China News Service, Hangzhou, November 4 (Xi Jinyan) The cold wave is approaching, and down products are ushering in the peak consumption season. A down jacket and a down quilt carry the public’s expectations for winter warmth. The live broadcast room attracts traffic at low prices and various promotional advertisements are everywhere, but behind the excitement, chaos such as "replacing velvet with silk", "false labeling of velvet content" and "word games with labels" have also attracted much attention. The invisible filling hidden under the fabric has become a trust threshold in front of consumers. When it comes to down consumption, how can we buy it clearly and use it with peace of mind? China News Network conducted multiple interviews on this matter.
Down jackets usher in the peak sales season, with thin and light styles becoming popular
According to the China Down Industry Association, my country is the world's largest producer and consumer of down and down products, and is also a major feather processing country - about 90% of the world's processing capacity is in China.
Walking into Pinghu·China Garment City, goods are piled up in front of the stalls, packaging and delivery are running in an orderly manner, and merchants and logistics personnel are shuttling back and forth, creating a busy scene of both production and sales.
As the country's largest single-category down apparel professional market, Pinghu has gathered a complete down jacket industry chain and occupies 80% of the country's market share of fashionable women's down jackets. During the peak season, the average daily shipment exceeds one million pieces, and its products are sold throughout the country and exported overseas.
But underneath the hustle and bustle, this year’s business logic is changing. "This year's best-selling colors are orange and dark green, and the thin and ribbed down jackets are the best sellers." Tu Youcai, a market operator, feels very directly. The public's consumer preference has shifted from "thick wrapping" to "light wearing." Down jackets have been subdivided into multiple tracks such as urban commuting, light outdoor, and fashionable layering.
While consumption scenarios continue to differentiate, cost pressure on the raw material side is also being transmitted. Some merchants revealed that the purchase price of down raw materials this year has increased from 440,000 yuan per ton last year to 560,000 yuan per ton, so stocking is more cautious than in previous years.
As the cost of raw materials rises, the temptation of the huge price difference between high-quality and low-quality raw materials is further amplified. Industry insiders revealed that the cost of regular high-quality down raw materials can reach 650 yuan/kg, glue down is about 400 yuan/kg, and crushed down is even as low as 40 yuan/kg.
It is reported that glue velvet uses adhesives to stick broken velvet silk and feather powder into velvet pods, and crushed velvet directly breaks the raw pieces to pretend to be high-grade down. The cost of both is much lower than that of native high-quality down. Price differences of more than ten times are placed on the same shelf, and it is difficult for consumers to distinguish them by touching them with their hands or looking at them with their eyes.
Down traceability attracts much attention and transparent system builds trust
On the one hand, the huge price difference creates room for fraud, and on the other hand, there is an information black box where consumers lack independent verification channels. In this context, some companies have begun to build a trust system from the raw material side, using transparent traceability as a differentiated path to break through.
Along the Pinghu down jacket market to the southwest, Xintang, Xiaoshan, Hangzhou, known as the "Hometown of Down in China", gathers 59 down processing and product companies and more than 240 related companies. In 2025, the output value of down processing and products will exceed 11.1 billion yuan, and the production and sales scale will account for 30% of the global market share.
Walking into the Samsung Down Factory Base, you will see floating down feathers that are clean and transparent. Zhu Zhiliang, the person in charge of the company, said that in response to consumers' concerns about the quality and authenticity of down products, Samsung Down launched an independent traceability system-Downplus Anxin Down. The products are all equipped with exclusive anti-counterfeiting washable labels, using "one item, one code". Consumers can scan the QR code to check the source of down, testing data, production batches, maintenance instructions and other information, achieving full-process traces on the raw material side, which is recognized by the market.
Zhu Zhiliang said frankly that the most valuable part of a down jacket is precisely the part that consumers cannot see. Down content, bulkiness, and the ratio of velvet to feathers, these core indicators that determine the warmth performance and quality level, are all hidden in the fabric. They cannot be seen clearly with the naked eye, and it is difficult to distinguish based on the feel alone.
The down industry chain is scattered and there are many links in the circulation of raw materials. Zhu Zhiliang said that the traceability system is essentially to use digital means to confirm the rights of raw materials, leave traces of quality, and open up information barriers in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, so that the value of high-quality down can be seen and verified. However, counterfeit products with mislabeled products have been emerging in an endless stream recently. To build an industry trust ecosystem, it is far from enough for enterprises to build their own traceability. It still requires the implementation of standards, regulatory follow-up, and industry co-governance to form a joint force.
The new national standard is officially implemented and we need to be wary of the "low price trap"
In order to transform down from "invisible filling" to "visible symbol of trust", the new national standards GB/T17685-2026 "Down and Feathers" and GB/T10288-2026 "Down and Feather Inspection Methods" were officially implemented on September 1. The two latest national standards have begun to affect the production and sales of down products this winter.
Xu Jie, vice chairman of the China Down Industry Association, said in an interview that the core technical requirements of the new national standard are aligned with international common rules, unify the judgment caliber, clarify the quantitative and qualitative aspects, and improve the quality requirements of down raw materials to a certain extent.
For example: the minimum requirement for down branches to be judged as down is adjusted from 2 to 3, which is consistent with the terminology definition of the International Down and Feather Bureau (IDFB) test rules. Two velvet branches only form a planar structure, while three velvet branches form an effective three-dimensional support, improving the thermal insulation performance; and the two velvet branches are also changed from "damaged velvet" to "velvet" in the old standard. Products with two velvet branches are no longer counted as "velvet". The actual quality requirements to achieve the same velvet content under the new standard will be slightly increased.
In addition, the revision of the new national standard also fills in the loopholes of adulteration that appear frequently in the industry, and limits the "technological means" of "stealing quality" such as falsely inflating the velvet content. For example, the new standard classifies "land fowl silk" into "land fowl feathers", blocking the loophole of crushing land fowl silk adhering to the down pods to pass it off as down; clarifying that "other fibers" are "impurities", adding dismantling of clumps of down in the composition analysis and testing process, and adding dust content assessment, etc. These new regulations have blocked relevant counterfeiting methods at the standard level and improved the overall quality level of down and products.
However, down is an internal filling material and consumers cannot accurately judge it with the naked eye. This requires the merchant to self-certify, and the information marked on the product label is the most direct self-declaration of the merchant. And "verify the logo, verify the channel, and verify the voucher" is the best verification method for consumers.
Xu Jie suggested that consumers should first look at the product name and logo when purchasing. The product name must be "down jacket" or "down quilt". Those written as "feather cotton", "down cotton", "ecological down" and "tech down" are not down products. Both the hangtag and the washing label must be read, and the manufacturer's name and address, down type (goose down or duck down), down content, down filling amount, and execution standards must be marked. At the same time, we must be wary of the "low price trap". "Ultra-low prices" that are obviously lower than the cost line need to be thought of one more step. The 100-yuan "goose down jacket" in the live broadcast room may not be down, let alone whether it is goose down.
For consumers, the new national standard provides a clearer basis for judgment, and the traceability system adds a layer of verifiable evidence of quality. However, to make down consumption truly understandable and safe, it still requires the implementation of standards, regulatory follow-up, and joint industry governance to form a joint force. When labels are no longer word games, fillers are no longer "blind boxes", and when industry consensus falls on every product, consumers can embrace warmth in the cold wave. (over)
