Gerry down jacket

[William Zila]

I recieve a "Gerry down jacket" from my grandpa and was wondering if any of the older and wiser bpl'ers can give me info on it. It's a bright orange colored it's baffled not sew through weighs 34 ounces has 2 inches of single sided loft has a hood as well as a zipper front covers by a button up draft tube it has two zippered hand pockets with drop pockets on top of them. Anyone know what jacket this Is? Any specs for it ? Im just interested

[David Adair]

Gerry made some very nice stuff and were at the forefront when in came to down products and parkas. I don't have any specific information about the jacket you describe but everything they made was first rate. Pretty neat gift I would say.

Gerry Cunningham was an interesting guy who invented a number of products including cordlocks.

If you haven't seen this already you might enjoy the history presented here:
http://www.oregonphotos.com/Gerry1.html

[Mike M]

I had a light Gerry (well light for the day anyways :)) down jacket and a down vest; that was many moons ago- both garments provided me with much welcomed warmth on lots of outings

there is a lot of vintage clothing websites around that might have more details on your specific jacket????

[Elliott Wolin]

Us old-timers call the refillable squeezable poly tubes "Gerry Tubes," as he invented them. I have some with the Gerry logo, still working after 30 years!

[William Zila]

I have checked out that site with all the history on him it was a interesting read anyone know what fill power down he used ?

[Don Morris]

IIRC, back in the late 50s,when that jacket was probably fabricated, there was no attention paid to fill weight, there was just "down." Probably around 600 or so, but that is simply a guess.

Gerry was a fabulous innovator. A lot of his products would perform very well today.

[Hikin’ Jim]

Before the MSR Reactor, there was the Gerry Infra-red.

No where near as powerful as a Reactor, but Gerry was a top brand and introduced a lot of innovations.

Gerry as I recall was one of the first with decent child carriers. Kid carriers were even called "Gerry Packs" for a number of years as I recall.

HJ

Adventures in Stoving

[Matthew Black]

I don't recall seeing references to fill-power other than 550, 600 and 650 prior to about 2000. The total fixation on high-loft down is a relatively recent phenomenon. Higher quality down might have been used prior to that but it wasn't as critical for product marketing as now.

Someone beat me to the fill-power comments. I remember the child carriers growing up in the 70s. I wasn't aware of Gerry's background in mountaineering/backpacking until they bought Moonstone and the internet made a lot of obscure information available.

[David Adair]

I would estimate Gerry down was around 700-750 fill power. I suspect to get the higher fill powers requires fancy processing to sort out the lighter clusters which wasn't commonly done until quite a bit latter. -I'm not an expert but I did stealth camp behind a Holiday Inn last night.

[Luke Schmidt]

My dad gave me a Gerry jacket he picket up at Goodwill for next to nothing. I didn't know it was considered a "namebrand" company back in the day. I wonder how old it is? The tag says "warmth without weight." It weights about 20 oz and its pretty warm. I bring it on trips were I expect to sit around camp more than normal. Not bad for $5!

[Michael Davis]

I bought a Gerry down parka back in the mid 1970's and used it as a ski jacket for many years. This was way before wp/b stuff was out there. At the time, Gerry was considered premium gear. I bought it at a Peter Glenn, a boutique ski shop.
I remember it seemed lighter than air at the time. He only reason I don't have it today, is that I gave it to my grown son, and he still uses it now!

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