on the way uniqlo ul down jacket

Fri, Oct 11, 2013

I was contacted the other day by the company handling the promotion of UNIQLO products in the UK, letting me know about their Ultra Light Down Jackets and the chance to review one of these very light bits of kit. I’d seen a few reviews across the internet so I was quite keen to help out and in the next post I’ll be describing it in a little more detail, plus a more in depth post once I’ve had a chance to use it.

Who, you might ask? I certainly did! I’d never heard of UNIQLO and I replied, saying I couldn’t find any info on their website about how they source the down for their jackets. They replied, letting me know it was ethically sourced and not harvested by live plucking. I also did some research of my own and was quite impressed with their overall ethics, which includes their All-Product Recycling Initiative and the fact PETA are influencing their wool sourcing decisions for the better. So all in all, I was prepared to give it a go and they’re sending out a nice green Ultra Light Down Parka for review.

The jacket hasn’t arrived yet so I can’t tell how suitable it will be for hill use but, well, down is down, is down! It has a DWR coating and from experience (it’s on my Rab winter sleeping bag and down jacket), DWR is brilliant for winter camping, keeping the condensation from ruining the down. I’ll be seeing how suitable it is for cycling too.

But what sort of market do UNIQLO cater to? The best description I found on the web was, they’re sort of like the Japanese equivalent of H&M. Now that is rather ’left field’ for an outdoor blog but as I said, down is down. And together with their recycling, employee ethics and responsible sourcing, I think it’s worth a look. Not to mention being the smartest tramp in the bothy!

So, more to follow and in the meantime, why not enter the UNIQLO competition, where you have the chance of winning three hundred pounds to spend on UNIQLO products. The competition runs until October 20th and from the various reviews I’ve seen on the web, the HEATTECH stuff seems popular with outdoors folk. I’ll be posting a picture of my ugly mug on Twitter once it arrives!