Filling, down content, filling amount...what do these terms on down jacket labels mean?

Review expert: Luo Huiqian, Associate Researcher, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Snow was all over the sky, thousands of miles were frozen, and the biting cold wind was howling from north to south. Crows on the branches curled up their heads and shivered. Crows have down to keep warm, so how can we keep warm without down?

Source: pixabay

Don't panic, there are down jackets to protect us! In the past, down jackets were designed with high filling volume and high fluffiness to keep warm, making the clothes look bloated. This is a disaster for all those who love beauty. In order to better meet the needs of the public, merchants have also taken great pains. The design of down jackets has obviously become more attentive in the past two years. So what makes the originally bloated down jackets successfully lose weight? What high-tech is involved?

Anti-down process

There are three common anti-down running technologies on the market.

The first method is to use a coating or paint to prevent rust. Down jackets can also be coated or coated to prevent hair from getting in the way. This is like a raincoat providing a layer of isolation and protection for our bodies on a rainy day. Of course, the first prerequisite is that it is breathable and does not affect the lightness and softness of the fabric, otherwise we will lose the original meaning of the down jacket - warmth. The second method is to use fabrics with high density to make down jackets. Directly weave a net that will prevent the down from running. The third method is to directly add a layer of anti-down cloth to the inner layer of the down fabric, which can effectively prevent down.

Intelligent cold-proof technology

In the cold winter, who doesn’t want to have a smart cold-proof jacket?

Not only in daily life and outdoor sports, but also in the Winter Olympics, countries have taken advantage of their own technology to protect their athletes and design cold-proof and warm down jackets and jackets. Let's take a look at several technologies used in cold-proof clothing.

Omni-Heat thermal reflective technology: It uses "silver dot" fabric and uses the principle of physics to reflect the heat radiation emitted by the body back into the clothing. At the same time, it can cooperate with the black breathable material between the tiny dots to quickly discharge excess heat and achieve the most comfortable constant temperature state.

Source: Reflective Technologies | Columbia Sportswear

Graphene cold-proof clothing: At the Winter Olympics, graphene black technology shines on the ice and snow field. Graphene is a material with excellent performance. It has ultra-high strength and ultra-high thermal conductivity. At the same time, graphene can also be used to generate heat. Graphene scarves, gloves, socks and other clothes can quickly heat up to 38℃-53℃ at minus 20℃, and continue to heat for 2-4 hours, escorting the staff of the Winter Olympics!

Graphene Heated Clothing

Source: China Youth Daily

High thermal insulation quilt cold-proof clothing: The high thermal insulation quilt with imitation goose down structure is a kind of thermal insulation quilt with imitation goose down structure which is composed of hollow fiber "skeleton" and ultra-fine fiber "fluff".

According to news reports, this new material weighs only 45g per square meter at least. You may have no idea what 45g is, but you are very familiar with eggs. An egg generally weighs about 50g. With this analogy, you can feel the lightness of the new material. In terms of price, compared with other filling materials, it is only one-tenth of goose down. At the same time, the warmth retention of the new material can reach 90% of goose down. Although the warmth retention may seem slightly worse, it can still maintain more than 90% warmth retention when it is completely soaked. In this regard, its performance is far superior to goose down.

Source: Xinhua News Agency News Photo

Now that we have introduced so many excellent properties of down jackets, how should we choose down jackets so that we can spend this winter both beautifully and warmly?

First of all, we need to understand some performance indicators of down jackets: filling material, down content, and filling volume.

There are two types of filling materials : duck down and goose down. Goose down is better than duck down because it has larger, fuller, more fluffier, and better warmth retention. In terms of quality, white goose down > grey goose down > white duck down > grey duck down.

Down content, as the name implies, is the percentage of down in the total filling. For example, if the down content of a down jacket is 80%, then the down accounts for 80% of the total filling, and other feathers account for 20%.

Source丨How much down should a down jacket be filled with to keep it warm enough? (yunxyx.com)

Next, we will introduce the filling amount . The name sounds similar to the down content, but the filling amount refers to the total weight of the down filled in this down jacket. In other words, the filling amount is actually closely related to the size of the clothes. For example, for the same down jacket, the filling amount of the S size is definitely less than that of the XL size.

In addition to the filling amount, there is another key indicator that does not often appear on the washing label: fluffiness.

Source丨How much down should a down jacket be filled with to keep it warm enough? (yunxyx.com)

The fill power refers to the space occupied by every 30 grams of down . In the limited space of the filling layer of a down jacket, the higher the fill power, the warmer it will obviously be.

This indicator is not a hard indicator in China, and the measurement is not necessarily accurate. The test method is to gently grab and pat the down with your hands. This can test the fluffiness of the down. If it can rebound quickly, it means the fluffiness is high. The slower the rebound speed, the worse the fluffiness.

In short, when choosing a down jacket, we can choose a warm down jacket by combining several parameters! What are you waiting for? Go and try it!