It is better to purchase a down-padded coat in advance in order to be fully armed by winter. However, such a garment is usually bought for a single year, so you should approach this issue with all responsibility, so that it will serve you for many years. And here it is worth knowing how to choose a down jacket?
For a winter wardrobe, a warm and light, stylish and practical coat and jacket with a filler made of natural down are a win-win option. For the first time, a down jacket appeared in Canada, where it is usually very cold, therefore this garment is of high quality and excellent heat preservation properties. The main advantages of down jackets are that they are breathable, so they are comfortable in any frost on the street, as well as in transport, where it is noticeably warmer. At the moment, jackets with various synthetic fillers are erroneously referred to as down jackets, but in this product with this name there should be only down and feather of a bird. It is important to remember this when choosing, then you can get a really high-quality thing.
How to choose a down jacket
To purchase this product, you should familiarize yourself with the label, where the word "down" should be indicated, indicating that natural material is used as a filler. The production of down jackets traditionally involves the use of goose, swan, eider and duck down. Chicken fluff is completely unsuitable for these purposes, although it is used in many Chinese fakes. The highest quality and warm is eiderdown. Naturally, such a product is a very expensive pleasure, but in the conditions of the city it is not necessary.
If we talk further about how to choose a down jacket, it is worth noting that it is difficult to find a product that says "100% down". Usually a combination packing is used for production, which consists of feathers and feathers of birds, and the item “feather” indicates the presence of the second component. If you need a really high-quality thing, then the label should indicate that the fluff contains at least 75%. If there is a product in front of you that says “wool” on the label, then know that there is wool batting inside, the inscription “cotton” indicates that you have a padded jacket, and the polyester mark indicates the presence of a padding polyester. Jackets with the last filler are light and warm, but after the first wash they lose about 30% of their heat-saving properties. High-quality down jackets with duck down will last at least 5 years, and with a goose - up to 20.
In the product, the fluff is distributed in blocks. It is worth considering them carefully, they should not be too large. The optimal block is 20 * 20 centimeters. With large cell sizes, the fluff will fall to the bottom edge.
It is important to remember such a rule. Before purchasing a product, it is necessary to thoroughly mash it, touch it, and also inspect the seams. If during these manipulations feathers peek out or you feel tingling, then this is clearly a poor-quality product. In high-quality products, fluff is in double bags with Teflon-containing impregnation, so tingling is excluded.
Understanding the question of how to choose a down jacket, it is worth mentioning the concept of down elasticity. This implies the possibility of recovery after compression. This indicator should also be written on the product label. The study is conducted in laboratory conditions, where one ounce of down is squeezed under load, after which it is removed to see how much down will recover. A quality down jacket should have an indicator of 550-800 units. You can do the test yourself in the store. To do this, fold the down jacket with the sleeves inward into the tube. The smaller the resulting bundle, the better the product in front of you. To straighten the product, it is enough to leave it for a short time.
Now you know how to choose a down jacket, it became only to go to the store for a purchase.