The Incredibly Chilly Tale of the Man Who Invented the Down Jacket

Whether you call it a down jacket, a puffer or a bubble jacket, when it gets oppressively cold outside, they’re really the only thing to reach for. Sure, for fashion’s sake, some people prefer layers or heavy wool, but it’s hard to argue that any other option meets the comfort provided by basically wrapping a pillow around your torso. It’s not far off from just thinking, “What if I could go outside without leaving my soft bed behind?” 

Still, the modern down jacket does have a single inventor, one who holds the patent, and someone whose name you probably already know. A man named Eddie Bauer, who is indeed more than a wordmark on clothing (and some weird car collaborations).

Unfortunately for Bauer, the path to inventing the jacket wasn’t painless. Quite the opposite, actually. A genuine outdoorsman, it took a near-death experience for him to finally decide we needed a better jacket.

In 1935, Bauer went on a fishing trip in Washington, and he and his friend Red Carlson were prepared for the cold with thick wool jackets. Warm, yes, but breathable or light? Very much no. So when they had a highly successful bout of fishing, and a hundred pounds of fish to haul out of a canyon? They stripped off their wool jackets.

Now, Bauer was unprotected from the elements, and damp from a combination of sweat and transferred moisture from his trove of fish. This is almost a pitch-perfect recipe for hypothermia, and that’s exactly what he ended up with.

Taking a well-deserved break at the top of the canyon, Bauer’s friend noticed him falling asleep, and realized he was well on his way to freezing to death. Thankfully, his friend was able to snap him awake and get him to warmth, but it wasn’t an experience he wanted to repeat.

He needed a better jacket, and the answer was in his uncle’s old war stories about Russian soldiers stuffing their jackets with feathers. Bauer created a garment that he called the “Blizzard-Proof Jacket” that followed the same idea, including smart advancements like quilted, criss-cross sewing to keep the down spread evenly across the body. That quilting provided Bauer with a patent, awarded in 1940, for an idea so good that you still see it in practically every down jacket available.