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If you're anything like me, you love your favorite Sitka hunting jacket. It's super warm, super weather-resistant—but also super, well, camo. And so, while it's perfectly at home in the whitetail woods, it's not so at home at that nice restaurant downtown. That's exactly the quandary that Montana native and Sitka Studio Creative Director, Brad Christian, found himself in time after time. And it's what inspired him to design what he would describe as the ultimate winter jacket: the Sitka Studio Hyperdown Jacket.
Sitka Studio is defined as "a creative incubator that designs limited-edition products and collaborates with culture-shaping brands and artists." But according to Brad, it's a "love letter to hunting." We had the chance to sit down with him and talk about how he designed the one-of-a-kind Hyperdown jacket (it's made with gold-bonded goose down!). He also answered some of our pressing questions—like why there's no hood—and opened up about what makes Sitka Studio such a special and important passion project.
The Hyperdown Jacket
Field & Stream: What inspired you to design the Hyperdown jacket?
Brad Christian: I live in Montana and it's quite cold here. Sitka has the very best technology when it comes to apparel and I find myself wearing these highly technical, incredible jackets in camouflage out in my everyday life, whether I'm blowing snow or going to dinner. It just got to a point where I was like, man, I really want this but in a silhouette that makes more sense. For example, if it's sunny outside and I'm riding my horse, I don't wear my ski goggles. Although it would be an effective solution, I prefer great sunglasses that look really good. I really wanted to create a jacket that performed at the same level as our technical gear but was truly designed for the moments that were not in the field.
What sets it apart from other winter jackets?
It's really a combination between the very best technology and aesthetic coming together. Specifically, it's the package of this Allied Expedry insulation, which is gold-bonded goose down. It's a new technology that we don't even have in a gear jacket yet. We began working with Allied a couple of years ago when they introduced the technology for our sleeping bag, and I thought, you know, if I could take this new technology of down and put it into a jacket, it would be insane.
Then it was also the combination of that and Gore-Tex Labs ePE WindStopper. The biggest challenge with regular black down puffers is that when the wind starts going, it robs you of all that heat that's locked in. So the combination of the very best down technology and WindStopper was like the ultimate package to me.
Plus, we did it in a silhouette that looks really good. I would add that unique to this jacket, there's more of a soft hand and packability. A lot of parka-style jackets that play in this category are really stiff. When you travel with them, they almost need their own seat on the airplane. But this jacket can actually still pack down and is warmer than most of the very best, extremely high-end parka jackets.
What's your favorite feature of the jacket if you had to pick?
Honestly, it's not like a singular feature. It's the 1 plus 1 equals 3 of the Gore-Tex WindStopper and the down that makes it just completely bomb-proof when it comes to cold weather.
We all have experiences of buying apparel that we fall out of love with over time and get reduced to that 85% of the closet that doesn't get worn. But over time with whatever I was wearing and wherever I was going, I never fell out of love with this jacket.
Why is there no hood?
This one's tricky. I thought long and hard about the hood because people are in two camps: hood or no hood. In a hunting jacket that's designed to keep me alive in the Yukon in October, I want a hood, right? Because if I'm sitting up on the top of a mountain glassing for 8 hours, I need to hunker down and put a hood on.
But this jacket is more focused on the moments that we're not sitting on top of that mountain. If I were to somehow be able to calculate the percentage of time that a hood is actually on my head on even a hunting jacket—and then when you look at it from a lifestyle standpoint—I'd be willing to guess 95% of the time I'm not wearing a hood.
And then, when it comes to aesthetics, I really wanted to create a cleaner and less sporty look. The other thing I did with this piece is I designed a collar on this jacket that comes up quite high on the neck. I also reinforced that collar in a pretty meaningful way so that even when it's completely unzipped, it's always standing.
How did you test the jacket before you went to market?
We lived in this thing, and our lifestyle is in a really cold and rugged environment. It was riding my horses on a ridge top for eight hours in Montana. It was traveling to the Yukon for three weeks to bow hunt moose. I even went to Iceland in 2023 with this piece and then again in 2024 in the dead of winter.
When we're testing jackets, we're not kind to these jackets. We purposefully treat them bad and beat them up. So like when I was working with the horses, I'd rub up against fences and try to catch the side of things. A lot of puffers are in the 20 denier space, which means if they get caught on anything, they tear. From a functional standpoint, they're trying to cut weight and make something crazy packable at the expense of durability. Because this is a more lifestyle-focused jacket, we were able to go with 60 denier Japanese ripstop that's more durable. So the jacket I have had for years is beat to heck, but very durable and extremely warm.
Who is this jacket designed for?
It's for anybody who wants the best technology, the highest end technical performance and aesthetic. Maybe it's hunters who don't want to wear their full-blown camo hunting jacket to the bar.
Sitka Studio
What is Sitka Studio all about?
It's about connecting cultures at the highest level. As a lifelong hunter, I've learned that, while the tone is definitely getting better, hunters are kind of on an island. We create content for ourselves, we talk to ourselves, and there's not a lot of connectivity between other industries or places. But we have so much in common with other people—the fact that we hunt doesn't separate us. So I wanted to figure out how we could collaborate and create products with other industries and celebrate life and design together in a really cool way. How do we connect cultures and introduce more people to what we're doing and showcase our design capability and our creative chops?
The second thing is, as designers, we're always in the lab or our homes with our sewing machines making creative products that never see the light of day. Like one time we made a flight suit for some guys to jump out of an airplane with. Nobody knows that we did that, but we did. So we figured, what else can we make and how do we collaborate with people and introduce more people to the hunting space?
How often does Sitka Studio come out with a new product?
We've done six projects so far. Right now, we do two launches a year, but we're moving that to three this year. And we'll continue to increase that. We want these to be special and thoughtful and they take a lot of time. We don't take it lightly—it's about telling compelling stories and designing solutions.
What's been your favorite project you've done so far?
Honestly, probably this one because it's been the vision from the beginning of Sitka Studio to design and launch our own product outside of collaborations. That process was in the works at the genesis of the studio, but because product design and apparel takes so long, it took time to launch the product. But it enabled the world to see this is our capability and this is our design aesthetic. Then when we work to collaborate with other partners, it's more clear what that creative perspective is.
But the collaborations are also super fun because we work with incredible teams and we get to make something totally outside the box. Like a Martin guitar that Thomas Rhett played on tour. We auctioned that off for a pile of money for conservation. It was a unique and cool way to talk about conservation differently than it's often talked about.
Another one that hit home was working with The James Brand on the outdoor chef knife. That one also goes back years and years of development. It came from a genuine problem. I cook over fire on the river that I live on in Montana all the time and all my high-end Japanese chef knives are absolutely ruined because I'm cutting them on rock and beating them down and just putting them in environments they weren't intended for. So to partner with them on a ground-up design of a Japanese-level quality chef knife that has the durability of gear that can hang with our lifestyle was a tremendous effort. We just had so much fun, creating it and going to Hawaii to spear fish and cut fish up on the side of a cliff.
At the end of the day, what's your mission with Sitka Studio?
At a heart level, as someone who has been bowhunting my whole life, I have such a deep love and appreciation for this lifestyle of being connected to nature in its rawest form. I so believe in the value of that connection because I experience it in all capacities. It brings me great joy to just help people connect. We all have our ways of doing that. Some people do it through food. I have a great buddy who's a chef and he loves to cook for people, right? So as a creative director, this is kind of my love letter to hunting if you will.
