Enlightened Equipment Enigma Quilt Review
Enlightened Equipment is one of the biggest names in ultralight backpacking quilts. In last year’s PCT and AT hiker surveys, they filled the top two most popular slots by a large margin. Curiously, the PCT survey showed they don’t quite top the list in user satisfaction.
What makes this quilt so popular, and what’s holding people back from giving it their full endorsement?
The Enlightened Equipment Enigma has lots of options on size, temperature, color, and more. My review is for the specific configuration I received, which means some comments will be specific to my build, although some may be transferable/inferable to similar configurations. Others won’t be relevant, especially on matters of color, draft collars, and the effects of width.
For reference, my build is as follows:
- 950FP goose down
- 0°F Limit Temperature
- Long Length (6’ 6”)
- Wide Width (I asked for Regular, more on this later)
- Yes Draft Collar
- 10D Yellow Exterior / 7D Midnight Blue Interior
Enlightened Equipment Enigma Quilt At-A-Glance
MSRP: $270 – $630 (my configuration retails for $540)
Weights:
- Quilt only: 8.5oz – 40.0 oz options / 28.5oz as configured
- Pad Straps (Pair): 0.65 oz
- Stuff Sack: 0.7 oz for the 14L size
Materials:
- Shell: Options for 7D, 10D, or 20D nylon fabrics
- Fill: 850 FP duck or 950 FP goose down
- Pad straps: Elastic bands with plastic center-release buckles
- Stuff sack: Silnylon (denier unspecified)
- Home storage sack: 100% Cotton
Dimensions:
- Lengths: Short (<5’6″), Regular (5’6″ to 6’0″), Long (6’0″ to 6’6″), X-Long (6’6″ to 7’0″)
- Widths: Slim (<50″), Regular (48″ to 56″), wide (54″ – 62″), X-Wide (60″ to 68″)
- See their size chart to understand how to measure the appropriate width
Intended Use
The Enigma aligns with all the norms of an ultralight backpacking quilt. As long as you are on board with the quilt ideology over a traditional bag, you should be able to configure this quilt to your liking.
Circumstance of Review
I received the Enigma shortly before I set off for a weather-window-pushing hike of the 100-mile Uinta Highline Trail. A few weeks later, it accompanied me on a 10-day rock climbing road trip that involved many cold and windy nights.
Enlightened Equipment Enigma Quilt Features
Sewn Footbox
The word quilt, in a home life context, probably conjures images of rectangular blankets. While some backpacking quilts are rectangular (or unzip into a rectangle), most have a closed section from the knees downwards to help keep the feet warm.
The Enigma differentiates itself from the other Enlightened Equipment models by having a permanently sewn closed footbox. This helps prevent air leakage and extra weight introduced by the complexity of partially zippered models.
V-Shaped Baffles
Enlightened Equipment utilizes unique V-shaped baffles, which are vertically oriented in the top half but bend around in the bottom half. These very long, continuous baffles allow a good range of down redistribution, especially between the sides of the upper body (the area most likely to be squished under your torso) to your feet (the area most likely to be cold while sleeping).
Double Pad Straps
To help seal the edges of the open back, the Enigma comes standard with two horizontal pad straps. This seems to be the consensus number between most quilt manufacturers, and seems just right for colder temps.
I often feel lazy upon rolling into camp and try to get away with using just one, and I almost universally regret it when the temps drop.
My Enigma shipped with one pad strap that was just a straight section with buckle hardware on each end, while the other was a closed loop with one fixed buckle and one buckle that could slide around the circumference. My assumption is that the closed loop is intended for the narrower bottom section of a mummy pad, while the straight one is for the upper section. This allows a slightly larger degree of freedom than the closed loop for those who like to sprawl.
If your quilt is overly wide, the bag itself hosts matching pairs of center-release buckles that can clipped together without pad straps. Generally if your quilt is wide enough to do this, you are losing the weight efficiency of a quilt over a zipperless bag (such as the Feather Friends Tanager), but it is a handy option for bunks or other fixed sleeping surfaces where you might be skipping the pad and pad straps entirely.
Draft Collar (optional)
A draft collar is a narrow, densely stuffed baffle along the head end of a quilt. The extra thickness helps plug up gaps to the outside that often form around the neck. This is most important for quilts meant for colder weather. Personally, I draw the splitting line at about 35-degree air temperature since I find freezing cold drafts more disruptive than summertime breezes.
Some sleeping bags also feature draft collars along the zippers, since bag zippers can let in a fair amount of air. The need for this is eliminated in quilt design since there’s no zipper to be found.
7D vs 10D vs 20D fabrics
Enlightened Equipment offers three fabric weights, each with a variety of colors. The D stands for denier, which is analogous to the thickness of the fabric.
7D fabrics are the lightest and allow the most air to transfer between the air and the baffle chamber. They’re also the most delicate, requiring special care to avoid snags. Weighing just 0.5 ounces per square yard, this is about as light as it gets. EE notes that this fabric is slightly less downproof, meaning you may occasionally get a feather coming through. I never experienced this, however.
The 10D fabric is very close to the 7D, a mere 0.15 oz/square yard heavier. Its breathability is a bit lower as a function of the extra thickness and tighter weave, while the durability is a bit higher due to the thicker yarns that make the weave.
Lastly, there are a handful of 20D options. The jump to this thicker fabric comes at a bigger weight penalty, with a finished weight of 1.1oz/square yard. It is also significantly less breathable. Personally, I think this is best reserved as an outside face fabric for frequent cowboy campers who might need the extra wind resistance and durability during nighttime rollovers.

The 10D yellow exterior and 7D midnight blue interior. Despite being a thicker fabric, the yellow is significantly more transparent than the blue due to its light color. The “marbled” appearance is from the down feathers inside.
Enlightened Equipment Enigma Quilt Pros
Highly Customizable
The Enigma is highly configurable, with two fill powers, six temperature ratings, four lengths, four widths, an optional draft collar, 17 outside color options, and 14 inside color options. This means there are a shocking 91,392 possible configurations.
Most people will be able to configure the Enigma to their desired fit and fashion.
High Warmth to Weight Ratios
EE’s focus on superlight fabrics and a minimalist design positions the Enigma near the front of the pack in terms of weight efficiency. Omissions like hoods, zippers, and complicated attachment systems help keep the total weight down while maintaining warmth.

The 0-degree Enigma with the included stuff sack. I typically skip a stuff sack and put my sleep system directly inside my bag liner, but this helps give a sense of packed volume and efficiency. EE lists their packed volume on their website for each configuration under the “Compression” tab.
Baffles Keep Down in Place While Allowing Flexibility
I initially dismissed the V-shaped baffles as just a fun design decision without any functional impact. The more I thought about it, however, the more I realized that this pattern can help individuals rebalance the down distribution in the bag to their own body preferences.
It’s a fairly common option in the quilt industry to be able to “overstuff” the footbox to combat cold feet for an added fee. But with the V-shaped baffle, it’s possible to pull some existing down from the torso area towards the feet at any time. This helps eliminate expensive custom charges and provides the flexibility to redistribute later.
If you’re worried about making the upper body too cold doing this, you may want to buy the next step warmer bag, knowing the torso will get colder and the feet warmer.
Also note that the round disk at the bottom of the footbox is its own pair of baffles, which are isolated from the rest of the continuous baffle system so that down cannot migrate to/from this area.
Dense Draft Collar
The level of overstuff is just right on the Enigma: it’s not so loosely filled that breath condensation will kill the loft, but it’s also not so overstuffed as to become stiff and hard to pack. I also think the baffle width is just right. A narrower baffle would have struggled to plug gaps, and a larger one would want to lay flat like the rest of the blanket.
Enlightened Equipment Enigma Quilt Cons
Pad Attachment System Is Annoying
The pad straps connect to the quilt itself using a center release buckle. Unfortunately, each strap has one “male” and one “female” side of the buckle, meaning putting the pad strap on backwards will prevent the quilt from attaching.
Making sure I got the strap on correctly was just another tedious chore I didn’t want to deal with at night, and one I really never improved my first-try accuracy rate on.
I would have preferred a pad attachment system that wasn’t directionally specific.

The non-looped pad strap. I found this one harder to use than the loop one since it often got pulled under the pad during setup.
Back Design Prone to Drafts
The edge of the “open back design” is a simple, low-profile seam. While this is good for weight efficiency and keeping baffles lofted, I found it underperformed in keeping drafts out. Using either a slightly overstuffed draft collar or an edge binding (or a step fancier edge tension control system) might help keep the edge tight to the pad and eliminate some drafts.
This issue would be more prevalent for those pushing temps (sub-freezing especially) or just squeezing into a narrow quilt. Fortunately, my hilariously wide version mitigated this quite a bit, at the cost of some extra weight.
Customization Can Lead to Errors
When ordering this quilt, I asked for a Regular width. Many people would want a Wide width for a cold weather bag, hoping to store excess clothes, batteries, or gear in the extra space. Personally, I’m stick-thin and wanted to further differentiate from my true winter, zippered sleeping bags.
It became quickly apparent during unboxing that I was built a Wide instead. I’d rather it err oversized than under, but it’s an annoying thing to happen for such an expensive bag. While I could have written back and tried to correct it, I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of shipping and more lead time, as I had a trip just a week after delivery.
This is, unfortunately, something that seems to happen often in the custom gear world. In fact, it’s happened to me to various degrees on about half the custom gear I’ve gotten in the past few years. Combined with long lead times, it’s worth ordering your gear well in advance of any major trips to avoid problems.
Not Perfectly Transparent About Manufacturing
My first draft of this section was nearly four paragraphs long, but ultimately, this is a minor point, so I will get straight to it. The landing page of Enlightened Equipment’s website proudly says “Winona, MN made,” which is not 100% true. Far down on the product page for the Enigma, you will find that the in-stock/off-the-shelf models are sewn in Vietnam. This is true of a handful of their other products as well, such as Torrid jackets and all their raingear.
If you want Made in USA, order a “custom” even if they have what you want in stock. Personally my angst is more with the level of transparency in this statement.
Overall Value
The Enlightened Equipment Enigma is a versatile, highly configurable sleeping quilt ready for the triple crown and beyond. It’s a great choice for recent converts and experienced hikers alike, with a crowd pleasing design.
It weighs a bit less than the average quilt, but that savings also comes at a slight cost premium. However, with such a critical piece of gear, I think the price differences are nominal.
Shop the Englightened Equipment Enigmar
A Few Comparison Items
Disclaimer: The Enlightened Equipment Enigma Quilt was donated for the purpose of review
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Comments 4
I have an EE Revelation quilt, and a few EE Convert bags, all custom orders. Now, it’s been a minute since I ordered them, but I seem to recall a pretty specific torso/shoulder size chart to help with figuring out which width to order, along with a note that if you’re a side or rotisserie sleeper, you might want to consider getting the wider model. That chart worked well for me (an atypically-small human, lol.) Is the chart gone, or was it inaccurate for you? Bummer!
I don’t like the pad straps, either. I find the release clasps tiny and very finicky — I have to put my finger on juuuuust the right spot with juuuuust the right amount of pressure to get the clasp halves to spring apart. I, too, never succeeded on my first (or second) try, very frustrating when I was dealing with a middle-of-the-night “I need a tree!” run . . .
The error described in this review was not the user choosing the wrong width, but the manufacturer sending a quilt in a different width from what was ordered.
The ordering system and info on ee site is good. They simply made a booboo by sending wrong custom order, which I can also vouch for, happens with all small brands I’ve dealt with too. I have a 30degree enigma and I have to say I’m not a fan of the warmth. Possibly user error and I just need something warmer (lower temp) and heavier than avg because if it is even 40-45 overnight I’m way more uncomfortable than I should be. I am a fan of how easily it packs down, its weight, and it’s surprisingly durability- it’s probably 7/10D. Also, more support of ee- my torrid jacket is one of my fav pieces of clothing I’ve ever owned, regardless of hiking or regular life. A marvel to be so warm and light and the neck/hood shape is perfection.
Love GPS reviews as always.
At that price, why didn’t you go with the 18f Sastrugi or 5 (or 15) Granadier? (Or Timmermade Winter Wren, if he’s still making them?) Differential cut and horizontal baffle design is so much better/warmer,