UNIQLO unveils wide range of warm, lightweight jackets

UNIQLO has also added new designs this year including a women's topper jacket with three-quarter length sleeves featuring a versatile A-line design. For men, UNIQLO debuts a Premium Down Ultra Light Coat ideal for wearing over suits on commutes to work. And for this year's lineup, UNIQLO has selected prints with dot and check patterns making it easy to coordinate them with any outfit.

The Ultra Light Down's lightweight quality makes it perfect both as outer wear for early fall and as a middle layer worn beneath outer garments in the cold winter months. UNIQLO's new line of Ultra Light Downs is set to transform the way people around the world dress this fall and winter.

UNIQLO's Ultra Light Down Transforms Down Jackets

When UNIQLO first introduced its Ultra Light Down in 2009, it consigned bulky down jackets to history. While conventional down jackets are great at keeping out the cold, their bulkiness gives them a rugged, outdoors feel that limits their versatility and makes them hard to style fashionably.

UNIQLO Ultra Light Downs address this by combining warmth with lightness for jackets that are versatile and easy to incorporate into a wide range of stylish outfits. They have proved such a hit with customers that it has been a challenge for UNIQLO to keep pace with demand every year.

The secret of the Ultra Light Down's popularity is the unmatched combination of lightness, thinness and warmth it offers. Ultra Light Down is truly a breakthrough product that allows customers to wear light fashionable outfits even on the coldest winter days.

The Secret of the Lightness is in the Fabric

Proven technologies co-developed by UNIQLO and leading textiles maker Toray Industries lie behind the warmth, slimness and exceptional lightweight quality of Ultra Light Downs. Conventional down jackets have a two-layer structure that consists of 1.) the jacket's shell and 2.) packs containing the down.

With conventional down jackets, the down packs are essential--they trap the down and prevent it from falling out. UNIQLO and Toray's technology eliminated the need for these down packs, allowing the down to be added directly into the shell. This innovation significantly reduces the weight and bulkiness of down jackets.

The Proven Technologies Behind the Product

As UNIQLO and Toray worked to eliminate the need for down packs in jackets, they concentrated on the shell. This involved the development of an extremely dense material for the shell made from ultra-fine nylon yarn.

To achieve this, a specially developed treatment process involving the application of heat and pressure is used to plug all the small spaces between the fibers of the shell which ensures that every feather of down is safely sealed inside. By dispensing with down packs, UNIQLO and Toray were able to successfully develop a down jacket that is significantly lighter and less bulky than conventional downs.