Patagonia Down Sweater

Patagonia down sweater: This lightweight, deceptively toasty piece has the added bonus of folding up into its own inside pocket, making a handy travel pllow! Remember, down loses its insulating properties when wet and dries very slowly. On the upside: everything else -- unparalleled insulation-to-weight ratio, awesome compressibility. The "fill" or "fill power" numbers associted with down help provide an objective, quantifiable measure of warmth-factor. In order to get this factor to measure across garments/brands, it is useful to understand that you need BOTH the fill power AND the number of ounces of down in the product. When I worked at Patagonia, we were taught during a technical workshop that above 800 fill power, there was little perceptible difference for the vast majority of customers, i.e. it's great to brag about your 1000 fill power garment and flaunt it on your sleeve, but the marginal value between a comparable garment with 800 fill power down is not worth another $100 on the price tag*. I suggested the company include the number of ounces of down on product spec sheets when I was working there to help build a more useful industry standard. They have not done so as of this writing.