The Stellar Equipment Down Parka 2.0 climbs up to another evolutionary level

When presented with the question ‘How do you improve on a parka rated 4.8/5?’ the burgeoning and brilliant Swedish brand Stellar Equipment knew that the answer lay with the same people who’ve been wearing their Stellar down parka for the past eleven years. Sticking to the admiral principle of only changing a product when they can actually make it better, Stellar’s signature parka has been completely revised, with the 2.0 iteration marking the third version of their classic insulation piece. Designed to meet the unrelenting demands of the harsh Nordic mountains, it’s a seriously technical down jacket engineered for standing still in seriously cold environments. Meaning that skiers and climbers can put it on over everything else whenever they stop moving — at a belay, at a winter camp, in the lift line at −20°C — and then easily pack it away when they decide to move again.

Big, very warm, and light enough to carry all day, this beautiful looking parka boasts 850 fill power down (up from 800) and has been treated with ExpeDRY so it keeps lofting when damp. Weighing in at an impressive 629g in a men’s L and 583g in a women’s M, the new version has been constructed using a lighter, tougher fabric (100% recycled Japanese ripstop) comes with a compression bag and also sees a new and improved women’s pattern to the shoulders, sleeves, waist and hips area. Having been cut by the women on Stellar’s product team and tested by its ambassadors in the field, it’s worth noting (and compltely mind boggling to me) that very few parkas at this level are made for women. With Stellar co-founder John Crawford-Currie reiterating the impressive ethos behind their approach to redesigns: “We only update when we can actually improve something, and it’s when the change is measurable in real use.” Full marks all around to team and a real lesson in ‘less is more’ to those brands who feel like they’ve got to reinvent the wheel each and every season.