While working in his basement, he set out to develop a process for insulating a series of parallel electrical wires using polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a fluoropolymer discovered in 1938 by Roy Plunkett, a chemist with DuPont.

[3] His son, Robert W. Gore, in college at the time, suggested a method for encapsulating the wires which proved successful and led to the company's first patent.

In 2005, the Society of Chemical Industry presented Bob Gore with the Perkin Medal, which recognizes the most significant achievements in applied chemistry.

[7] Charles Carroll, a long-term business leader in the Electronics and Fabrics Divisions, replaced Bob Gore as president in 2000.

The US investigation sought to determine whether Gore engaged in unfair methods of competition “by contracts, exclusionary practices, or other conduct relating to waterproof or waterproof and breathable membranes or technologies and related products.” In Europe, the outdoor brand Columbia and its brand OutDry filed a complaint that Gore violated EU anti-competition laws covering waterproof/breathable membranes in footwear and gloves.

This approach to business was based on Bill Gore's experience tackling problems with "task force teams" while he was employed at the DuPont Company.

He refined this to "culture principles" in a paper entitled "The Lattice Organization – A Philosophy of Enterprise", which was distributed to Gore associates in 1976.

He articulated four culture principles that he called freedom, fairness, commitment and waterline: In the lattice organization, associates are encouraged to communicate directly with each other and are accountable to fellow members of their teams.

However, Gore has developed capabilities using forms of expanded PTFE with engineered microstructures that can significantly increase its strength and durability.

Gore's product portfolio derives from a number of basic ePTFE forms that include tubes, fibers, tapes, membranes and custom shapes, such as gaskets and patches.

[19] The coating extends the strings' life and tone by reducing the accumulation of debris and blocking corrosion from elements such as skin oil.