The future of down

I’m not sure why a small market for “ethically treated” goose down (you know they kill the geese before they get the down?), has anything to do with continued availability of down.

Very little of the beef or pork consumed in the USA or in the world is produced under any anti-cruelity or even “organic” certification, but you still have your pick: high- or low-cruelty meat in the USA.  And Argentinians are keep eating their steaks and the Chinese are going to keep eating pork.  Just as you can pay extra for non-conflict diamonds, carbon-neutral travel, or sustainably harvested lumber.

So I suspect there will continue to be a niche market for ethically-produced down, diamonds, meat, clothing, etc.  And that many of those market sectors will grow slightly over time (diamonds might be a flash in the pan).  While, yeah, most down comforters, pillows, and jackets are going to be filled with the lowest-cost material available.

Bonus prediction: “Fill-power” will go the way of “thread count” in sheets where everyone was claiming barely possible figures like 250-thread count until someone else went to 300 and 400 and now everyone claims “Egyptian (or Pima), 400-thread-count sheets”, even though you can’t actually weave sheets with those counts – the threads would be too thin.  Fill-power claims will be like Craftman’s table saws and shop vacs rated in “peak horsepower” like 1950s cars were.  1500 fill power.  2000 fill power.  Consumer Reports is going to green/yellow/red dots instead of actual quantitative data, alas.  But ,maybe the lawyers will save us – there was a successful class-action claim against computer manufacturers for inflating display screen measurements.

Just a guess, but I think down will continue to be used until something better comes along. It’s a great insulator, but has it’s flaws as well, so the opportunity for the “next big breakthrough” is there. I do think more and more manufacturers will switch to responsibly sourced down, but not because of anything those nuts at PETA (my opinion) do, but because consumers want it.

No plans to discontinue ducks or geese.

Chinese are going to keep eating pork.

And ducks and geese.

With the advent of down DWR treatments like Dri-Down, Down Tech, etc., we will see down filled backpacking garments continue into the foreseeable future. My last two down garments, an EB vest and an LL Bean winter bag, were down with a DWR treatment. It works. How it holds up to extended use is still in question.

Duplicating the light weight, loft, resilience and compressibility of down will take a big breakthrough in synthetic fills. When that happens we’ll all be using Unobtanium hiking poles and Sky Hooks of support our tents. Maybe we’ll even see some checkered paint for our shoes.

I have a bushwalking and camping guide booklet  from 1979 (from a local shop) where it states that high quality down is becoming harder to get.

In 1979 high quality down was 650 fill and the standard was the ever present 550 fill with the exception of some Eider Duck products.  I remember the concerns of the industry as ducks and geese were being consumed before the down plumes could fully form in a mature waterfowl.

Things have gotten better and should remain so for some time to come, although prices could continue to rise for the ethically sourced down.  Synthetics have gotten better but are still a distant second to the current high quality offerings on down.