An Interesting eMail that I Received...

Hey Jerry,

I hope this day finds you well. I just wanted to thank you for hooking up a friend of mine today. Jeremy came into your business today and you set him up with a Super Light and overbag as well as some booties. Most of my Mountain Matters friends have now converted to Wiggys. I just had a friend Brian Kee from Texas order a bag and other items from you because he got tired of freezing in his Kifaru. I asked him if he contacted Kifaru and he did. They told him that it was user error that's why he is sleeping cold. Anyway I just wanted to thank you again for outfitting me, my family and my Mountain Matters friends with a great product! Peace

~ Jeffery Rotondo "Tondo"

Jeremy came into Wiggy’s on July 7^th and before the day was over he called Jeffery and then Jeffery sent me the above e mail.

Some 10 years ago I was visited by Patrick Smith the owner of Kifaru; Patrick was also prior to Kifaru the original owner of Mountainsmith backpack manufacturing company. He stopped by so his son-in-law could pick up a sleeping system, the same one that Jeremy bought. At the time he asked if I would come on his forum and answer questions posed by the guys who frequented the forum. I said sure and soon found out most were users of Wiggy’s products. The association ended when these guys asked about a plus 20 degree bag that was much lighter than what I made; i.e. the Ultra-Light. After much discussion with me saying if I could make a lighter 20 degree bag I would, but I couldn’t. That said I told them I would try and the end result was lighter weight fabric and less insulation and a higher price that they paid, but no guarantee. About 100 were purchased and all were disappointed. I then told them that they demonstrated to me what I believed. That was like throwing gasoline on a fire. Relationship ended.

However, Patrick purchased one of the bags from the Wiggy’s Alaska store where Marc sells them to sheep hunters without any problems, and Patrick was disappointed and decided that he could make one that was lighter than mine and therefore more efficient. I have no idea how many he has sold maybe 50 or 100 but that is a guess and I think my numbers are actually high. When I saw what he was doing I laughed since he made what is now as I see it a jury-rigged product that could not work. From the e mail above I now have the proof. The error that Brian made was spending the money on the product in the first place. Also, Brian is not a cold sleeper; nobody is a cold sleeper because when you are cold you do not sleep.

FOLLOW-UP ON THE LATEST MIRCALE FABRIC

I did some checking around with some of my friends who are suppliers to companies like me and it was confirmed to me that the film being used by Columbia is monolithic film. Historically the monolithic film has been laminated to fabric used for the stall drapes that hang between stations in emergency rooms to keep any fluids from getting from one station to the next. Then there was a glove manufacture that used it in his gloves versus the Gore-Tex years ago. They would hang a bag made with the film filled with water at the Outdoor Retailer trade show showing how it would hold the water but each day some would evaporate through the film showing that it had some vapor permeability. If they started out with a quart after 4 days it is between half and 3/4s full. The end result is for those who chose to buy these rain jackets as they say in their article and I quote; “people will be shocked at the way it looks and the way it works.” Actually they will look at the material and think it looks like clear vinyl and be shocked when they discover that it does not work.

Maybe some of the stock holders should question the information that publicly traded companies present about the products they make. The end result is when this product shows that it is a failure they will come out with a new and improved version of the same product. Just like the military laboratory charged with making a sleeping bag that will keep the soldiers warm, I developed my sleep system known as the FLEXIBLE TEMPERATURE RANGE SLEEP SYSTEM or FTRSS as it is commonly known in 1993. Since then it has never failed, a 100 percent success rate; but the military bags which was adopted in 1996 or 7 has been modified maybe 6 times in order to improve it. To this very day it has been a 100 percent failure. If not why keep changing? The same holds true for all of the companies involved in the manufacture of materials and garments. The simply chose not to recognize what actually works, has a history of working or a history of not working, and that applies to waterproof breathable in spades.

The same holds true for ALL of the fiberfills that have come on the market in recent years. The problem today is a simple one Climashield is made in the USA and manufacturing unfortunately is in China or some place in Asia and these large publicly traded companies do not want to ship the best insulation in the world from the USA. So the consumers in the USA are stuck to buying sub quality garments as a result of the companies not wanting make good quality products.

Welcome to America.