Jerry's Story: Building Wiggy's Without Compromise
I have used all the materials needed to make the best sleeping bags in the world without compromise.
I wrote an essay you can read on the Wiggy website “The Science of Making a Sleeping Bag”. In it I explain why I use the materials and why I manufacture my sleeping bags.
I have done all of this as an independent thinker. In the early days of the company I tried to sell my sleeping bags through retail store only to be told I had made more like what was on the market and was rejected by retailers from coast to coast.
I believed at the beginning since the retailers were so dead set against me, I had to go to it alone as a mail order company. I believed them and my belief in the intelligence of the consumers, and I proved to be right. The consumers by buying my product and then told their friends “as well anyone who would listen”. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that comment.
With Wiggy’s it has been 40 years and before that it was with Olam that lasted 5 years. So there have been laminated continuous filament sleeping bags on the market for 45 years and counting.
I take great pride in knowing that I have accomplished building the very best sleeping bag that can be built.
Years ago before I became a manufacturer I was selling or attempting to sell the for runner of Lamilite and how to use it the existing companies in unison said no. My response was to get on my boat and live on it for a year and a half. Sailed from NYC to the Bahamas. I came back refreshed and opened Olam. My first venture into the sleeping bag business. Then Wiggy’s, for now 40 years. I moved ahead with my own ideas and learned that I had customers who had trust in what I was telling them about the sleeping bag they were buying from me. I have learned they are an investment. I periodically hear from customers from 40 years ago still using the original bag, hence an investment. What new customers get when they buy [invest] in a Wiggy bag is a bag made with same materials that I used 40 years ago.
I am contacted occasionally by someone who wants to test my product so he can tell the people who see his website about my bags. I tell them I have 40 years of consumer testing and testimonials to prove the capability of my bags.
I take great pride in my accomplishment.