Allied Feather + Down is not a company that most boaters know, but it plays a role in many of the brands that boaters buy. The California-based firm sources the materials that go into products sold by Vineyard Vines, Under Armour, Sail Racing and more. If you like the way a particular jacket stays warm but not too hot, materials from Allied Feather + Down may be at least part of the reason.

Since about 2010, the company has been trying to solve the problem of down having a bad relationship with water. “For boating and water sports in general, down has always been considered not applicable because of the high levels of moisture, from rain to humidity,” says Creative Director Matthew Betcher. “So even with a brand like Helly Hansen, it’s never something we really saw in their boating pieces until recently, where we can start to develop solutions for that problem.”

That solution is called ExpeDry. The idea is that instead of making water bead up on the outside, or shell, of a product, such as a jacket, ExpeDry will fight the water from within.

Think about how a down jacket or blanket has baffles, which are the squares that look kind of like a quilt. Inside each one of those baffles is what Betcher calls an insulation chamber. His team worked with a technology called FUZE to create tiny gold particles that permanently bond to the down inside the insulation chamber, creating an electrostatic barrier that stops, say, humidity from condensing into water.

“What would happen without it in a down blanket, for example, is that humidity would continue to be picked up by the down, and it would grow mold, lose loft, just get gross,” he says. “It will never really have a chance to dry out. What this does is help keep that down dry. It keeps the whole inside of the blanket drier.”

ExpeDry also makes it possible to hang a down product on a line and have it actually get dry without the need for a home-type, heat-based dryer—a boon for boaters who otherwise have no way to dry those products. “In a laundry situation, it helps the product dry over 50 percent faster,” he says. “Those comforters can take hours to dry properly. This saves a tremendous amount of time and energy.”

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Al perkinson spent almost 17 years at the sunglasses behemoth Costa. He left about three years ago, did some consulting, and decided it was time for a new company to enter the market. In April 2021, together with some other industry veterans, he founded the brand Bajío. “We wanted something for the next generation,” he says.

They launched with a catalog of 12 styles and expect to add another eight this year. Bajío glasses are already being sold by about 500 retailers in 35 states, with a heavy focus on Florida, Texas and the Carolinas.

Perkinson says Bajío glasses offer the same kind of polarization and ultraviolet-light protection as other brands—with an added twist.

“The light we’re really focused on is blue light,” he says. “It’s been in the press a lot about people who look at computers a lot, and it’s super-topical with young people. The biggest producer of blue light is actually the sun. When you’re outside all day in the sun, you need to block that blue light as well.”

The company also has built the idea of eco-friendly materials into its entire line. Bajío’s frames are plant-based, created with a resin made from the castor plant. “And our packaging is all recycled paper, our case is made out of cactus leather—all across the board, we’re sustainable. We’re carbon-neutral from inception,” he says. “And we offset any carbon use by planting mangroves.”

Those mangroves are part of Bajío’s business plan to embrace conservation efforts in fish-filled waters.

“We travel and work with scientists and local communities to protect the shallows,” Perkinson says. “That can be a saltwater marsh in Charleston [South Carolina] or the flats in Florida. It involves trash cleanup, planting mangrove trees, doing fish-population work to help the local folks understand sustainable practices—really, everything we’re doing is focused on those shallows.”

All in all, he says, the hope is for Bajío’s glasses and company culture to appeal to old-school anglers and newcomers alike, because no matter the type of fishing or boating, “the quality of that visual experience adds to the quality of the overall experience out on the water.”

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A few years ago, when Costa Del Mar entered the research-and-development phase for its Untangled collection, the team realized there was a problem making certain styles of glasses. Costa was designing the first generation of Untangled glasses using material that California-based Bureo creates from recycled fishing nets. It was a great step forward in sustainable eyewear, but because of impurities, the material wasn’t yet able to be shaped into some styles of glasses that many boaters and anglers prefer.

Now, those styles are part of the second generation of Untangled designs. Bureo has enhanced its process, so the recycled material it delivers to Costa is virtually indistinguishable from virgin plastic.

“It’s really enabled Costa to not be as limited in the different kinds of colors and wraps that they were limited with in the first generation of the product,” says Kevin Ahearn, co-founder of Bureo.

Popular wrap-style sunglasses are now part of the collection. Shields can be added to block sun from the side, hooding details can be used to block light up top, and ventilation can be built into the nose piece to reduce fogging.

“We really took a giant leap forward with the 2.0 frames in terms of style and performance,” says Casey Lopez with Costa product development. “These will be glasses that can handle a day out there on the boat.”

Costa’s team says it is proud of not only the quality of the new glasses but also the fact that Bureo is a partner doing more than just providing recycled materials. Bureo is creating a new supply chain and jobs, and is continuing to improve its processes so Costa can offer recycled products of ever-increasing quality.

“It isn’t just the frames,” says John Sanchez, senior vice president of product strategy at Costa. “The logo is made of recycled aluminum. The lenses are glass, which originates from sand. The case is recycled material. This is the whole package. Bureo has a full, vetted process. You’ll see a lot of people saying they make sunglasses out of recycled plastic, but we see only one that’s vetted this way. That’s why we have this partnership and why it’s so special.”  

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Yes, we know. Typically at this time of year, the ritual of putting away the boat for winter is well underway or altogether complete. But 2020 is anything but a typical year, and many yachtsmen are looking to extend the cruising season into the cold-weather months, to continue enjoying socially distant cruising during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Enter Helly Hansen, the Norwegian company that knows a thing or two about cold-weather performance apparel. These are the folks who teamed up with the US Ski & Snowboard team a few years ago as the official provider of base layers, and who partnered with Canada’s alpine-ski team. Helly Hansen is also a longtime favorite of serious sailors, sponsoring the National Offshore One Design Regattas.

Heading into this winter’s extended cruising season, Helly Hansen is marketing jackets made with LifaLoft. It combines the company’s Lifa technology for base layers with Primaloft insulation. The result, according to the company, is apparel that retains more heat while staying 20 percent lighter than other designs and, thus, remaining more comfortable during strenuous activity—say, dropping a hook in a Northeast cove in late November, or manning the lines on a side deck in the Pacific Northwest in early December, all the while being able to see your breath in the air.

There also are more-traditional offerings from Helly Hansen this season, such as the Verglas half-zip shirt and the Pier 3.0 jacket. That jacket is specifically designed for rugged sailing, with features such as double-cuff adjustable seals, high collars and fleece-lined warming pockets.

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