IDFL now beats the stuffing out of its competition. A small lab in California does only a fraction of its business, and IDFL has expanded to China as a joint partner with a Chinese government entity, as well as Switzerland.

While the price of some down-filled items has fallen, down generally remains a relatively expensive fill material. Twenty-five birds are needed to provide enough for a single jacket. Eider down, from a wild bird in Iceland, is collected from nests during molting season, and high-end customers with a soft spot for eider down items will pay $25,000 for a comforter with the rare stuff inside.

But not everyone is sophisticated enough to know what's what in the down and feather industry. "People don't realize what down really is," Lieber Sr. said, pointing to a drawing indicating down comes from the breasts and thighs of birds.

"It's important to you as a customer, if you think you'd like to buy a down comforter or a down ski parka or whatever, to know you're actually getting what you pay for, because down products are expensive," Gale said. "But the average person probably doesn't even think about it twice. If they buy a down parka, they assume it's down, and they go on their way and hope they got a good deal and will get good performance. IDFL is there to make sure the claims on the label are what's really in the product."

Despite holding the cushy top spot in the industry, IDFL isn't awaiting a downturn. It has advanced its technologies and added tests — the total has doubled in the past decade, and many have been approved by national and international feather organizations.

It's even involved in a joint research project with the University of Utah chemistry department, using isotope technology to determine the concentration of certain heavy elements in down and feathers to determine exactly where birds lived.

Despite those advances, some things haven't changed at IDFL, from the reliable hand-sorting to Lieber Sr.'s down-to-earth grin when reciting an old-but-still-good joke.

"People ask, 'How's business?' " he deadpans. "I always say, 'It's down.' "

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com