Gear Closet-Goosefeet Down Coat

When looking for a new down coat for my winter adventures, I decided to give to Ben from Goosefeet a call to put in a order. After a fruitless couple of months of looking for the “right coat” with a good amount of quality down fill and a slim fit to hug my skinny build. A lot of the “mainstream” coats out there have issues like this I quickly found out, like less than 3oz. of subpar quality down. Without a good amount of down, it’s like being up the river without a paddle, except instead of being wet, you will be cold all trip or worse. After the sudden demise of my Western Mountaineering Flight Coat, which had a decent amount of fill (4.5oz. of 850p) but didn’t fit me too well and was not super compressible. But on the plus size, it lasted me for 12 years, with only some cosmetic issues and was always warm in the mountains, summer or winter.

You can customize your Goosefeet coat’s dimensions, which is perhaps the best feature of a custom job. My coat has ample length sleeves for my lanky arms, very little dead space in the body and is cut long for my 6’5 frame. This amazingly constructed coat has 7oz. of 900p down that will insure ample warmth in almost any mountain range that I choose to explore in the future, and is a total weight just a hair over 12.6oz. total. It should be noted that this coat has a “sewn through” design, which costed me less cash because it is easier for Ben to manufacture them time wise. The downside to this design is that warm air can escape through the seams and cold air can seep in too. You can remedy this design quality easy through the use of a rain or wind layer overtop to seal in the heat. In all honesty, I have only used this layering system once when it was below 19 degrees and quite blustery. It makes a huge difference when you pack it though, the coat takes up a dramatically less pack space. I chose the lightest fabric that Ben has, a 10d nylon, that has some some water repellence qualities and a high thread count to keep you dry. He has a lot of colors to offer in this fabric, and you can mix them up too, making for cool color combinations to liven your spirit in this sometimes bland world. So, go crazy and make any style of coat you like to suit your personality and region you explore and help support this great U.S.A made, cottage company in the process, it is a win win solution.

Look at all this loft! It is really a thing of beauty.

I love purple!