Down jackets by popular foreign fast fashion brands such as Zara and Mango contained less volumes of down than they claim and their down fill powers fell below the Korean Industrial Standards.
Some were heavier and less warm than domestic brands, but were five times more expensive, the Korea Consumer Agency said.
A men’s down jacket by local brand Codes Combine turned out to be the warmest and the least costly in the KCA review of 15 products by 10 specialty store retailers of private label apparel, or SPA brands.
Among the heavier products, a men’s down jacket by domestic brand Spao was the warmest and least expensive at 59,000 won.
A men’s down jacket from U.S. brand Banana Republic was heavier and less warm than Spao’s, but priced 339,000 won.
The label on a Zara down jacket for men said its content of down, or a layer of fine feathers found under a bird’s tougher exterior feathers, was 30 percent, when the actual content was 20.8 percent.
The more down a jacket contains, the warmer and softer it is.
Women’s down jackets from Mango and local brand Mixxo also contained 3.6 percentage points and 2.6 percentage points less down than they claimed, respectively.
Of the 15 down jackets studied by KCA, 13 excluding Zara and Mixxo did not mark their product types with down product, down and feather mixture or feather product.
The down fill powers of Uniqlo, Gap, Codes Combine, Forever 21, Mixxo and Zara products fell short of the levels recommended by the Korean Industrial Standards.
Fill powers of 650, 700, 850 and so forth are a reference to the quality of the down insulation used. The higher the fill power, or the amount of cubic inches one ounce of down occupies when compressed by a standardized weight, the better warmth-to-weight ratios of the jacket.
The KCA advised consumers to not be fooled by advertising phrases like “100 percent natural goose down” and to check on the percentage of down and feathers, weight as well as fill power.
“For companies that violated rules on marking of down content and product types, we will request the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards for correction orders,” said KCA official Kim Dong-pil.
Information on quality of down jackets is available at www.smartconsumer.go.kr of the Fair Trade Commission.
By Kim So-hyun (
sophie@heraldcorp.com)
