I don't know about others, but the Nordic brands like Norrøna, Bergans, Stormberg, Haglöfs, Cintamani, Fjällräven, and so on, do not use only Gore-Tex materials

I don't know about others, but the Nordic brands like Norrøna, Bergans, Stormberg, Haglöfs, Cintamani, Fjällräven, and so on, do not use only Gore-Tex materials. They use other materials too, like G-Loft, Dermizax, Gelanots, etc. Also, Gore-Tex itself comes in multiple variants (Windstopper, C-knit, Shake-dry, and so on). So just saying that someone "uses Gore-Tex" is not saying that much. I live in the Nordics, so the Nordic companies are the ones I go to, since it makes sense to get clothing that is designed for and tested in the climate one will be exposed to. Also, there is (in my experience) a notable lack of the "quality wheel of fortune" one unfortunately experiences with e.g. North American brands; I no longer want to guess if the zipper deteriorates after 8 months, or whether the seams start to rip apart after 6 months, is the "warm jacket" really that warm in a real situation, and so on. The choice of clothing depends a lot on what you do, even during the winter when it's -25 C: are you moving all the time, do you sit still for long periods, what exactly is the temperature, do you expect snowfall, high winds or none at all, and so on. For example, if you try to do ice fishing dressed up perfectly for cross country skiing, I think you'll start to freeze sooner than later!