With snow falling in Florida and temperatures along the East Coast dipping well below zero, the need for a good winter jacket has never been greater. The warmth from your body wants to get out into the cold atmosphere—that’s just simple thermodynamics—but a good jacket can keep it from escaping, even when the temperatures hit “polar vortex” or “bomb cyclone” levels of frigidity.
At one point in humanity, animal furs and pelts were our best option—they’re great insulators and give that cool “north-of-the-wall” look. Now, we have more efficient methods for bottling in body heat, but that has made the process of buying a winter warmer confusing, filled with tons of inconsistent standards and industry-specific jargon. Here’s a guide to for finding the right jacket.
What to look for
While there are metrics you can use to guide your jacket purchase, there isn’t one perfect jacket to suit everyone’s needs. “Some people run hot and other run cold,” says Woody Blackford, vice president of global design for Columbia sportswear. “There are other factors, too, like how active you are. You need a different jacket to stand at the bus stop every day than you do to go out running.”
Almost every winter jacket has three main components: an outer shell, insulating fill, and a lining. Here’s a breakdown of each piece.
FILL
Just about every piece of winter gear is designed to provide good insulation. The stuff you’ll find in jackets works pretty much the same way as the scratchy, pink fiberglass stuff lining the walls of your house: Individual threads or strands of material create tiny pockets that trap warm air. “You’re creating a microclimate around your body,” says Blackford.
PATAGONIA DOWN SWEATER HOODIE
The quilted appearance on this Patagonia jacket comes from baffles, which are small, sewn-in pockets that keep the clusters of down from clumping up at the bottom of the garment.
Patagonia
Down
The most popular kind of fill for a winter jacket is still down, the fluffy layer of insulation harvested from the skin of fowl like ducks and geese. Companies often mix down with typical feathers to reduce costs. Down is an extremely efficient insulator that’s easy to compress and pack, which has made it the gold standard for jacket insulation for decades. The downside: t doesn’t do well when wet.
Here are the variables to consider when buying a down jacket:
Fill power This is one of the stats jacket companies love to brag about, because it’s basically an indicator of the overall quality of the down fill. The number, which typically ranges from 300 to 900, directly represents the amount of cubic centimeters one ounce of down will take up when compressed in a cylinder by a calibrated weight. Higher quality down won’t compress as much, which leaves more room for air pockets (remember: we like those) and more effective heat retention.
The U.S. and Europe use the same methodology for determining this number, but Europe uses a wider cylinder and a heavier weight. The combination of those variables means that, on paper, the numbers should come out about the same.
In addition to better heat retention, higher fill power also often translates into a more comfortable jacket. Once you get below the 500 range, the material can start to feel stiff or lumpy. Anything in the 800 or 900 range pushes into the premium category.
Fill weight Once you’ve determined what kind of down will go into a jacket, then you have to find out how much of it there is. Fill weight is simply the amount of down found in a jacket measured in ounces. Yes, ore down is better, assuming the fill power remains constant.
So, just because a jacket has a high fill power rating, it can still have a very small amount of actual material between you and mother nature, which won’t keep you as warm. Similarly, you can have a heavy jacket with a lot of low-quality insulation inside and it won’t keep you as warm as a lighter jacket with better insulation.
Down to feather ratio Down specifically refers to the soft plume or clusters of material that reside right next to the bird’s skin. It’s different from feathers in that it’s much fluffier and doesn’t have hard stems that sometimes poke through the shell or lining of the jacket. A higher proportion of down clusters to feathers is ideal, but typically raises the price of the garment.
A higher down mixture will often compress down more, which is important if you’re planning on packing the jacket on a trip. A good mix should be at least 70 percent down, but mixes over 80 percent are common for premium jackets.
The downsides of down
Down comes from water fowl, but oddly down jackets are nearly useless if they get wet. “Down wads up when it’s wet,” says Blackford. “You lose all those holes that trap warm air, and you’re left with wet fiber next to your skin. It takes a long time to dry once you wet it out, too.”
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