37 years and counting

37 YEARS AND COUNTING

It was the day after Labor Day in 1988 that Wiggy’s started production of 37800 sleeping bags for the U.S Forestry Service and maybe 10 Wiggy bags a week.

We finished the USFS bags by early summer. Maybe some of you remember those bags, dark green lining and bright yellow shells.

By the time it was finished we laid off 25 people because we did not have the orders to keep that many employed. Wiggy’s struggled for the next two years, the saving grace for us was our Ultima Thule -20 degree F sleeping bag.

In the fall of the year the industry manufactures in the USA, nobody imported them took orders for sleeping bags that were summer weight bags for spring delivery. Not a one of them made cold weather sleeping bags, so Wiggy’s was the only company who made one. We also got orders for the Super Light. So, our sales from September until March were strong. Our warm weather bags were heavier than what the rest of the industry sold. Today sales of all of the different model warm weather bags in numbers far exceeds the rest of the industry combined. But back then we struggled through the summer months unless we had customers heading to the mountains in South America or Antarctica.

As time went by the ordering for cold weather bags started in late August. And by this time, the early to mid-1990’s the military became a robust customer. Primarily Special Forces Groups. We were now on the way with the addition of the consumer market.

I knew we had to be the biggest manufacturer of sleeping bags in the country in the late 1990’s. Since all of the companies in the industry like Wiggy’s bought their zippers from YKK I asked my rep if he could find out how many zippers were sold to the rest of the industry. After a few weeks he called and told me my purchases were larger than the whole industry combined. Since then, I realized that I was the only sleeping bag manufacturer in the world because the only bags sold by the other companies  are no sleep sleeping bags. So, being the only I had to be the biggest.

Over these 36 years I have made many friends something I never considered has happened. Because I have been so accessible on the phone as I still am appreciated by the caller. They appreciate having their questions answered and not getting an annoying menu and ultimately leaving a message that is never getting a return call.

Over the years people will realize when I ask their name and I give them mine, Jerry then they say your Wiggy aren’t you. Their almost universal response is “wow” I‘m talking to the owner.

I am an educator primarily about insulation so that is what I tell them about the insulation I use Lamilite and what it is. Many of these people tell me they have read so much and viewed the u tube videos so they now could get clarification. Whenever people tell me they wait to get my emails and all of this attention warms my heart.

I can tell you I have recovered from the mild stroke probably completely, so far for the past 5 years my PSA blood test shows 0 so maybe I do not have cancer. However, my doctor wants me to continue to take the Zytiga as a precautionary measure, so that is what I do to keep it from returning.

The way I feel now I just might make 94 like my mother who had all of her mind to the very end. If I keep mine, I will continue to be here with Kok making sleeping bags. As for 36 more years I like to think Wiggy’s will carry on. It really would be a pity to see the best product of its type come to an end.