Uniqlo UL Down Parka reduced $10 – now $59.90

[Anonymous]

I almost pulled the trigger on this a couple weeks ago when it was $70. Sometimes it pays to be a procrastinator.

http://www.uniqlo.com/us/store/lifewear/style/079122

[Adam Kramer]

coupon for $5 off: UNIQLOAPP

i got one, sewed the hood up a bit for a perfect fit. super easy. this thing is warm and 10oz for $50 bucks

[Benjamin Meadors]

Thanks, Mike!
I picked one up in a size small. I'm typically on the small end of medium. Sometimes small works. Sometimes it doesn't. So we'll see on the fit. It looks like their return policy is good though. :-)

[Mitchell Ebbott]

Got any photos of the sewn hood? I just got one of these and wouldn't mind tightening it up.

[Adam Kramer]

it was super easy and my first mod. anyone can do it. the hardest part was threading the needle. all i did was fold over about 1 inch of the lycra onto itself on each side and then gave it a couple of stitches. easy to remove if i ever want to as well. makes a HUGE difference as the neck and hood were pretty big and let a lot of heat escape out of the top. now the hood synches down almost balaclava style and the neck comes up to my chinny chin chin.

[brian H]

It's a BPL Selfie!

[Delmar O’Donnell]

(Brian, I thought you avatar was a selfie…?)

So, reading various posts, I've gotten the impression that the Uniqlo Parka is a thicker, warmer jacket with more insulation than the Ultra Light Jacket? (Not counting hood of course).

The loft of a double layer of Ultra Light Jacket is about 7/8", which calculates to a CLO around 1.4.

What's the loft of a double layer of Uniqlo Parka?

[Adam Kramer]

just with a nice down filled hood.

AS FAR AS FIT…it's not athletic by ANY means. if anything, i would say it runs just a hair large.

[Delmar O’Donnell]

Do me a favor? Lay your Uniqlo parka out flat on a table, double thickness, and measure the loft? I lay one ruler horizontally "floating" on top of the coat, then use another ruler vertically to measure loft.

(For reference, my Uniqlo Ultra Light Jacket is 7/8" loft for double thickness.)

If you're right, if the parka and the jacket have similar loft (only difference being hood), it throws into confusion a lot of the commentary on the Uniqlo parka I've seen here at BPL.

[Anonymous]

@ Benjamin – youre welcome!

@ Adam – missed that coupon :/ but thanks and great info on the MYOG hood.

Ill weigh my XL jacket when it arrives and report. Im traditionally an XL dude – so ill let everyone know how this fits as well…somewhere I read that the Uniqlo XL is closer to a USA 'L'. So if its too tight Ill return it or sell it.

[Greg Cullison]

I had never heard of Uniqlo, but saw this discussion yesterday and checked out their website. I ordered the UL Down Parka for my dad–he was jealous of my wife's GoLite Bitterroot that she got for Christmas.

Anyway, I ordered the jacket at 4:30, they shipped it for free at 11:30, and it arrived less than 19 hours after I ordered it–Hackensack, NJ to Lancaster, PA in about 12 hours shipping time by FedEx.

My dad loves the jacket. He hasn't taken it off all day, he says. Problem is my mom is going to need one since Dad says he is going to turn the heat down to 60!

[Benjamin Meadors]

@Delmar
As far as the parka being thicker, are you sure that the one being mentioned as thicker than the jacket wasn't this version?
http://www.uniqlo.com/us/store/goods/072644?gareco=r_l4
I saw it in a thread a while ago being compared to a similar Montbell garment.

I will measure mine when I get it in though.

[Delmar O’Donnell]

I confess I am a little confused. The reason I think there must be a big difference in loft between UL Jacket and (some kind of) Uniqlo parka is that the measured double thickness (ie, two layer) on my Uniqlo UL Jacket is about 7/8".

I read one BPLer who reported: "It [Uniqlo parka] seems to fall in between my MB UL Down Inner Parka and my MB Alpine Light jacket as far as loft. My crude measurements give me between 1.5"-2" average two-later loft for the MB Down Inner, 2.5"-2.75" average for the Uniqlo, and 3"-3.25" for the Alpine Light."

Well, my jacket is nowhere near that lofty.

And another said the Uniqlo (parka? or jacket?) seems "a worthy successor to my Stoic Hadron — it's just as warm…."

Has a Stoic Hadron a bit under 1/2 inch of loft?

I'm trying to figure how cold I can take my Uniqlo UL Jacket. I'm thinking it has a CLO around 1.4 which comes from [.44 (loft) x 6.5 (high-FP down insulation factor) x .50 (coverage)].

That would put it in the neighborhood of the MB UL Down Inner, a WT Primaloft 1 Hoody (which uses two layers of PL), or a Rab Xenon.

[Vladimir Kucherov]

Delmar,

I just did a rough measurement of my ultralight parka (with hood), and I'm seeing somewhere around 1.65 of loft for 2 layers.

Stupid question but is the ruler you put on top of the down compressing it any?

One thing I have to say about this jacket is I've noticed it's not build at all to be wind-proof. I know the main zipper has no flap, and when I put a wind-shirt over it, it feels so much warmer.

[Benjamin Meadors]

Just got my small in today, and it fits quite well! :-)
As has been noted, the hood is a cavern, but it doesn't go down over my eyes like some of my jackets with untended hoods do. Length is great too. It actually goes over my belt, unlike a lot of jackets I have!

[Mitchell Ebbott]

My ultralight parka has somewhat uneven fill, so I measured it at a few points. It looks like it ranges between 1.3 and 1.65 inches of loft (2 layers).

[Anonymous]

My XL came in at 10 1/4oz… nice jacket – it fits me well and im def an XL guy.

ill let everyone know how it feels in the field – i might head up to mammoth this weekend.

[Delmar O’Donnell]

>I just did a rough measurement of my ultralight parka (with hood), and I'm seeing somewhere around 1.65 of loft for 2 layers.

> It looks like it ranges between 1.3 and 1.65 inches of loft (2 layers).

Aha. So the Uniqlo parka IS a lot puffier than the UL jacket. Based on these ranges, perhaps 50% to 85% puffier. (My UL Jacket measures 7/8," double layer.) Looks like the parka is more than just a different cut and an added hood. It's built for colder weather.

>Stupid question but is the ruler you put on top of the down compressing it any?

It's a lightweight plastic ruler, and it floats on top…there's no "indentation" in the down caused by it, so I'd have to say, no. I use the plastic horizontal ruler to pick up an average of the loft across multiple baffles…so I'm not measuring at just one point. I take several measurements and average the results.

In case you're wondering: yes, I gave the jacket a good shake before measuring, to get it as lofty as I could.

Back to the parka:

A CLO calculation would put the parka around .75 (single layer) x 6.5 (Nisley's 800 down multiplier) x .52 (parka) = 2.5, give or take. For comparison, my UL jacket calculates out to a CLO of 1.4.

[brian H]

i just rec'd my size L parka and find the fit True 2 size
on the snug side, w/out the pooch belly which seems common.

Weighs in at 9.4 oz
Very similar niche as the MB UL Parka

i may consider the KHM, Kramer hood mod, but my hood fits my L head well.

now…the mod i would jump on is custom thumb loops…but i am too chicken.
Know anyone who has the huevos to do it?

[Mitchell Ebbott]

"A CLO calculation would put the parka around .75 (single layer) x 6.5 (Nisley's 800 down multiplier) x .52 (parka) = 2.5, give or take. For comparison, my UL jacket calculates out to a CLO of 1.4."

That seems high. Richard Nisley puts the Montbell Alpine Light around the same, at 2.51, and that weighs 13.3oz. My size small Uniqlo parka weighs 9oz. Do you think Uniqlo's fabric is that much lighter?

[Delmar O’Donnell]

I take your point. Do you think the multiplier for down is off?

I don't imagine the CLO would be THAT much different between 800 and 700-740-750 FP down (take your pick of estimates) that Uniqlo uses. (Remember that their 640 down is "on the Japanese scale" and would be higher on the US scale).

[Mitchell Ebbott]

The best information I could find says Uniqlo uses the European scale, which runs 100 lower than the US scale. That would put the Uniqlo stuff at 740 fill power. I can't find the thread where the down multiplier is listed, does he list any fill powers other than 800?

The variable could also be the loft height, that makes a big difference in the formula. As I mentioned, the fill on my parka is somewhat uneven. Using the lower (but not quite lowest) loft number I measured gives a single-layer loft height of .65", which (using the 800 fill multiplier) gives a CLO of 2.2. That sounds more likely to me.

Then again, the Uniqlo fabric is really quite light and the Alpine Light got high marks for durability, implying a heavier fabric. That makes more of a difference than the weight of the down.

[Rick M]

del

[Delmar O’Donnell]

Mitchell: Nisley gives the Iclo of an inch of 800 FP down at 6.562: "800+ down fill is 6.562 clo per inch" in thread 9378. By comparison, an inch of cotton reportedly gives a CLO of 4. Perhaps the loft measurement is the culprit as you say. I've given my jacket multiple loft measurements, resting a light ruler across the top of several baffles, and using another ruler to measure the distance from tabletop to bottom of horizontal ruler. I pretty consistently come up with 7/8 for a double layer (.44 for a single layer) over multiple attempts to measure. So your parka still appears to be significantly loftier than my jacket.

Rick you may be right, but if you are, you contradict several posts to the contrary, which state that Uniqlo use either Japanese or Euro scale (different posts reference different scales), one or both of which are reported to be lower than the US scale. I've also read several mentions here on BPL that the Uniqlo down doesn't have the look and loft of American 640. But…I don't have first hand knowledge here, just reporting what I've read. I've never gotten the impression that the +100 is definitive. But then, we're far into the Nerd Ether here.

I haven't a clue to where you'd go to confirm or disconfirm that Am, Euro and Jap ratings for down FP are different or the same. I've just read plenty of posts declaring they're different, and that the Am is "inflated." Perhaps someone can furnish a reference.

[Mitchell Ebbott]

FWIW, the information that their advertised fill power is in the European scale came directly from Uniqlo. They had it on the product page at one point, and customer service confirmed it in an email to me. I imagine the rumor that it's on a Japanese scale started because they're a Japanese company.

The US=EUR+100 formula is less reliably sourced.

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