Nothing can be finer than slipping on a real down jacket - it's like coming home to a real fire.
Our men's down jacket range includes goose-filled down jackets like the legendary Nuptse II from The North Face, an updated classic for plush warmth in the most brutal of conditions, and the Rab Infinity Jacket for maximum warmth with minimal weight - both of which compress easily enough to be hardly noticed tucked away in the bottom of your rucksack.
Mountain walkers, trekkers and Alpine climbers should also check out our range of Mens down jackets.
Click here for our full gear guide on Down Jackets and Down Gilets
Down clothing - Overview
Down is an excellent insulator in jackets, and is also used in sleeping bags. The primary benefits are the excellent warmth to weight ratio; its ability to provide a wide range of comfort; and as it is very compressible, it packs down small. Down has a three dimensional structure which allows the fibres to trap more air within the interlocking strands. By heating up that air, the jacket warms up and makes a comfortably insulating layer. As the down is a natural material, the heat is more efficiently regulated so you do not end up overheating as quickly as if you were in a synthetic jacket. Down is also very soft, so it's very compressible and resilient, allowing it to be packed up and unpacked regularly. Rab, North Face, Montane and Berghaus are all brands of top quality down jackets and down gilets.
Fill Power is a term which is used to measure the ability of the down to loft. Quite often this fill power or fill volume is used to describe the down's insulation performance for a specific or given weight of down in a particular condition. This is a highlighter of the ability for the down to resist compression and loft up.
The "down to feather ratio" is the grading system to measure the percentage of down clusters to the small quantity of feathers in the mix. It is impossible to completely filter 100% of the feathers out of the down.
There are two main types of construction methods for making down jackets. Stitch through construction is where the baffles containing the down are stiched together. This is lighter as it requires less fabric, cheaper and allows the jacket to be more packable than box wall construction. Box wall is more thermaly efficient though and would be the prefered choice when you are choosing a jacket for extreme conditions. It is a more technically challenging method and would generally use trapezoid or boxed compartments with the jacket to stop the down clusters migrating. It is not uncommon for a jacket to have both types of construction within the same down coat. For instance the body may be box wall for warmth and the shoulders constructed with a stitched through method to make it a lower bulk.
Cleaning and drying down jackets is relatively simple although people often worry about incorrectly washing their down gillet or jacket. Please look at our Down cleaning gear guide.
When the temperatures fall, check out our Gear-Zone range of cold weather clothing for active outdoor enthusiasts ...from baselayers and cosy fleeces to waterproof softshell clothing, real down jackets and gilets, and synthetic equivalents from Berghaus, Merrell, Rab and The North Face.
