Since our inception 45 years ago in 1976, the Down Association of Canada has had a mandate to educate consumers about down and feather, that includes all definitions of the material and the properties that are associated with buying it. Our goal has always been to help you buy genuine down products by making an educated buying decision!
Our not-for-profit Canadian association is proud to also be a member of the global association IDFB, International Down and Feather Bureau, and align with all their mandates and testing regulations. They too want consumers around the world to be knowledgeable about down and feather as a natural fill material. They have standards and definitions that align with areas of world supply for consumer clarity.
Read on to learn about what properties will be best for you and the personal needs of your down and feather product purchase. Let’s start by learning about what DOWN is:
DOWN is the light, fluffy undercoating that geese and ducks grow to keep warm. It consists of millions of filaments that grow from a central quill point and looks a lot like dandelion pods. It is often referred to as a DOWN CLUSTER in written descriptions.
DOWN is a three-dimensional structure, this allows it to trap and circulate air therefore it insulate very well. This unique structure provides a natural ability to both provide warmth and wick away body moisture.
VIRGIN DOWN has always been upcycled; a recycled, repurposed natural material. It is attained solely as a by-product from the food chain and poultry industry. Therefore, Virgin Down has always been a sustainable option for what would be materials naturally discarded by the food industry. Virgin Down has always been held to very high and stringent cleaning processes issued by country to render the material hypoallergenic and safe for product fill use.
POPULAR USES are for manufacturing duvets, pillows, jackets, sleeping bags, fashion cushions and other products.
down cluster size
Pictured here is an immature and a mature down cluster.
Both will be called DOWN for the purposes of an advertisement or how the fill is disclosed as the content on legal government tags which are sewn into finished products.
Do you think an immature down cluster will give you the same warmth value as a mature down cluster?
If you said no, you are correct!
Size of DOWN CLUSTER does matter.
DOWN CLUSTER SIZE directly relates to the maturity (age) of the bird and the species origin. Sounds logical right? Everything that grows presumably gets larger with time / age. Mature flowers are larger and have more blooms than a seedling, an ocean stage salmon is larger and more mature than a fry, and a mature duck or goose has larger down clusters than a duckling or gosling.
Goose Down Clusters tend to be slightly larger than Duck because of the physical bigger size of the bird itself. However, a high quality, mature Duck Down Cluster is also great, and will be able to trap air better than an immature Goose Down Cluster.
The key element is the down cluster size, which is most importantly determined by maturity and only partially determined by species.
Read more info about different types of down on our website on our consumer LEARN pages.