Down vs Synthetic or FINEPOLYGON®? Let's Talk About Winter Insulation

The Challenge of Staying Warm in Mountain Conditions

Down insulation has long been the standard for winter jackets and sleeping bags. It is light, compact, and incredibly warm, truly one of the best insulation materials out there. However, it has one crucial weakness: once it gets wet, it collapses, losing its loft and its ability to retain warmth. This makes it difficult to keep wearing down insulation during active movement in the mountains.

Winter adventures are full of contrasts. You start out feeling chilled, so you put on an insulation layer. But as soon as you begin moving, you overheat and start to sweat. When you stop to rest or belay, that trapped moisture cools and draws heat away from your body. Even a short pause can leave you shivering in the cold wind.

Constantly stopping to add or remove layers might sound like a solution, but it is time-consuming and often impractical in harsh weather or exposed terrain. Maintaining the perfect pace to avoid sweating sounds ideal, but anyone who has climbed, skied, or snowshoed in winter knows that it is not always possible. Most of us have experienced that frustrating cycle of overheating, sweating, and then freezing again.

That is why we set out to create insulation that could maintain warmth even in contact with sweat, condensation, or rain/snow. We wanted insulation that could stay on your body as you move, keeping you comfortable and protected through changing conditions.

The Breakthrough: A Sheet-Structured Insulation

Creating insulation that is both highly water-resistant and exceptionally light and compact was far from easy.

Even after many experiments with synthetic fibers, conventional fiberfill insulation could not overcome its vulnerability to moisture.

The breakthrough came from a simple idea:

“What if insulation didn’t have to be fiberfill? What if it could be a sheet?”

When you crumple thin sheets of paper and layer them together, air pockets naturally form between the folds. Those pockets trap air, which is exactly how insulation retains warmth.

Warmth That Withstands the Wet

By stacking ultra-thin, water-repellent sheets processed into a three-dimensional wavy structure, Finetrack engineers created a material that traps air for warmth while resisting water absorption.

The result is FINEPOLYGON®, the world’s first sheet-structured synthetic insulation. The one that stays warm even when exposed to moisture.

Core Benefits of FINEPOLYGON®

• Warm when wet – retains about 70% of its insulation performance even when damp
• Fast drying – quickly recovers warmth after exposure to moisture
• Lightweight and compact – the sheet structure minimizes the need for quilting, allowing to hold multiple layers without added bulk or weight
• Breathable comfort – no down-proof coating required, meaning breathable outer fabrics can be used to reduce stuffiness during movement
• Easy care – dries fast, resists clumping, and can be machine washed at home
• Fewer microplastic emissions – the stable sheet structure minimizes fiber shedding

This new insulation delivers warmth, dryness, light weight, and long-term reliability: everything essential for mountaineering, backcountry skiing, and winter hiking.

The Future of Synthetic Insulation

FINEPOLYGON® is more than just a new material. It represents a complete rethinking of what insulation can be: a system capable of performing across fluctuating temperatures, varying activity levels, and wet or dry conditions alike.

From steep alpine ridges to deep backcountry snowfields, our mission remains unchanged: to keep you warm, dry, and moving forward, wherever nature takes you.