During the 1980s, Nick Brown became convinced that there was a fundamental flaw in the way waterproof fabrics commonly used in outdoor clothing worked, in the humid and cool, but not cold, environment in Britain.
In addition to the socially ethical elements of the Páramo business model, it has committed to minimizing its environmental impact, and all of the products are designed to be robust and repairable to last a very long time.
Páramo has also added non-waterproof elements to its product line, including light-weight travel clothing and over-layering synthetic insulation for use in cold and wet conditions.
Nikwax Analogy fabrics, by nature of their two-layer construction, are generally heavier than competing systems which mainly use a monolithic impermeable layer commonly based on Polyurethane or ePTFE.
The nature of the technologies used means that there is no 'entry level' product in the range, requiring a significant financial commitment from a customer to try the system in the first place.