Winter is coming, how to choose a down jacket? You have to pay attention to both the "appearance" and the "lining"!

As the cold winter approaches, people put on heavy down jackets to resist the cold wind. Down jackets are a must-have for winter clothing because of their lightness, warmth and comfort. However, how to choose and maintain down jackets has become a problem. What kind of down jackets are really warm? How can you buy down jackets that are both cheap and good in quality?

At the beginning of 2022, China issued and officially implemented the GB/T14272-2021 "Down Clothing" standard (hereinafter referred to as the "new national standard") on April 1. Among them, the biggest highlight of the new national standard is the change of "down content" to "down content" . Down content refers to the mass percentage of down and down fibers in feathers and down; down content refers to the mass percentage of down in down feathers .

l Down : A general term for down, immature down, similar down and damaged down. It is shaped like a dandelion umbrella and is relatively fluffy. It is the best quality part of a down.

l Down filaments : Single filaments that fall off the down, appearing one by one, without any fluffy feeling.

The "down" is the actual warming component in down jackets . The biggest difference made by the implementation of the new national standard is that the waste down fibers that have no warming effect are no longer included in the down content. Instead, only the down content is considered. Only down jackets with a down content of more than 50% are considered qualified down jackets.

In the past, the "down content" required by the old national standard included both down and down fibers. This gave some unscrupulous merchants an opportunity to fill down jackets with a lot of down fiber waste and include it in the down content.

On the surface, the label may say "90% down content", but its actual warmth retention effect may not even be as good as "50% down content".

Another highlight is the classification of down types. Down types only need to be classified into duck and goose, and no longer need to be classified into color (gray or white). White down is more expensive than gray down mainly for two reasons: first, white down has less odor than gray down, and second, white down does not show color under light-colored down jacket fabrics, making the fabric more adaptable. Therefore, the quality of down does not lie in color, but in the internal structure space of the down and the fineness of the down fiber .

When choosing a down jacket, you need to consider factors such as fabric, filling, filling amount, fluffiness, size, etc. to ensure that you buy a suitable and warm down jacket.

There are three factors that affect the warmth retention of down jackets: down content, filling volume and fluffiness. The down content of down jackets on the market is commonly 90%, 80% and 50%. The higher the down content, the softer the down feels, and the better its warmth retention under the same conditions.

The filling amount refers to the total weight of all down filled in a down jacket. The unit of measurement for the filling amount is weight, i.e. grams. It should be noted that no minimum standard for the filling amount is specified in either the old or new national standards. Generally speaking, with the same down content, the higher the filling amount, the better the warmth retention.

If you really don't know how to choose the filling amount, you can refer to the recommended standards of Zhu Wei, director of the Information Department of the China Down Industry Association: "Generally, the filling amount of thin down jackets selected in early winter is 40-90 grams; the filling amount of short down jackets of normal thickness is about 130 grams; the filling amount of medium thickness is about 180 grams; the filling amount of down jackets suitable for outdoor wear in the north must be at least 180 grams."

The definition of fill power is the ability of each unit of down to store air volume, and air can insulate and prevent heat loss. In other words, the more air the down can store, the better the warmth retention performance. In most cases, goose down has larger down clusters and longer down fibers than duck down, and the warmth retention effect is slightly better, but not absolutely. For most people, the warmth retention of duck down is enough. In the US standard, as long as the fill power is greater than 800, it can be considered high-quality down.

Down jackets have a certain thickness and fluffiness, so it is recommended to choose a size larger than the clothes you usually wear. This can ensure that there is enough air in the filling to better perform its warmth-keeping performance.

The fabric of down jackets should be selected with good down-proof and windproof properties, and also should be light, soft, and dirt-resistant.

Reference sources: Science Popularization China, CCTV Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers, Xinhua Daily Telegraph