexico City. The device could offer a new solution for corneal blindness when donor corneas fail.