I’ve just taken delivery of a Mountain Equipment Moreno fleece jacket to replace the one I’ve had for some years. I decided to buy the same again as it’s been among other things a warm jacket.
Took it out of the bag and two things struck me. First it felt very soft. Okay not surprising.
The second thing is that it felt a lot lighter in weight so I weighed both jackets on the kitchen scales.
The tag says 630g but it weighs 500g! My old one weighed 670g. I’ve emailed the seller - a well reviewed UK company. Anyone had anything like this?
A good use for my new word of the day enshittification!
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Me too!
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I’m inclined to believe it is part of a bad batch else why still give the same weight on the tags.
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I’m not sure if you are aggrieved or happy, though reading the replies perhaps the former. 
Is it warmer for less weight, which I would have thought a good thing, or is
not so warm, so bad?
That’s not the shrinkflation I’ve experienced. Much like a Mars bar, my clothes seem to get smaller every year.
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If it’s a lot lighter than the weight stated on the tag I think something’s amiss.
Unless they’ve found some way to reduce the weight of the unspun PETP fibres (or whatever mix they use these days) for the same warmth rating, then it sounds suspiciously like a cost-cutting exercise in order to preserve margins and/or remain competitive in a dog-eat-dog world. Fleece manufacture is a fairly energy intensive process.
Reply from Mountain Equipment - the producer.
Thank you very much for contacting Mountain Equipment.
The fabric used in the production of the Moreno Jacket changed to a recycled version of the Shearling fleece in 2022 which may account for the difference in the feel of the fabric.
The given weight for a jacket is for a size large and additionally fabric weight can vary +/- 10% so there will always be a little variation in the weight. As far as Polartec is concerned however, the thermal properties of the fabric remain unchanged from before the change to the recycled material.
Well the jacket weighs 20% less than the weight stated on the label so I would imagine that is a breech of consumer law.
I will likely send it back - I’m sceptical that it will offer the same level of insulation.
Website shows 630g too!
I ran foul of chinesesizification. I bought a selection of shirts on line, specifying XXL or maybe XXXL - casual cotton shirts for blistering hot Spain. Tried on a shirt - miles too small. No more than M. Risked doing a ‘Hulk’ - bursting out of my shirt.
The retailer said the sizes were ‘Chinese’ sizes. I pointed out that selling clothing to Europe in sizes appropriate for a population several sizes smaller than European people, without pointing out the difference was a scam.
Since than I have seen ‘Chinese size’ on clothing listings, with no equivalent Euro/UK/USA size chart.
Old and new jackets both made in the same country?
Every year I buy a long-sleeved indigo dyed cotton shirt, which is my basic winter shirt; I now have several, each one a different shade ranging from deep indigo to a sort of acid-washed pale blue. They’re made in Thailand and my size is XL.
Every year I also buy a Hawaiian shirt from a store in Honolulu, where my size is ‘Medium’
44" chest.
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Yes - China
Sounds like the manufacturer of the fleece might be cutting corners without reducing the price (fleecing customers - sorry couldn’t resist).
Regarding ‘Chineseification’, I’ve just looked at one of my much more modestly priced Craghoppers fleeces, which I now wear over a t-shirt and long-sleeved cotton shirt around the house instead of turning up the central heating. It has a label that states ‘Designed in the UK since 1965’ and, in a less prominent place, it has another label that states ‘Made in Bangladesh’ .
I’ve seen a similar tag on a woodworking machine that very prominently stated that it was designed in California but elsewhere stated it was made in China.
for me, the most important Shrinkflation was when M&S stopped having their clothes made in UK. 
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I don’t know about shrinkflation but I think I have body expansion from all the cheese and patisserie.
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We suffer from that on our long visits. Must be more careful when we move.
ha ha… I’m talking about quality of the fabric and (equally important) quality of the stitching/finishing/whatever.
The Chinese are cheating their own people:
"Major sanitary pad makers in China are apologising after being accused of selling pads that are shorter than advertised.
It comes amid a storm of anger after viral social media videos showed Chinese women measuring the lengths of sanitary pads from popular brands - showing that most of them fell short of what was stated on their packaging."
Back when work took me vaguely near electronics and Chinese manufacturers colleagues told me you have to constantly watch the Chinese assembly plants. Initially they would take a bill of materials and produce the design to spec without problems - but, left to their own devices they would gradually substitute cheaper parts. If caught they would apologise profusely and go back to the spec but if not they would keep going with a gradual reduction in quality and gradual increase in their profits (all the while probably stealing the IP).
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