Heat storage as light as a feather – one of nature’s marvels

VAUDE uses down in sleeping bags and clothing – lightweight, highly functional outdoor products with perfect thermal insulation. We only use white or gray duck down and white goose down.

Down is a marvel of nature. It forms a natural insulation layer for water birds such as geese or ducks. The colder the air, the "fluffier" and warmer the down of the birds that live there. Technically this is called loft and it is measured in cubic inches (Cuin).

To ensure that birds can fly despite their thick thermal insulation, down is also light as a feather. No other material achieves such comparably high thermal insulation at such a low weight.

Down is a natural product, a "renewable resource" and is biodegradable. It is a waste product from the food industry. This also makes it ecologically very efficient in addition to its excellent technical characteristics.

However, like any "industry" the procurement of down also has its dark side. Unfortunately, both the keeping and feeding of geese and ducks does not always meet the values that correspond to our understanding of animal welfare.

VAUDE has a clear commitment: we only use the down of animals that were not live-plucked or force fed and killed for foei gras. We have received verification on this from of all our suppliers.

Our supplier for down clothing is also a bluesign® system partner and the down we have been using was "bluesign® approved". We discovered that we still have no absolute control over the conditions under which animals that our down comes from are kept and treated.

Therefore, we will use exclusively Responsible Down Standard (RDS) certified down starting in our Apparel Collection Winter 2015/16.

For seeping bags we will use RDS certified down starting in the Summer Collection 2016.

All products with RDS certified down will be given the RDS label.

The RDS is a standards of the independent non-profit organization Textile Exchange. The audit of the entire supply chain of our down – including the goose farms where the animals were raised, slaughterhouses, distributers and down processors – is audited by an institute accredited by the Textile Exchange.

The RDS is a standards of the independent non-profit organization Textile Exchange. The audit of the entire supply chain of our down – including the goose farms where the animals were raised, slaughterhouses, distributers and down processors – is audited by an institute accredited by the Textile Exchange.