Babak, I'ts mind boggling that the person you spoke to on the live chat thought it was alright to sell you Patagonia's "secret weapon", you would think it would be locked away from the employees in a "highly classified" locker. Haha. Any idea what made him spill the beans?

What a surreal story. Enjoy your "free" jacket while I try and stop drooling:)

Isn't that relatively likely to be deliberate? I know that its one thing that say PHD do and I have a vague impression that its relatively common when people are taking real care.

There's certain places where you just don't need as much fill so you put less there etc. It might only be noticeably visible in a couple of places but it probably varies in quite a few.

Obviously it costs money upfront in design and manufacture but for this price they certainly should be able to afford that......

It is likely that the same worker filled the two jackets mention in this thread. It may be that those areas were harder to access in the process, of the line foreman was being nasty that day and the worker got even. Stranger yet, it made it by QC.

It doesn't make sense that the right side is different from the left. Ifcyouvtold me it was symmetrically lighter under the arms, I could see it as a design feature. It sounds flaky to me.

The jacket had to be in the computer system and assigned a SKU number in a web based sales organization like that. Perhaps it was assigned some sort of VIP status that the salesperson could override or access. Savvy salespeople know their inventory and that jacket had to stand out like a sore thumb. Maybe they had a memo or a meeting and talked it up. Or somebody screwed up and put the item online before the official release date, or maybe it wasn't a screwup.

I see a big ticket item, a commission and a hungry salesperson all in the same place. If the organization is too number oriented, some sales folk (and/or their managers) will do funny things to make big numbers. Been there and had to clean up the messes.

Meh.

George Costanza was rocking "The Finest Down Parka Ever' long before Babak, or anyone for that matter.

So you didn't have to pay for it Babak?

How funny. Nice way to take advantage of opportunity in mindless beauracracy.

I college worked for several retailers- one of which being backcountry.com (where I was a LiveHelp gear head) and I can tell you that there is A LOT lost in communication between the higher ups and the sales folks.

I actually chatted with 3 different sales people who all confirmed that the jacket was "for sale" in their system but didn't have any more information other than the color, price and that it was made with "special 1000FP down".

My guess: Patagonia kept this so under wraps that they didn't tell the sales folk st the bottom all of the details (big mistake IMO) and that SOMEONE ELSE made it "live" in their inventory.

Also part of my deal with Patagonia was to assure me that no one was fired from their company as a result of this- I have their written assurance in an email. It's the employee's fault- I blame the company for "keeping everyone in the dark".

obviously the right side of the highly skilled alpinists for which this jacket is meant for has more natural body fat than the left side ... and as such requires less insulation ...

thats what happens when you live on an alpine marmot diet ...

it has to be a design feature because there is no way that a top notch manufacturer would have quality control issues on their 700$ flagship uber down parka .... not joking ...

but then um just being elitist ;)

"but then um just being elitist..."

Kidding aside, I did some searches on the Patagonia site and was surprised to see how many $500 and $600 items they make. The jump to $700 is just an increment. I've been mucking around in the proletarian $100-$200 stuff and thought that was spendy!

Where this gets me is that there are people in dire straights, let alone groups like Scouts that could outfit a bunch of kids for what these jackets cost. And I do think the feature set is more fashion than function. Poor old Henry Thoreau is sittin' on a cloud and shaking his head, thinking, "I warned you about this in 1854!"

"Babak, somwhow I feel you side with Patagonia???????.
No trolling intended, but who spends that amount on a down jacket????????????
ludicrous to pay more that$400 for a baffled parka.
I paid $800 to have Polar Bear pants sewn, so compare.
Marketing hype. Nice parka - wayyyyyy too expensive"

Sure it's expensive, but so are other super warm down jackets. The Feathered Friends Rock & Ice parka is almost $150 more. I have no idea how they compare warmth wise. Fact is, high quality outdoor weather protection designed for extremes is expensive. Don't even consider looking at what a MUSTO offshore sailing jacket costs. That said, I don't think there's going to be a whole lot of belaying going on in this jacket. I think most of these jackets will end-up on urbanites walking around Manhattan, Vancouver, Vail, Whistler etc. not on people pushing the limits on big mountains. Most of the professional climbers and skiers only wear this stuff b/c it's given to them so that Patagonia can say - "hey Steve House wears our gear..." The true cost is associated with the exclusiveness of this jacket, the serial numbers, the new technology, the 1000 FP claims.

Patagonia didn't pump big cash into this jacket to just make it once. They'll probably have Encapsil tech in all their down garments by 2014.

...And if you guys think Patagonia is expensive, look at Arc'teryx. Many of their insulated jackets exceed the price of Patagonia's Encapsil and they use synthetic ins.

Edited by redpoint on 03/07/2013 15:11:13 MST.