While nothing matters in the US until an American invents it, it’s sad to see a British newspaper get the puffer jacket wrong (All hail the smart coat revival – the puffer has finally puffed its last, 7 July).
The puffer was invented not by Eddie Bauer but by George Finch, an Australian who was considered one of the two best mountaineers in the world, along with George Mallory. The two were part of a 1922 expedition to Mount Everest, where Finch showed up in his bright green “eiderdown coat”. The others wore tweed and considered Finch’s outfit a joke. The expedition secretary described it as “the most wonderful apparatus that will make you die of laughing”. But he outlasted the sceptics, writing later: “Everybody now envying ... my eiderdown coat, and it is no longer laughed at.”
Lloyd Alter
Toronto, Canada
