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The Importance of Sleeping Bag Construction

There are many different materials used be make sleeping bags. The shells come in fabrics like canvas, ripstop nylon or Gortex type fabrics. Canvas shelled sleeping bags are normally inexpensive, very rugged, but quite heavy. A better alternative is the ripstop nylon type shell, or better yet a Gotex type fabric shell. Having extra confidence of knowing your sleeping bag will be nice and dry even if your tent happens to fail or some other water related problem crops up is a great piece of mind.

The materials used as insulation basically come in natural and man made. The goal in any type of insulation is to trap air. The most common natural insulation used is goose down. It is a very good insulator while being quite light weight and easy to compact to save on room. On the negative side it is expensive and if it gets wet loses much of its ability to insulate from cold. Man made materials are usually some sort of hollow synthic fiber. Man made insulation is usually also light, compressable and unlike down keeps much of its ability to insulate even if wet or damp.