Patagonia to release 1000 fill power water repellant down dubbed "Encapsil."

So apparently Patagonia has a 1000 fill power water repellent down that is going to be making it's way into the market:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/patagonia-introduces-encapsil-down-holds-equity-stake-in-aeonclad-coatings-174205011.html

Thoughts?

ch-ch-ching! I can hear the cash registers now...expensive!

Anymore everything is. ;)

1000 fill power? At what point should there be warning labels concerning the potential physical risk in compressing this stuff down to nothing and quickly pulling it out of your pack? Beware the loft. "You'll poke your eye out, kid." 

Yes, doping has now infiltrated the animal kingdom in order to obtain stronger, larger and fluffier geese!

rob5073 said:

Yes, doping has now infiltrated the animal kingdom in order to obtain stronger, larger and fluffier geese!

So I was right, these are geese.

Yippee

This is the equivalent of the horsepower or computer power wars. The waterproof coating has been in the works for a while. This will obviously be high end stuff for expedition use or yuppie posers, take your choice.

ps. I have nothing against Patagucci, I own some of their base layer stuff and it's the best, IMHO.

pps. That story is not news, it is a press release, so of course it is flattering and touting this advancement as the down equivalent of landing on the moon. Now that is some real fluff.

i wonder if a surface treatment that "increases the loft" of down could end up affecting (a) the weight and (b) the ability to compress garments and sleeping bags.  We all know that most synthetic insulating materials don't generally compare well to down in these respects, and this treatment seems to be bridging the gap somewhat between the loftier synthetics (primaloft, for example) and down. 

not that there is anything necessarily wrong with this.  i was wearing a pair of primaloft lobster mitt liners (separate thumb and forefinger, all other fingers together like a normal mitten) on a particularly chilly outing with the dog this morning (Hestra's "primaloft extreme" mitt liner), and they are awesome. 

I was reading a press release on a Mountain Hardware jacket, which points out that, "...high-loft down can be compressed easily by a heavy face fabric...". MH uses a light 7 denier fabric to avoid crushing the 850 down in their new UL jacket.

The surface fabric (and any treatments on it) could be a significant factor, in addition to any weight that might be added to the down itself from the treatment.

I'll be interested in comparing total weight of something like the MH Ghost Whisperer to one of the new Patagonia jackets. This might turn out to be one of those tradeoffs where you have to decide whether weight is more important to you that the unique advantages of the equipment.

I wonder how these treatments will affect down's longevity.  Of course it will take many years to determine longevity.  Old school down, which was less lofting as well as no outside treatments, lasted for a very long time.  To me this is has been a big selling point because gear lasts longer, therefore costs less in the long run.

Amazing how quickly the dri-down thing has taken off!  It's no surprise really.

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