Our History

The story of our enterprise begins, quite simply, in a family home in Newark, Delaware.
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.
It was a big risk: Both in their mid-forties with five children — two in college — they gave up Bill’s salary as a senior research chemist to pursue a dream. A versatile material had captured Bill’s imagination. He saw great untapped potential in polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE, a polymer discovered by Roy Plunkett in 1938.
Fueled by an entrepreneurial spirit, Bill and Vieve explored new opportunities to improve lives and industries through materials science innovation.

Historical Milestones
From encouraging people to enjoy the outdoors in any weather to mending hearts and aiding scientists in discovering the origins of our universe, we have accomplished a lot in the last 65 years.