Basic Skirt Quilt

This is a basic version of the Skirt Quilt.

There is a sea of very basic quilts on the market. I tend to view this as a good thing, since budget options are good to have, and really any ol’ bag of down will have some potential to keep someone warm, to some degree. It won’t be super efficient at it, and will certainly lack a lot of performance, but some of them can do the job fine. Unfortunately, they often carry the cost of heavy marketing and large profits, over to the consumer. The general strategy is to throw together something good enough, market it heavily so people think it is really good, then sit back and have a factory crank them out for big profits. Due to pricing and a lack of consumer education, these models sit next to other highly technical and far superior products on the market. Most of the basic offerings are about as performant and sophisticated as a home builder’s first attempt, yet the market aligns them to advanced offerings, which require far more labor and result in far superior performance.

Our effort to get consumer education on a level where they can look at chamber specs and generally compare real performance metrics, is one way to address this issue, so they are able to differentiate. This basic quilt project is an approach method from the opposite side. Why not build some basic quilts, but price them like basic quilts? These skirt quilts were priced with the same calculation of labor and materials as our more advanced offerings and highlights the amount of mark up there is in many of these quilts on the market. This Skirt Quilt isn’t even as basic as market examples. It does retain a full internal draft collar and the skirt, which are both time consuming features. Most basic quilts on the market have no draft collar, or an optional one that get sorta slapped on, and only basic pad strap attachment systems.

What does this basic skirt quilt lack then? The differential cut is gone. This is a very time consuming feature. It can be a critical feature, in some cases, where there is going to be shell tension. If the user doesn’t apply any shell tension, or they size the system such that there isn’t any tension, then a differential cut isn’t all that important. It does often allow outward fill expansion to higher loft and lower density. Higher loft creates more insulation, but comes at the cost of lower density for control. Therefore, without a diff cut, these quilts will tend to have higher density, which will yield less insulation, but better control.

These also lack a junction baffle at the round footbox. The round end is serged straight on, instead of having a baffle between. Having a baffle there is definitely a good idea. However, not having one there isn’t as bad as one would think. Since the two panels meet a a 90 degree angle, the chamber puff of each panel tends to cover the sewn seam cold spot. If you sized the length such that you’re pressing into the footbox, the seam could end up uncovered, which would result in a cold spot. If you size it long enough the seam can remain covered and warm.

Overall, I would expect these to lag behind our other systems in warmth to weight performance, but far outpace other basic offerings on the market, at a much lower price.