Feathered Friends Eos Review

The Feathered Friends Eos uses 900+ fill-power, responsibly sourced down, which alone sets up the Eos to perform well in our warmth, weight, and compressibility metrics. With a simple yet functional design, this jacket is a go-to in the eyes of our testers.

Performance Comparison

Warmth

First off, the Eos Packs a lot of puff. It's visually apparent that this jacket is loftier than most of its competitors. Feathered Friends does not skimp on down in the hood or collar either, giving the Eos a sleeping bag-like feel when it is fully zipped up. However, one of our only complaints is that the hood doesn't have an adjustment to seal out cold air.

Weight

On our scale, the Eos weighs 13 ounces with its included stuff sack. While that is heavier than a few others, it isn't in the same class when it comes to warmth. Many ultralight-style down jackets will struggle to even come close to the warmth of this. If warmth to weight were a metric, this would hover at the top.

Water Resistance

The DWR-treated Pertex Quantum shell fabric performs well out of the box, repelling water for about five minutes during our shower testing. After five minutes under a high-pressure showerhead, water began to leak into the inside of the jacket where the baffles are sewn through, but the down never went totally limp, an admirable performance for a down coat without hydrophobically treated down.

Comfort

The Eos has a great fit, perfect across the shoulders and torso, and just a little baggy around the stomach. This causes it to seem slightly bulky under a shell but gives it the advantage of being easy to get on over other layers at a windy belay or on a ridge during a ski transition. The hem extends a few inches below the waist, but it's not as long as a few others in the round-up. The hood fits well and stays in place without a cinch cord, though it's a smidge too tight when worn over a helmet.

Compressibility

Once again, the 900+ fill power down gives the Eos a big advantage. All that puff crams down into an included stuff sack. Pull it back out, and it lofts up quickly, again and again. This jacket is one of the thickest and warmest in our review and packs down just as small as other models that aren't as warm or as lofty.

Features

Our only real complaint about the Eos is its hood. As mentioned, it doesn't feature an adjustment to cinch up around the face sealing out the cold but instead has an elastic brim that fits well enough on the average head, but it's a little too small to fit over a helmet. Many of our testers are climbers and prefer a hood that fits over a helmet, but if these issues aren't a concern, then the Eos has all the features you need.

Two zippered handwarmer pockets keep your small, important items secure. There are two pull cords on either side of the hem to cinch down the waistline and seal in the warmth, but it's missing a place to keep the cords out of the way, leaving them vulnerable to getting caught on carabiners or brush. We just tucked them up inside the coat, which works just okay. As mentioned before, the Eos packs away into an included stuff sack, not a built-in pocket. We prefer it when a jacket stuffs into its own pocket because then there's no stuff sack to lose.

Should You Buy the Feathered Friends?

The price doesn't seem outrageous for an awesome jacket full of the best down available from a small Seattle-based company, making the Eos the "bargain" of the top performers. If it had a cinch-able hood and a better-designed hem tensioning system, this may have edged out the Editors' Choice and would be a screaming deal.

What Other Down Jackets Should You Consider?