Lab Notes

How about recycled down?  I have 2 down puffs inherited from my grandmother.  The fabric on one is dying and it molts whenever it is moved.  In any case, since I now live in central Texas, I so totally don’t need a down puff.  I also have down pillows inherited from my mother in law; 3 or 4 to be exact.  Can you use my down? Other peoples? (freezing kills mites, etc. in down, I think.)

Nice Article from Patagonia

http://www.thecleanestline.com/2008/04/up-with-down.html

All power to you guys.  I am currently looking for a decent insulating jacket, and down appears warmest.  Whilst respect goes to minimising animal’s discomfort whilst alive, I would still prefer zero death to be involved in my gear.  I’m impressed and interested in what your investigations turn up, and what you could do with the info.  I remember reading in Trail someone looking into collecting up the naturally moulted feathers, was that you guys?

still working on some stuff, but the outdoor show has caught up on me, so i will finish this off as soon as i can.

Nick

More a response to “Clouds”, i think we read your post more as a statement than question. When asked a direct question we do try to give a direct answer.

Cheers

Nick

Guys. mucho respect. I’d bought this up in the down recycling, and was kinda miffed that I did’nt get a direct answer. Buying a down bag was off the list.
Then I checked out your ethical credentials and decided that you would do as as much as possible to source from a suitable producer. My down bag was now back on the list, but I still wanted to be sure.
OK, I eat meat, use leather but I also subscribe to the notion that raising, killing and eating animals should’nt be done in an inhumane way. Animals will experience pain when they die….. making it as brief as possible is our duty.

If Alpkit can square this particular circle then I’d be happy to go back to down, but don’t give up on the idea of recycling will you?

T

It’s great to see a company publicly challenging itself on ethical grounds, where it could quite easily have ignored the matter, as I suspect many others do so they save money. I firmly believe it is possible to address this subject and to offer competitive prices.

To the findings shown so far, I would be very dubious that any animal does not feel anything during live plucking regardless of any natural cycles. Animals cannot convey levels of pain or discomfort to us in ways we can easily understand or recognise.

There are many slaughter houses that deal with chickens, turkeys and geese in Europe with the largest being in the UK, of course I have no idea on the levels or quality of down from there.

As to Eider… hmm could we clone them and grow them in our fridges? :D Perhaps not.

Mark.