An Unexpected Letter via eMail

Jerry:

I just wanted to shoot you a quick thanks for sharing your expertise on the outdoors and at times your input on the many inferior products on the market, by the many well-known national brands whose marketing is based on lies.

I live in the North East and do a fair amount of hiking in all kinds of different conditions.Even when I’m not hiking, I generally spend most of my time in one form of hiking boot I have or another, depending on the weather, I’m lucky enough to have many different types of hiking boots to choose from.Although as I realized after reading one of your Gore-Tex rants, all of my boots, from a variety of different manufactures, all incorporate Gore-Tex in their design in some way or another.Then I remembered reading one of your dissertations on how important it is to allow the body’s natural moisture to escape, which keeps your clothes dry and thus allows you to be in a better position to be warm; if you smart enough to be wearing a Wiggy’s Lamilite garment.

Although this is not a Testimonial about a Wiggy’s product but rather written to call out Gore-Tex products as not living up to their advertising; it’s all basically a lie from Gore-Tex!

I began to think back and no matter which pair of hiking boots I wore, my feet were always wet.No matter the type of socks I used or which version of hiking boot I chose for the day, the outcome was generally about the same, wet feet.If it was a Winter hike or just working around my yard in the Winter (remember I live in the North East, so this isn’t anything like an Alaskan Winter), my feet began to get colder as the day went on and it was always due to my feet being wet.Sure I changed my socks when I stopped two or three times per hike, I actually began to believe that I was just guy who was going through some mid-life hormonal change and who now had really sweaty feet.Then I went back through some of your “News & Commentary” rants on the Wiggy’s site, as well I also checked out a few of your video’s and came across one about Gore-Tex and its inability to allow moisture to move through the fabric as so stated by the manufacture.

So I went out and purchased a new pair of hiking boots, which now my hiking boot collection outnumbers any number of good excuses I might ever have for not doing this sooner.I purchased a pair of Merrell’s Men's Moab Ventilator Mid Hiking Boots for about $110.00 on Amazon (sorry I know it’s not a Wiggy’s product).I decided to wear them the next day and that just happened to be the first day that I’ve had warm dry feet in years, in any of the winter months.It wasn’t me, it wasn’t the socks and it was all due to a manufacture lying about their product.Don’t buy into all the marketing, Gore-Tex or any other of the generic copycat products, none of them allow the natural moisture from your feet (in this case I can only base this on my own personal experience with Gore-Tex material in hiking boots) to escape, thus allowing your feet to stay dry, allowing the rest of your equipment (boots & socks) to keep your warm.Gore-Tex generally does a respectable job of keeping water off of you, but what good is it in a boot if it won’t let the natural moisture from your body escape?

Jerry, a huge thank you for sharing everything you know about the harsh winter elements, with all of your loyal Lamilite followers and I look forward to reading all your future “News & Commentary” rants.I now credit my dry and warm feet to you and all the knowledge of staying warm and dry in the harsh elements, which you so graciously share with your customers.

Thanks again,

Mike

I wrote back to Mike suggesting that he get a pair of my Lamilite socks and boots.