Down feathers are great for outdoor gear. It’s loft provides warmth in a lightweight form for jackets, sleeping bags and other garments. Yet when it gets wet, and that can easily happen outdoors, it loses its loft and therefore warming properties. Water might just be the downfall of down.
Down Décor, a company producing DownTek, hopes to change all that. DownTek is a water repellant down. Hydrophobic properties are given to down through nano technology and a proprietary application process. This makes water repellant to the down feathers. To the extent they do get wet, they dry much more quickly.
The company says the nano chemical used to treat the down is made by a company in Belgium that follows strict environmental-friendly criteria in its practices.
DownTek can be used in premium goose down fills that are 700 Fill Power or higher. Expect to find the fill in fall/winter 2012 garments and gear from Marmot, Columbia, Mountain Hardwear, REI, Brooks Range and LL Bean.
DownTek Official Website
[via SNEWS: DownTek Introduces Water-Repellent Down]