(long time reader, first time poster)
Some will have heard of this insulation, its been around for quite awhile now. Milkweed however has been disregarded as a loose fill down replacement, as it has en tendency to breakup, migrate and easily loose its fill power with use. Some experiments were made to use it as a batting, like primaloft, with diferent natural fiber blends. All in all, its been proven to be quite inneficient in the past.
There is a new company in Quebec, Eko-terre, who is working on a new and improved version of a fully natural batting type insulation. They call it Vegeto. I just talked to the director of the Vegeto division to get some specs. They are quite suprising. (btw, i dont work for them, I develop custom-made outdoor clothing in QC and gained interest in the product).
Now, Vegeto isint 100% milkweed. It a blend of 20% Milkweed, 20% Kapok, and 60 % of PLA hollow fibers.
They claim to have, for a sq. meter of 100g insulation, a CLO of 2.4 (or 4.2)
*I got the call while at a climbing gym, so i didint manage to take notes. So my memory is failing me. My memory sais that the clo was of 4.2, but it seems like alot so i guess its 2.4. If anywone could convert these numbers to osy, that would help.
They also did comparative compression and wash testing of Vegeto compared to PL gold, climashield and other leading synthetics which i forgot the name. Vegeto tested to be more durable than all or most, it barely lost any thickness.
This insulation might not replace High FP down, but it sure could replace synthetics imo. What are your thoughts? Im recieving a sample sooner or later, if someone wants to run some independent tests i can ship you a piece.
*I will be calling them next week. if you want more precise specs let me know!
