It ’s abstemious . It ’s flexible . It stand firm frigid temperatures on top of a mountain . And in the entire history of humans staying warm , nobody ’s been able to puzzle it . Here ’s how you work up the most powerfully dewy-eyed jacket in the world .
Why Are We Still Using Down?
You probably do n’t think much about down jacket . Maybe you own one . If you do n’t , a mint of masses around you sure do . But why would you contemplate them ? They ’re jackets ! They ’re utilitarian . But they ’re ubiquitous — and for well grounds . Despite centuries of our attempt to create better way to keep warm , we ’ve never been capable to come close to the insulate power of a well - built down jacket . menstruum . Go ahead , skill — throw off your best celluloid miracle fabric at down , and watch it thrill .
While it is as perfect as we ’ve find for warmness to weight ratios , rain cause down , well , down . It ’s sound for dry , cold mood — in other words , treated down does n’t diddle well with body of water , unlike when its still attached to a hoot . Get wet ( or take a regretful wipeout in the snow ) , and your shields may go down — the feathers lose their conditions - pounding power completely when inebriate .
But down is ultra - compressible .
It ’s extremist - long-wearing .
And if you take fear of it , it ’ll last decade .
It is , merely , the earth ’s warmest material for its weight . And free weight matters . Try climbing thousands of feet up an incline of rock and roll and ice rink with anything but the lightest on your back . You wo n’t make it far .
But despite down ’s incredible king as an nonconductor , you ca n’t just stuff it in there and pass over your feathery hands clean of it . A near jacket — even one build with down — is a well - design crown . The intellect down jacket go unnoticed — and the reason that , really , they look mostly the same — is that they want an passing deliberate balance of factors . Factors that prevent you from walking around looking like you have lumpy , elimination sale pillows strapped across you .
Down Is More than Your Average Feather
The tasteful part of the down jacket ’s design is that , unlike , say , a CPU , or solar panel , its integral reason for being is obvious just from look at it . you may study the form of a down garment and — if you screw what to reckon for — realize how and why it was designed to be just the style it looks . It ’s the perfect model of form following social function , an object without any unneeded part . When a designer has done their line decent , there ’s nothing leave to strip forth . Just the down , and the stuff holding it in stead . But that ’s the slick part , right — so how exactly does it work ?
Eric Rice is an industrial designer for Patagonia . He knows exactly how it process — so I spoke with him about the intricacy of that megabucks of cloth and goof feathers that stands between you and and agonise alpine death ( or uncomfortable morning commute ) . He created the down perspirer , a fabled garment you probably either own or see around you everywhere — do it to say , the man is deft with down .
Before you think about building a cap with down , you need to know down itself , he told me . Down is , basically , feathers . But screw basically . Eric explained that the thaumaturgy of down lies in the fact that , when you get up close to it , it possesses incredible microscopical properties .
What you see here in these microscopical illustrations , is a down feather . Really , really shut up . tight enough that you ’ll be able to spot its ace powers . Down ai n’t just a feather — its detail are wonderful .
If you zoom in a slight , there ’s a level of chief feather . The sort you ’d see branch off of any feather . Zoom further , and there ’s an entirely novel stage of lower-ranking plumage branching off from each of the first . Zoom in more ( you may do it ! ) , and — that ’s right — a third stratum of even tiny plumes , each one finish in a pointed fiddling bulb . And it ’s these tiny , tiny medulla oblongata that cast the spell of warmth on ye . One down feather is nothing . Two down plume are nothing . But a coat full of them make an fabulously complex social system of incandescent lamp - against - medulla , causing microscopic tensions that have each down feather up , instead of just sag with sobriety .
Think of it as a tiny , feathery skyscraper . The whole thing stands up because of the cooperation of its character . And this “ standing , ” this downy structure , is what designer ( and outside fan ) call “ loft . ” Loft is essentially a fancy term for fluffiness — but it ’s the most important terminus of all when construct a crown . The salutary the garret — the fluffier the down padding — the more air is trapped inside the coating , and the less awful cold seeps in . Strong , fluffy feathers mean strong , winter - pound jackets . Wearing the proper coating , you ’ve got yourself wrapped inside a goose feather thermos .
And again , not a single engineer , scientist , or enemy of the world ’s cuckoo population has been able to beat this incredible microscopic plumage effect . The fluff effect is supreme . But it ’s also delicate — too delicate for a dousing , as mentioned above . So there ’ve been attempts to beat down — most notably , synthetic substance like PrimaLoft have hoped to outdo the feather with water - resistant properties . But these imitators have never been as warm at the same weight as down , and are often quite expensive to produce . They also rely on chemical substance manufacturing , like anything else celluloid — compare that to the infinite renewability of a bird . The goose has the last quack .
Building a Shield Against the Cold
So now that you have the right wing down , you ask to know what to do with it . You ca n’t just fill up a cap like a sack . Down needs to be stabilized , Eric explicate , in very particular ways . The designing appendage behind any down coat , jacket , or perspirer is determined by a couple of uncomplicated interrogation : how warm do you need it , and how light do you require it ? As mentioned , you ’ve probably noticed that most down jackets look pretty much the same : cover in intumescent , horizontal down - filled lines . Each rail line , or “ comforter , ” is bigger , smaller , fatter , or thin , bet on how you ’re going to utilize it .
So how are you going to utilize it ?
If you need something nimble , something light , something to throw on when you go out on a coolheaded day — you’ll want a serial of thin , dim , ribbon - like strips . narrow strips ? Less down . Less down ? Less mass . bow down , tie your shoe ; reach up , pick an Malus pumila . A slender layer for the chilly .
Snow solar day ? mountaineer ? Big . Bigger quilts , but few of them . Each large quilt give the down more room to loft — more room to tease out . More mass . More frivolity . More insulation . armour for the cold . A boneheaded buckler . A warm consistency — who cares what ’s out there whipping against you ? You ’ve cause an supererogatory fell . Jackets like this — ponderous responsibility down crownwork — have more sizable , rectangular padding , not the slap-up stripes of their dextrous cousins .
But the setup can be adapt further — because down is n’t just down . Like many things in life sentence , it comes in grades . There ’s marvelous , expensive , downy down of the highest quality . There ’s full shit down . To severalise the difference , a paygrade organisation is used to measure a down ’s “ satisfy power”—that is to say , how much the down pigeon loft . How much it can unfold out and keep you warm . Again , like many thing in life , the mellow the better . A decent fill big businessman — something 500 or up — means you may do more with less . And less means idle . If you habituate good down ( which come from a more mature zany ) , you utilize less of it , as it ’s capable to make the aforementioned insulate structure without need for assist from other feathers . Go all the way up to 800 or 900 filling power down , and you ’ve take a hell of a gracious , lightweight jacket — whether you ’re build up it with small pocket or orotund .
What If You Need It Even WARMER?
So you have your down . You have your cold - dandy , microscopic super - connections . You have your quilts . Now you put it all together . The distinct business you see across a down jacket are where the quilts are sew into distinct air pocket , sealed off from one another to keep the feathering in place . For most of our purposes , this is fine — and it ’s the norm . But , Eric repoint out , wherever there ’s stitching , there ’s no down — there ’s no protective covering at all . Cold can stick an pointer right in there . Nothing between you and the freeze but a slight layer of synthetic whatever . Again , no so big a deal on your morning commute , but in alpine conditions , you do n’t require any Achilles run up . For situations like this , designers use what ’s called “ baffled ” construction — the hardest of hardcore jacket crown physique .
A bemused coating order shields under your shields — placing even more insulating pockets within the structure of the garment itself : behind each line of stitching is another down - fill underground that wander all the way around , mean there ’s no decrepit spots for cold to grab a handhold . It ’s also a hell of a mickle pricier .
But How Do You Keep the Feathers Inside?
I needed to take Eric one more affair . How do you keep the feather from poking out ? That is the bad . And it ’s the understanding the excogitation summons does n’t end when you find fault out feathers and a way to bunch up them together — what you wrap them in seals the deal . A final choice of textile is overriding . Here , synthetical cloth do come in in ready to hand , making strange bedfellow with their all - natural insides . And you have to be picky . A “ down - test copy ” fabric will be windproof , lightweight , and tightly - wind enough to keep those pesky plumes from sticking out and gain you look like you just escaped a mariner and feathering .
So . plumage . Quilted sac to put the feather in — of the exact shape you need them . sew together . Made from just the right cloth . sting a zip fastener and a logo on ‘ er , and you have yourself a jacket . And yet , each second you spend zipping up was preceded by an exhaustive balancing act of warmness , weight , price , and convenience . bit crunching , loft - measuring , framework examination — all view to keep you tender with a material that goes back longer than we ’ve even been wearing clothes in the first billet .
David Evison / Shutterstock
You see that thing on your desk ? Or that thing outside of your windowpane ? It ’s more than just a thing . Every single object has a story — and some very smart brains — behind it . cholecalciferol Is for Design is Gizmodo ’s novel weekly guided tour of all the things that surround us — the unity we take for concede , but should n’t . How they got there , why they way they are , and why we should all take a close look at matter , sometimes .
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