Winter is coming and the temperature is plummeting. Down jackets are becoming more and more expensive, and it seems to be a topic that will never be absent every winter. When netizens were discussing whether a thousand-yuan domestic down jacket is worth the money, some college students chose a different way to keep warm - returning to traditional military coats and floral cotton-padded jackets. The truth is that "it's not that down jackets are unaffordable, but that replacement models are more cost-effective"!
A video of several college students teaming up and walking into a classroom wearing military coats has received millions of likes
Can military coats and cotton-padded coats replace down jackets?
Can military coats and cotton-padded coats truly replace down jackets as a means of keeping warm in winter?
Are military coats more cost-effective? (Source: Weibo screenshot)
Whether it is a military coat, a cotton coat or a down jacket, their warmth is attributed to the air. As an excellent thermal insulation material, air has extremely low thermal conductivity. Because the distance between air molecules is large, there is less collision and heat energy exchange between them, making it difficult for heat to be transferred directly through these microscopic particles.
Traditional military coats or cotton-padded coats usually use a large amount of cotton or polyester short fibers as fillers. These fillers form countless tiny layers of still air inside the clothing. These still air can effectively block the loss of human body heat to the cold environment outside and provide a warming effect.
The filling material of down jackets is usually duck or goose down. The down in the down has a three-dimensional flower shape, which can maintain its light and fluffy state. After being filled into the down jacket fabric, it can hold more still air with a lighter weight, providing a more excellent thermal insulation effect.
The thermal insulation effect of military coats and down jackets is all attributed to the air (Source: generated by the author using AI)
In addition, it is worth noting that due to the good hygroscopicity of cotton fiber, cotton-padded clothes will absorb moisture from the environment in a humid environment, causing the cotton layer to become compacted and its thermal insulation performance to be greatly reduced. Duck down and goose down are naturally hydrophobic and can maintain a relatively high dry and fluffy state under the same humidity environment, providing better thermal insulation effect.
Generally speaking, although traditional military coats and cotton-padded coats have a certain effect in keeping warm, down jackets have more obvious advantages in terms of lightness, warmth keeping effect and adaptability to wet and cold environments.
So while traditional clothing can provide good warmth in some situations,But down jackets are still a more ideal choice in severe winters.
Why can’t chicken feathers be made into down jackets?
We often struggle with the choice between duck down and goose down when purchasing down jackets, but there is a question, why do we rarely hear about chicken down quilts being used in down jackets?
Chickens are land birds native to tropical and subtropical areas. The climate in these areas is relatively warm. During the evolution of chickens, they naturally produced less down feathers to adapt to their living environment.
Therefore, the output of chicken down is small. The structure of chicken down is very thin and cannot form velvet. The fluffiness is poor and it is difficult to lock in a large amount of still air, so the warmth retention is poor. Moreover, the handle of chicken down is relatively protruding. If used as a filler, it may puncture the fabric, so chicken down will not be used as a filler for down jackets.
Different feathers (Source: generated by the author using AI)
Waterfowl such as ducks and geese will retain more down feathers (Source: generated by the author using AI)
Chickens have naturally produced less down feathers during their evolution (Image source: generated by the author using AI)
It is true that crushed chicken feathers are used to pass off as duck and goose down on the market, but the ability of these fine feathers to capture air is far less than that of complete down feathers, and they can easily penetrate the outer layer of down jackets. Although chicken feathers are not suitable for making down jackets, they have important uses in other fields such as organic fertilizers and feather duster manufacturing.
Three things you must know about how to choose a down jacket
When purchasing a down jacket in winter, it is crucial to understand the following three key indicators, which will directly affect the thermal performance and comfort of the down jacket.
Three key indicators for choosing down jackets (Source: generated by the author using AI)
1. Filling weight:
Also known as down filling, this is an important indicator to measure the thermal performance of down jackets. Fill weight refers to the net weight of pure down inside the down jacket. For example, if a sleeping bag is labeled as 400 grams of goose down, and a sleeping bag is labeled as 1100 grams of duck down, these numbers represent the actual weight of the down, not the weight of the entire sleeping bag.
2. Down content:
Refers to the velvet content in down that plays a significant role in keeping warm. The higher the velvet content, the better the warmth retention. The national standard "Down Clothing" GB/T14272-2021 stipulates that the "down content" value of down jackets should not be less than 50%.
3. Fluffiness:
Fill power refers to the volume occupied by a certain weight of down under certain conditions. The higher the expansion degree, the better the thermal insulation performance of down. Generally, the fill power of duck down is about 450, while the fill power of goose down is between 450 and 600.
Armed with these key facts, you'll be able to make smarter decisions when shopping for down jackets and find the ideal option that's both comfortable and warm.
Planning and production
This article is a work of Popular Science China-Starry Sky Project
Produced by Science Popularization Department of China Association for Science and Technology
Producer｜China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Galaxy Culture Media Co., Ltd.
Author丨denovo science popularization team
Review丨Song Lidan China Textile Construction Planning Institute
Editor丨Ding Er