Down to Feather Ratio: Everything you need to know about Down Jackets 2

TLDR…

Some products may show a certain ratio on its label or specification online, 90:10, 85:15, etc.

These are, well, as the title says, down to feather ratio. But what does this ratio actually mean? Why isn’t there a product with 100% down ? What difference does it make to a jacket?

Let us find out in the following.

Down to Feather Ratio is deliberately chosen to suit the use of the jacket.

Separating Down From Feather

First, it is helpful to have a little recap on what is Fill Weight. It is the weight or amount of stuff you put in the jacket.

While most of this Fill Weight down, it is almost inevitable that there will be something else is mixed in: the leafy structured feathers.

Feathers are much heavier (denser) than down because of its hard long stem while down radiates its filaments in a 3D manner.

The question then, is why mix the feathers in? Is this another capitalist’s trap with commercial sugar coating?

No, not really, it is just not worth it to pick out all the feathers.

Down is a special kind of feather and it is inevitable that some feather is mixed in the original batch.

The batch will then be put through a special machine that blows air from below. Fluffy, light Down clusters will fly much higher than the dense, heavy feathers. This separates most of the down from feathers and the machine collects the stuff that flew higher, and let the feathers fall back down.

However there is always some feathers that are quite small and light, or got caught in a big cluster of down. Making its way into the filling.

It is possible to then hand pick all feathers out, but is simply impractical and costly to do so.

I dont think I have seen 100:0 anywhere.

Ratio Makes a Difference

Why is the down to feather ratio important, how does it affect the performance of the jacket?

The obvious one, is that a higher ratio would mean more down (the actual thing that keeps the warmth).

For Example

A jacket with fill weight of 200g and 90:10 down to feather ratio would have 180g of actual down.
If the ratio is 85:15 there will 170g of down.

This doesn’t seem to big of a difference, it would have a much bigger effect on heavier products such as sleeping bags.

The less obvious one is the structure of the jacket. In general we want the ratio to be as high as possible, but the rigid feathers can also play a part by supporting the down to fluff up and keep it in shape. This is especially true for jackets where the face fabric is heavier, maybe for robustness, functionality or for fashion.

For jackets with FP (Fill Power) more than 900 it is common for the ratio to reach 95:5, this is because only a small amount of very tiny feathers can make it all the way to the finest of the batch during the separation process mentioned above. Also products using such fine down usually focuses on being as light as possible, so the fabric would also very light. It doesn’t need the feathers to support the structure of the jacket.

The industry seems to have a consensus that the sweet spot for most jackets would be 90:10.

Last Tip and Summary

Some companies do not put the down to feather ratio on their website, but (I think) it is required to put on on the material tag at the corner of the jacket.

That is all for this topic and leave me a comment if you have any questions.

See you next time!