What You’re Wearing, Part 3: Down

GEAR:30

BLISTER

Arts, Design, Skiing, Snow, Snowboarding, Sports, Outdoors, Bike, Technology, Gear

4.9 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 6 September 2019

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Misconceptions about down are everywhere — fill power, proper care, and animal welfare are all often wildly misunderstood. So today, in part 3 of our “What You’re Wearing” miniseries, we talk to Matthew Betcher of Allied Feather & Down, a company that works with and supplies down for some of the biggest names in the outdoor industry. (There’s a good chance your down jacket is stuffed with Allied down.)

Matthew and I discuss down’s fascinating entrance into the outdoor industry; the physical characteristics that make down such a high-performance fiber; the myths about “fill power” caused by marketing strategies; why and how you should DEFINITELY wash your down apparel; animal welfare & the Responsible Down Standard; and much more.

Have a garment containing Allied down? Check out trackmydown.com to learn about where it came from.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Klaus Obermeyer ‘inventing’ the down jacket (2:40)
What does a “fill-power” rating actually mean? (8:03)
Duck Down vs. Goose Down (24:15)
How Down is different than feathers (30:21)
Tips for washing your down!! (36:55)
Animal Welfare (49:40)
The Responsible Down Standard (56:27)
Down-proof fabrics (59:20)
Trackmydown.com (1:06:04)
The future of down (1:07:10)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone. I'm Sam Shaheen and you're listening to Gear 30 on the Blister Podcast Network.
0:13.0	Today, we have the third conversation in our What's You're Waring mini series.
0:18.1	Joining us is Matthew Betcher from Allied Feather and Down. Allied works with some of the
0:23.1	biggest names in the outdoor industry. Chances are you have a jacket in your closet using Allied
0:28.3	Down. Matthew and I talk about how Down first entered the outdoor industry, which happens to be
0:33.8	one of my favorite anecdotes ever. He clarifies some common misconceptions about the fill power rating system.
0:40.2	We learn why you should definitely wash your down apparel,
0:43.7	along with some pro tips on how to do so, and a whole lot more.
0:47.9	Let's jump right in.
0:51.7	So today I'm sitting down with Matthew Becher from Allied Feather in Down.
0:57.1	How are you doing, Matthew?
0:58.7	Great, thanks.
1:00.1	To start off, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how that led to your
1:04.4	current position at Allied?
1:06.1	Yeah, so it's kind of interesting.
1:08.2	My background sort of mimics what I think what we'll be talking about here.
1:11.7	I've been an athlete my whole life, an avid skier, and I've used down since I could remember.
1:17.9	But it was always one of those kind of generic ingredients. At some point, I found my way into a successful branding career.
1:26.6	I've done grant consulting for about 16 years prior to Allied.
1:30.3	And so when I met the Yoretsky family,
1:34.3	it just felt like a really fun, a really great project,
1:39.3	something that I was sort of passionate about.
	...

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