About the Eider Down

Here at Cozy Down, we offer down comforters at a range of different sizes and price points.  Many are very affordable and within reach of most consumers.  Others are more expensive.  And then there’s the Eider Down.  

Why does the Eider Down comforter justify a starting price of $19,000?  And why do we offer it?  These are questions that deserve honest, detailed answers.  

The History of the Eider Down Comforter

The story of the Eider Down Comforter really begins with the early days of Cozy Down.  When our founder became really interested in wellness, he quickly identified the importance of getting deep, restful sleep as an important component in personal health.  This led him to learn about the value of down comforters for quality rest.  

He researched down comforters extensively, going from entry-level down comforters costing just hundreds of dollars all the way to the very best products costing tens of thousands.  His research eventually led him to take repeated trips to Europe to conduct research and better understand the industry.  

With a range of manufacturers across the industry, our founder ultimately decided to focus on quality over price.  From our earliest days, Cozy Down has been committed to offering down bedding of exceptional quality.  You can certainly find something cheaper, but you’re not going to find anything better.

Pure Icelandic Eiderdown

First off, consider the down fill that gives this product its name.  We mentioned in a prior blog post that duck down tends to be more plentiful, but eiderdown is the exception to the rule.  Due to the relative scarcity of the birds that produce it, this down is known to be fairly hard to come by.  A large migratory duck mostly found along the northern coasts of Siberia, Europe and North America, the common eider sea duck has been close to ending up on endangered species lists for some time.   

Unlike some manufacturers, who pass off low-quality down as eiderdown by spraying it with some sort of chemical, we buy our eiderdown  exclusively from Iceland, which produces no less than 75% of the world’s eiderdown.  Eider ducks there are protected carefully, and hunting them is prohibited.  Icelandic farmers also go to some lengths to protect the flocks from natural predators like foxes and seagulls.  When eider ducks gather during the summer to breed, they use their breast feathers to build their nests, using fluffy down to keep their eggs warm.  Once the ducklings hatch and leave, the nests are abandoned, at which point the farmers carefully harvest the down from each nest.  They do not keep the birds in any sort of captivity, and no birds or eggs are harmed in the course of harvesting the down.  

While conducting our research in Europe, we quickly discovered that Eider down is considered the very best down in the world for use in bedding.  So if eiderdown is so hard to acquire, why is it so prized for use in bedding?  

• As we mentioned in our prior blog post, down with a fill power of 700 is considered exceptionally high quality.  Eiderdown clocks in with an equivalent fill power of around 1000, the highest known fill power number for natural down.  
• In that prior blog post, we also mentioned the distinction between fill power versus fill weight.  Because eider down has such an exceptionally high fill power, we can use a lower fill weight and still have a fluffy, warm comforter.  
• There’s one other point that can’t really be quantified, but Icelandic eiderdown is known for being unusually “sticky” – its clusters stick to themselves much more than other types of down.  This means there’s a lot less leakage of the down over time, and it traps heat really effectively.  

The unusual nature of eiderdown – particularly the way it sticks together – makes it highly desirable for use in comforters and bedding.

It is, quite simply, the very best down in the world.  

But our use of pure Icelandic eiderdown is only the starting point for this product.  We take several extra steps to produce a comforter of unmatched quality.  We’re confident that we haven’t just produced a great eiderdown comforter – it’s the single best comforter you’ll find anywhere in the world.  

• As with any premium comforter, the Eider Down uses baffle box construction for premium warmth.  But we go the added step of using 450 thread count for improved insulation, down retention and durability.
• We turned to a German manufacturer to provide a 100% silk Jacquard shell with a high sateen weave, giving you extra insulation for winter weather.  Jacquard weave is commonly seen in high-quality tapestries and damasks.  This gives the Eider Down comforter a premium, two-tone appearance for customers as mindful of interior décor as quality bedding.
• It’s a year-round product.  As we mentioned in our prior blog post, there’s a distinction between fill power and fill weight.  Thanks to eiderdown’s exceptionally high fill power number, we’ve gone with a fill weight suitable for year-round use.  Between that and our careful selection of materials and construction, this is a product you can use at any point in the year, not just during the winter. 

We’re not going to mince words: if it were an automobile, our Eider Down comforter would be a Rolls-Royce.  It’s a product whose precision and craftsmanship push the price so high that each one is essentially one of a kind.  Much like Rolls-Royces, our Eider Down comforters are not manufactured via assembly lines.  In fact, we don’t stock them; they’re only available via custom order, and can take up to two months to deliver.  

So why offer them at all?  We’ve chosen to put the Eider Down in our product lineup for a few reasons.  First, and most obviously: there is a market for it.  Granted, there’s not a massive market for a comforter that costs the same as a decent compact sedan, but it is there, and we feel confident that the Eider Down comforter can serve that market well.  

Two: we believe in the idea of trickle-down quality.  We’re not at all ashamed to call this a halo product.  By offering the Eider Down comforter, we’re sending a signal to our potential customers that the level of craftsmanship and excellence we bring to the table with the Eider Down comforter isn’t restricted to our flagship product.  A company that can produce something as outstanding as the Eider Down can be counted upon to do great things with even its most affordable products.  

Third, and most importantly: we are looking to send a signal to the rest of the industry that Cozy Down is at the very forefront of excellence.  Rolls-Royce may have relatively small market share, but nobody seriously dismisses them as bit players; indeed, they’re seen as the benchmark for automotive luxury.  The same thing goes for us.  When we decided to step up with this product, we sought to make an luxury down comforter without equal anywhere in the industry.  

The Eider Down comforter from Cozy Down is more than a product.  It’s a statement: this is the metric of excellence against which every other comforter in the industry is measured.  It’s far from the cheapest, but you’re not going to find a better one.