The CMF Outdoor Garment Inner Liner Review
Bonus: company history inside.
I don’t know whether something as basic as a liner deserves too much attention. Well, because there are the Patagonia Down Sweater and the Uniqlo Ultra Light Down, not to mention their countless alternatives from less ubiquitous brands. The silhouette has stood the test of time, meaning that both its form and function proved to be working for a broad variety of contexts and styles.
Yet, if you dare to go beyond what’s readily available, there is a whole world of niche brands nailing every imaginable item of clothing to perfection. This olive liner by Comfy Outdoor Garment is an ideal example:
Comfy Outdoor Garment history
Firstly, Comfy All Down Filled is just the best name ever. I can already feel snug just by reading it. I'm surprised it’s not just a smart creation of someone eager to sell more clothes, but the actual name of an outdoor brand that operated out of Seattle, WA since 1915. The legend goes that the name was derived as early as the 1880s when the founder’s mother was labeling the quilts she made at home back in Riga, Latvia.
Isaac Milwitzky became American citizen in 1897. He started by opening a cigar store in Philadelphia. In the wintertime his family started sew quilts upstairs of the store which they learned from Isaac’s mother. That were the very beginnings of the future business.
The family moved to Seattle in 1915 and started operations out of a garage under the name of Seattle Quilt Manufacturing Company. They stuffed their quilts with cotton, wool and some down supplying it to the local market. Later, they fixed the order from construction of Alaska Railroad for which the company developed its first quilted sleeping bag.
These were some of the very first sleeping bags in the world and certainly in the Pacific Northwest. Comfy supplied other companies with their sleeping bags including Alaska Sleeping Bag Company and even Eddie Bauer who only had a very small store at that time.
Comfy went into the down filled garment industry after World War II, because they had already built up quite a large factory to fulfill army orders for sleeping bags. By that time Eddie Bauer had already patented the diamond quilting pattern for its now-famous Skyliner jacket.
In 1971 Comfy was sold to a corporation and then to another, until finally ceasing its operations in 1996. But like many good American brands, the name "Comfy" ended up being licensed by a Japanese company. Unlike similar cases, the new Comfy brand shied away from producing nostalgic replicas and focused on making progressive, yet comfy contemporary designs.
Comfy Inner Liner impressions
I purchased the liner because I’ve been wearing a similar vest from Comfy for several years now and felt deeply in love with it (you can peep it on my IG). The generic design is adorned by diamond quilting. Popularized by another major American outdoor brand Eddie Bauer, this pattern feels fresh in the sea of horizontal baffles. I also like how seamlessly it integrates the slash pockets, which are almost invisible unless you put your hands inside.
Honestly, I don’t quite get the double row of snap buttons, besides being able to close the liner snugger. My liner is tagged size XL, but it fits on the smaller side. When closed to the second row of buttons, it fits even tighter. I did close it that way when I put it underneath another piece of outerwear, but never when worn on its own. I have to admit that the design grew on me over time even though I don’t really use it that often.
The liner has several attachment points for fastening to Comfy’s outer shells (which I don’t own), but nobody has ever asked me about them when I’ve been wearing the liner on its own. Even I noticed the hole in the armpit only after several wears! I thought it was made for ventilation purposes. But the official web store says it can be used with «the Variation Belt» as part of the brand’s «Attachable system».
Although I do prefer the softer ripstop used in my vest from a couple of years back, there is nothing wrong with this new one. It just feels a bit drier to the touch. It’s also treated with some type of DWR finish which successfully withstood a couple of sudden light rains. The YKK metal snaps are custom-branded with the old Comfy logo. I also use the open inside pockets on a regular.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with this Comfy garment and I found myself wearing it as a standalone jacket just as often as a liner. If you like the design (and if Comfy will re-release it because they’ve been experimenting with more active designs lately), I would definitely recommend going for it.
If you have any questions about the liner, please do not hesitate to leave them under this post.