I just saw this on Down Decor's Downtek site:

After a year of testing and fine-tuning the production process, DownTek™ is now available for immediate shipping of bulk down orders. DownTek™ will be offered in premium goose down fills that are 700 Fill Power and higher.

I'm wondering if we might coordinate a bulk down buy if the prices are not too astronomical. I'd love to get 10-30 oz and send my bag/s in somewhere to be refilled or do it myself. I just contacted them for prices and available fill powers, I'll post back when I hear from them. Ben Smith, Javan, Ron Bell, and other quilt and bag makers - have you thought about adding DownTek to your list of options? Anyone know of their price scheme yet?

Cheers, Ed

Ah just saw this too.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=58695

What, pray tell, is "Down Tek"?


(No, seriously, what IS this stuff made of?)

Edited by Danepacker on 09/22/2012 19:07:30 MDT.

read the link above^^

I talked to Down decor about ordering their new Downtek and and they were very pleasant and helpful but buying directing from them is going to be very difficult. Bulk means about a 500 pound minimum at this time. They also sell only to businesses, they are not set up for direct sales to the public. As an alternative to the cottage industries such as MLD maybe one of the outdoor fabric sellers would invest in an order if they had enough prepaid sales.
Ron

I get my down from them now and in the fall they will have downtek being made in OH, now is only Asia i think. Once that happens you can get much smaller quantities and i am planning to order a few bags to test and see if it makes sense to offer in our products as an option. They are much nicer to deal with than that other big down supplier.

-Tim

Any news about how to purchase small quantities of the product?

Are they going to offer similar fp to what you are currently using or is it only the ~700 fp?

Cheers

What is the chemoical composition of Down Tek? Silicone?

Many years ago, a retailer a used to work for deciced to get into the cottage sleeping bag game.
The minimum order of fabric was 0.5 miles! After a few years, he needed to reorder. When he called the fabric supplier they told him:
"Sir, you can't expect us to keep sending you samples!"

Some interesting chatter on this over on Section Hiker.

http://sectionhiker.com/hydrophobic-down-sleeping-bags-and-jackets/