November 2017 Marks 30 years for ALLIED Feather & Down

November 20, 2017

Now the leading down supplier for the outdoor industry, ALLIED has become a beacon for sustainability and animal welfare efforts

Montebello, California (November 20, 2017) — This month, a brand many have never heard of – but has been enjoyed by the vast majority of consumers who have ever bought a down comforter, sleeping bag, or jacket – turns 30 years old: ALLIED Feather & Down has been a powerful force in the outdoor industry longer than most of its partner brands have even existed.

In 1987, company founder Steve Uretsky, after working for years in the down industry, saw the need for an insulation brand supplying high quality performance-driven down insulation to the growing outdoor industry. Starting with a small warehouse outside of downtown Los Angeles, ALLIED has since grown to include three facilities across the USA, two in China, a processing facility in Vietnam, and a new down processing and bedding manufacturing facility in the Czech Republic totaling over 1-million square feet. ALLIED is now the outdoor industry’s largest supplier of down insulation. They’re even currently working on a program that would provide made-in-the-USA products from egg to consumer.

“We’re incredibly proud to have been an integral part of this industry for the last 30 years, and are certainly honoring our own accomplishments this year,” says ALLIED’s founder and CEO, Steve Uretsky. “But this is about so much more than ALLIED: Through innovation in down and feather insulation – ours and others in the industry – the world has been able to enjoy the outdoors on an exponentially greater scale over the last 30 years! That’s why we started this and it’s still the driving force behind our growth and future endeavors. We’re continuing to work hard to make sure we all maintain that privilege forever.”

While ALLIED is constantly looking to the future with innovative products and techniques, this benchmark anniversary deserves a closer look at the venerable brand’s past. Allied’s been at the forefront of many of the industry’s biggest innovations and landmarks over three decades. Here’s a short history of the brand and a few key product/innovation examples:

HISTORY:

• November, 1987: ALLIED Feather & Down is born with a whole new way to source and process down.
  • In 1987, the down supply chain is just a network of brokers selling raw material to mostly bedding manufacturers and other suppliers who would sell that material on to outdoor and apparel companies. At this time, there’s no transparency beyond this broker and no one really know what the down they’re using is coming from.
  • Looking beyond the brokers and developing relationships directly with the slaughterhouses and farms, ALLIED begins to source the highest quality down, providing a level of consistency and precision unmatched to this day.
• 2009: Signature home bedding brand ALLIED home launches
• 2010: ALLIED becomes the first down supplier to earn bluesign® system partner designation, showcasing their ongoing commitment to the environment and sustainable processing.
• 2011: ALLIED becomes the first company of its kind to engage a third party to audit and review their entire supply chain.
• 2012: ALLIED moves into current L.A headquarters, as part of major expansion
• 2013: ALLIED works with The North Face and Control Union to audit global supply chain in order to build what would eventually become the Responsible Down Standard (RDS), now one of the largest animal-welfare standards in the industry.
• 2014: The North Face, ALLIED, Control Union and other shareholders gift the RDS to Textile Exchange as an industry standard. ALLIED becomes the first adopter and supplier of RDS certified down. ALLIED continues as the largest supplier of RDS certified down. At this time, ALLIED home also becomes the first bedding manufacturer offering RDS certified bedding products to retailers.
• 2015: ALLIED launches traceability tool Track My Down, allowing consumers to track the complete history of the origin and quality of the down inside their garment.
• 2016: Achieves 100% third-party certification. This means that all of ALLIED down comes from sources certified to either the RDS, TDS, or brand-level supply-chain initiative backed by the support of animal welfare organizations.

KEY NUMBERS

• November 1987: ALLIED operates in 12,000 square feet in shared warehouse in Commerce, CA. In 2017, ALLIED’s operations span over 1-million square feet, with processing facilities and offices in Montebello, CA; Commerce, CA; Summerville, SC; Hangzhou, China; Anhui, China; Hanoi, Vietnam; Czech Republic.
• Original capacity of 100,000 Kg of down/feather; Now almost 7 million Kg annually.
  • That’s enough YEARLY to fill Empire State Building 5 TIMES with ALLIED down.
• Since 1987, ALLIED has processed enough down to outfit over 280,000 Everest summit attempts.
• ALLIED supplied over 2.6 million pounds of RDS-certified down in 2016 alone. This is enough to fill over 4 million heavy parkas!
• The company began with only a few large accounts; ALLIED now has over 250 different brand partners.

KEY INNOVATIONS

• Pioneered water-resistant down treatment along with Sierra Designs.
  • Sierra Designs releases first product with DriDown in 2012
• Developed an industry leading sustainable processing method using environmentally friendly detergent with a water recycling program that allows ALLIED to recycle approximately 65-million gallons of water annually.
• Other innovations: anti microbial treatments; infrared active down; down and down alternative fiber blends; technologically innovative traceability treatments, and consumer-facing traceability tools.

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About ALLIED Feather & Down:

ALLIED Feather & Down is the world’s leader in the manufacture of the highest quality downs and their blends. Founded in Vernon, Calif. in 1987, ALLIED has been responsibly sourcing and sustainably processing down while driving innovation within the market for 30 years. The family-run operation has earned the reputation as the largest, most reliable and most responsible supplier of raw material in the industry. ALLIED is committed to safeguarding the environment and transparency in ensuring the welfare of animals, which contributed, in part, to their prestigious bluesign® approval. ALLIED values longstanding relationships with the largest suppliers on the planet and is proud to produce the highest quality down technologies demanded by the most discerning brands in the outdoor, hospitality and fashion marketplaces.  To learn more about ALLIED, please visit http://www.alliedfeather.com/.