Uniqlo light down jackets?

Scam · 4 Dec 2013 at 13:56

Has anyone got one of these? My girlfriend bought my one on a whim, but I'm not sure how good it is compared to more technical brands like North Face, Rab etc? :confused:

I have a good North Face tri-climate jacket which has a removable fleece. It did me fine last winter but was debating 'upgrading' it with a down inner jacket (to wear on the inside instead of the fleece). Hence why my girlfriend went and bought the Uniqlo one. I don't want to waste her money on something that isn't actually that great.. does anyone know how it might compare to a proper outdoors brand? The North Face thermoball jackets are like £150 so quite a bit of difference...

Yes, I could always go outside and wear it but where's the fun in that..

XE11 · 4 Dec 2013 at 14:05

it's actually not bad. i have one for casual use. the down they use is rated 650. a lot of technical pieces are around 700-900 for similar thickness (fill). I also have a columbia powerfly (800), similar in many ways, but it's abit warmer due to that omni-heat design and higher fill rating, but this is 160 quid, and not the 60 quid that uniqlo charges. i think it offers good value for money. it will be quite abit warmer than your fleece layer in the north face. (i also have the north face tri-climate).

pair it with your noth face shell. down is rubbish once they are wet. chances are, you will probably use it like this:

t-shirt --> fleece --> down --> shell.

take the shell off if there's no rain/wind

and take the down layer out if it gets abit too warm.

[there are only 2 reasons you dont want the uniqlo one: A, dont like the puffy look. B, you know how they source the down]

EDIT: normal down jacket offer by most high-street brand uses 450-600. so 650 is fairly decent.

Kishywish · 4 Dec 2013 at 14:08

I bought one last month (£60 i think). I'm planning on wearing it as a layer for when i get dragged to one of the Everest Base Camps in Nepal, in two week's time.

If you can wait until then, I'll give you my feedback soon.

Scam · 4 Dec 2013 at 14:21

Cheers. Yeah, I was going to replace the fleece with it. It will pretty much always get worn under my North Face shell. I just hear about this winter being ridiculously cold (it is already!) so thought why not sort myself out. It'd be nice to have something decent on the odd occasions we go out walking. Might be a bit warm on the tube though

XE11, I don't know how they source the down but surely the other brands won't be that much better really? That's one of those things best not thought about I guess... I'm not sure about the look of it but I've just seen a couple of people around town with them on and they look alright. I'm not one for fashion and my motto is that if Uniqlo are pushing it then I'm sure i could be considered stylish in some circles..

XE11 · 4 Dec 2013 at 14:46

Scam said:
Cheers. Yeah, I was going to replace the fleece with it. It will pretty much always get worn under my North Face shell. I just hear about this winter being ridiculously cold (it is already!) so thought why not sort myself out. It'd be nice to have something decent on the odd occasions we go out walking. Might be a bit warm on the tube though

XE11, I don't know how they source the down but surely the other brands won't be that much better really? That's one of those things best not thought about I guess... I'm not sure about the look of it but I've just seen a couple of people around town with them on and they look alright. I'm not one for fashion and my motto is that if Uniqlo are pushing it then I'm sure i could be considered stylish in some circles..

yea, should be good enough, but i think it also depends on what you wear underneath. i found that if i have a sweater/hoodie under the down jacket, i will definitely be warm enough. thats for travelling through london around 6:30am. if i just have my shirt/tie underneath, then it will be on the chilling side. do you take a bag to work? if you do, might worth throwing the fleece into the bag. the ultra light down hasnt been around for very long. uniqlo is one of the first to bring down jacket back into fashion about 3 years ago. so there isnt too much profit built into the jacket at £60. i think it will be a good buy, because i start to see a lot of other brand start to push for down jacket. so i would imagine some time next year, the price will start to shoot up.

Col_M · 4 Dec 2013 at 17:42

Down jackets are great and I have a couple, however for the UK climate they aren't really ideally suited. They're better in very cold environments where all moisture is frozen. It's never really cold enough here for all but the thinnest of down jackets and you have the problem of the damp British weather.

If the weather is wet and you put a jacket over it then you may well have problems with trapped moisture (sweat) being absorbed by the down. I almost never wear anything over my down jackets for that reason, if I know the weather will be wet then I usually use synthetic insulation for going under my shell instead of down, if it's dry and I won't be that active I use my down kit.

However whatever you use will be better than fleece which had it's day 10+ years ago

To answer your question, looking at the fill power of the Uniglo it's 640, so on the lower-mid end of the spectrum but still far from bad. Just avoid putting a shell over it if you can to let it breathe, the DWR on most down jackets can cope with a shower.