the need for a warm coat

DO YOU NEED A WARM COAT? IF YOU LIVE IN COLD COUNTRY; YES! AND OF COURSE IT SHOULD BE A LAMILITE INSULATED COAT!

From the Ice Box of the Nation, I just wanted to send you a note saying the Antarctic parka that I ordered from you is fantastic! I could not be happier. It’s been a brutal winter here, but your parka makes it very comfortable to be out in the cold.

Thank
TC

TC lives in northern Minnesota so he knows exactly what cold is. He sure knows that the Lamilite insulated Antarctic parka makes his life better considering the environment that he lives in. I wonder if verde company has received such comments from people who have wasted their money on goretex lined jackets, doubt full.

Actually I have received a number of equal comments from people who are living is areas of the country where the ambient air temperatures have been significantly colder than is normal where they live.

I have written extensively about continuous filament fiberfill regardless if it was named polar guard, Climashield or Lamilite it is still continuous filament fiberfill and while I state unequivocally it is in a class by itself as an insulating medium. I also have the support if you will of thousands of customers who have written to me expressing the same sentiments as TC has. Actually I believe it is the only form of insulating material available in the world. There is nothing that has been created since 1968 when the continuous filament polar guard was introduced to the market. Every form of insulation that has been presented to the market place has been made from chopped staple fiber. Every form that has been created has successfully failed to perform as those selling it have claimed it is supposed to.

When I first entered the textile business I sold resin bonded chopped staple fiberfill just like what primaloft and every other company in the world makes today except Climashield. In order for the fibers to be held together they had to be bonded with either a resin such as Roplex I think 16 if I remember correctly. Of course over time the resin for the most part was replaced when the fiber processors started blending low melt fiber with the high melt fibers so the end product was softer but otherwise no different structurally. The problems with these products and I mean ALL of these products are they did not work very well as insulations to begin with. To further examine these products they ALL deteriorate very quickly meaning they go flat further reducing any insulation they had to begin with which was/is not much. They further deteriorate when laundered, and that is the precise reason these companies that sell chopped staple fiberfill bags do not want you to launder them. The same holds true with respect to jackets but in order to compensate for the deteriorating of the fiberfill from laundering they made the quilt patterns much smaller. Of course they have little if any insulating capacity.

The continuous filament fiberfill is unique being continuous. For those who have most any Wiggy product there is a noticeable difference in appearance. There is no quilt stitching that reduces the loft of the fiberfill. The loft is uniform from side to side and the strength of the fiber will continue to support the loft between the shell and lining fabrics. Because the uniformity from side to side created by the continuous filament fiberfill maintains a uniform loft of the product. This is the first of the unique qualities. Then there is the volume of fiber that creates a density unmatched by any other fiberfill product. We know that the density traps the air and trapped air gets warm and it does not escape. What we also know is that this warm air drives the moisture while in a vapor state out of the insulation. We also know from the study that primaloft’ s original parent Albany International did showed that silicone treated fiber allowed moist vapor to move through it 16 times faster than non-silicone treated fiber. If the chopped staple fiber these other companies use is silicone treated being as light or thin as the fiberfills are means that any heat driving the moisture out of the garment or sleeping bag is also allowing the heat out as well.

Think about the loft of fiber glass batting used for ceiling insulation, is it quilted or just a uniform thickness. The same holds true for double pain windows. The two windows are a uniform thickness. That is what is accomplished when you use the continuous filament fiberfill as I do.

Unfortunately the industry has never embraced all of this knowledge even though it was offered to them in 1968 when I first offered it to them. why because they who were in charge did not like the appearance of the finished product. Subsequently the rejection attitude has remained ever since. The young people who are now working in the industry are controlled by people who have no knowledge of insulations.

As I look into the future I do not see any material that can be used to mimic the way continuous filament works. The primary action being the uniformity of loft that is created by continuous filament fiberfill.

In order to compete with continuous filament fiberfill primaloft is combining a silica material called aerogel with their poor quality fiber. Aerogel has some useful applications from what I have read but use as an insulation is not one of them. Last I read that llbean was going to sell sleeping bags made with this product. I would bet they haven’t sold 10 since they were put in their catalogue.

I have not mentioned down in this article because I chose not to discuss a product that is obsolete.

As for the industry I believe the companies that offer outerwear garments are no less interested in making a change to an insulating medium than the footwear industry is in eliminating goretex film or the like in their boots. That also holds true for the jacket marketers who sell waterproof breathable laminated garments. It really makes no difference to these companies because they are for the most part conglomerates and many are public companies today so their main focus is showing the stock holders profits. Their stock holders I do not believe care if the products they make are good or bad.

What I do know at this moment in time is that as I have said before in 100 years continuous filament fiberfill will still be the best insulating medium in the world and if I had my druthers it would be the only fiberfill used.