The outdoor industry is convinced that the best solutions come from nature. Despite the cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions Merino Wool still overtakes synthetic linings in terms of thermal comfort, leather trekking boots do not give way to those with membranes, and synthetic down cannot compete with natural down in terms of thermal insulation properties. The last one - Polish goose down is considered to be the best in the world. This article will help you understand why you should choose Polish down jackets and sleeping bags.
Goose down
The Polish down is recognized all over the world. What are the advantages of it? Specialists ensure that it is the way of breeding the birds. The best quality down is sourced from the White Koludzka Geese, especially those fed with oat, rich in valuable microelements. Geese feed mainly on grass, meaning they eat whatever they find in a pasture. It is the same as it used to be on small, ecological farms in the good old days.
However, to obtain good quality down, geese must not only be well-fed but also bred in good conditions. Egg producers often boast that their products come from ‘happy hens’. It may sound funny, but it cannot be denied that living conditions are crucial. Polish geese live in a genuinely stress-free environment. They live free-range and in spacious enclosures. Down and feathers obtained from birds bred in such a way are of very high quality. As the old saying goes: 'the best comes from nature'.
It was thousands of years ago when people noticed that ducks and geese perfectly withstand even the most freezing winters. When they became domesticated, it soon became apparent that this exceptional resistance to low temperatures was not due to the feathers that make up their outer covering but to the fine down that grows right by their skin. The scientific world is constantly trying to create a lining that would match its thermal insulation properties. And while many have already been invented, including the well-known and valued synthetic PrimaLoft® down, natural down is still unrivaled in this respect.
We care about animal welfare. Our ethical standards are confirmed by the RDS certificate. We are proud to belong to the elite group of brands producing in the center of Europe, exclusively from certified, ethically sourced down.
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Excellent thermal insulation
The secret of the excellent heating properties of down lies in its structure. A single piece of down has an irregular, three-dimensional structure slightly resembling the shape of a snowflake or a blown fluffy dandelion ball. There is a lot of free space between its curves, in which air is accumulated, creating a natural barrier against the cold. Thanks to this natural down has excellent thermal insulation properties. It doesn’t actually heat, but isolates from the cold coming from outside, retaining the heat that the body produces simultaneously. No wonder that down is so often used in outdoor clothing and equipment. The best down sleeping bags, in particular the Polish ones, are high-performance outdoor gear even in the most extreme conditions. Radical 16H sleeping bag provides full thermal comfort at temperatures as low as:
-31°C for women
-43°C for men
meeting ISO 23537 and EN 13537 standards.
Natural polish down
as light as a feather
High thermal insulation is one of the many advantages of down insulation. Natural down is also ultralight – a single down feather weighs about 0.001g. The weight of your backpack is of great importance on hiking trails. After many hours of walking during long expeditions with a backpack, each gram of a jacket or a sleeping bag counts.
High compression
Natural Polish down is also exceptionally compressible. That is due to its unique loft. Even the thickest down clothes can be compressed into a tiny luggage piece and packed in a backpack.
The increased loft of the down filling is expressed in cubic inches per ounce and determined by the cuin (a unit of measure). The labels of good manufacturers of down jackets and sleeping bags usually show a value of 550-650 cuin. The best quality down lofts 750 cuin. However, Polish goose down provides as much as 900 cuin. And this translates into even better thermal insulation parameters and lower weight. The greater the loft, the more air it can store.
Down parameters
Down vs feathers
Both down and feathers come from geese and ducks. Although we often use these terms interchangeably in everyday life, these raw materials have slightly different properties. Down is the immensely delicate undergrowth of the birds' plumage closest to the skin. In shape, it resembles a ball more than a traditional feather due to its three-dimensionally arranged fibers. Down is extremely light and has unsurpassed thermal insulation properties, so it is considered the noblest filling for jackets or sleeping bags. Feathers, on the other hand, are the tiny plumes around the wings and chest of birds. They are larger, heavier, and flat, so they have no insulating qualities. Feathers are also easier to obtain, which contributes to a lower price.
Down to feater ratio
When choosing a sleeping bag or jacket, it is worth paying attention to the type of filling and the ratio of down to feathers. Feather filling has worse insulating properties and is heavier but obtaining 100% pure down filling is much more difficult. While it is technically possible to acquire a 100% pure down filling, it is such a laborious process that it is economically unjustifiable. Therefore, most products contain a certain admixture of feathers, which manufacturers should inform about on the label. Typically, there are records of the type 90/10 or 80/20, which mean that the filling contains 90% down and 10% feathers or 80% down and 20% feathers, respectively. To talk about a down jacket or sleeping bag, down must constitute at least half of the filling, although the 50/50 mark is often found on products of dubious quality.
Goose or duck down?
When it comes to down, we have a lot to boast about! Polish goose and duck farms provide raw materials, the properties of which are valued all over the world. In general, duck down has slightly inferior parameters and rarely reaches a resilience of 650-700 cuin. Only high-quality goose down, such as that from the Polish Kołudzka Goose, has a value of 800-900 cuin or even more. In some jackets and sleeping bags, you can find a mixture of both types of filling, used to lower the price of the final product. Although duck down will never match goose down, for those who are not planning extreme expeditions, the result should be sufficient.
Natural down fill power (CUIN)
The resilience, or loft of a sleeping bag or jacket, is one of the basic parameters used to determine the quality of the natural down filling. The degree of resilience is affected by the expansion rate of the down (so-called fill power). The higher it is, the more air is retained and the better the insulation and compression properties. The resilience of down is measured in cuin, a unit that determines how much volume in cubic inches 30g of down occupies (according to the latest IDFL standard). As one can easily guess, the higher the cuin parameter, the better. But how does it translate into practice? A good result is a down resilience of 600 cuin. Anything above 750 cuin is a raw material with outstanding properties. On some labels of jackets and sleeping bags, you can see a "+" mark next to the cuin value, which means that the actual properties of the filling might be even better. Interestingly, similar insulation parameters of the final product can be achieved by using goose down of different resilience. However, there is a slight catch here. If you use lower cuin filling, you have to use more of it, which results in higher weight, larger size, and worse compression properties of the finished product.
RDS, or Responsible Down Standard, is a certificate confirming the responsible sourcing of bird down and feathers
