Anyone seen this?
An uninsulated shell that has stuff-able chambers;

http://www.merrell.com/Product/NZGP/Mens-Apparel/Jackets/Accessories/Gatherer-Jacket.aspx

Novel idea but it seems like white might have been a poor color choice for stuffing leaves and newspapers into, along with the fact that it will reflect sunlight when it is most needed.

I like it, tho I don't know if I like it for $100.

Great out of the box thinking.

Cattail down would be my choice. Like the Natives
where I grew up used in their sleeping bags made of
cattail reeds.

I"m thinking a old style mattress for backpacking might
be cool too. You know, like the straw they used to use in
little house on the prairie.

Perhaps a vest would be easier to stuff and unstuff.

Maybe a quilt for backpacking or emergencies.

It's a good idea, but it's not new at all. I recall a Tom Brown book mentioning the same idea something like 20 years ag. He just tacked two shirts together and left the top seam open for stuffing.

At $99, I say forget it. I'll go to the Sally Ann, pick up a $5 vest and dump out the stuffing. I can stuff this "windbreaker" with dry grass any time I want.

Seems a bit pricey to me, but if you had an old ripped up goose down jacket you could recycle the old stuffing into the new jacket.
Also you could integrate emergency supplies in with the stuffing.

Tim

This would be great for a compact survival kit, but seems ridiculous to use on a regular basis.

I can't imagine spending 10 minutes stuffing this with leaves every time I got cold, and that's only if it happens to be the middle of fall and all the leaves are dry. If you use something like cattail down, it would take over an hour, maybe several, to gather and stuff all that down. And if the point is to save weight, then you would be dumping out all that insulation when you left camp.

This may be more useful in urban environments, where newspapers, toilet paper, even foam from furniture or car insulation is abundant. In nature you're really limited by season and location for abundant and dry insulation material.

I have, on occasions supplemented light clothing by adding 'found' insulation. Usually this is a light jacket that has a thin lining and typically I stuff in a few sheets of newspaper after it has been crumpled and flattened a few times to make it soft and increase its insulation value. Several layers of news print treated this way and laid in flat between the lining and exterior gives the jacket another twenty degrees of warmth.

Sphagnum moss, the Spanish moss that hangs on trees in the south has long been used for padding and insulation. It serves quite well in this roll as long as it is at least mostly dry. On the down side the moss is often inhabited by tiny red mites. Exposed to human skin they burrow in and itch like crazy. These infections can take days, sometimes weeks, to clear on their own. I suspect that other natural materials might have similar passengers.

One thing that goes in your favor is that the material used needn't have much insulation value on its own. Anything that holds the two sides of cloth apart will increase the insulation value of the assembly. Pine needles come to mind as remaining relatively dry due to their water repellent properties and even though they don't have much insulation value in anything but very deep layers a thin spread of them might serve to keep the cloth sides of each pocket perhaps a quarter or half inch apart.

It is an interesting idea. But, is suspect, more suitable to a homesteader, than a person caught in a random survival situation. A homesteader could over time take note of available resources and gather them when they are most suitable. A person thrown into a situation might end up finding nothing suitable and would, driven by the time demands of being found or self-rescuing quickly, have less time to carefully gather materials to allow the jacket to be used effectively.

Pricey yes but so is the average high end wind breaker.
I have a Patagonia Houdini jacket and it is super light and worth it's weightin uranium.
If on a trail run I had a jacket that works like the Houdini but added more efficiency to the application of field expedient insulation; well cool.
When I trail run I am Uber minimal; a jacket like this might add to my options. But Yes you don't need special pocket to fill you shell with insulating debris.
B