flat batts

FIBERFILL INSULATION GOING FLAT

It has been brought to my attention by an old friend who worked in the polyester fiber for fiberfill industry starting in the mid 1960’s so he knows more about how the fiberfill quality fiber is made.

He told me the problem that people are experiencing their polyester fiberfill jackets and sleeping bags losing their loft i.e., going flat is because the Chinese polyester fiber producers do not have the technology needed to make a fiberfill fiber.

They make flat fiber for weaving and knitting and also make a fiber that simulates a crimp used for making bulky fabrics such as sweaters, etc.

In the 1960’s when Dupont, Celanese and Eastman were making polyester fiber for the textile industry they developed fiber with crimps of different types that could be processed in different machines the created the web structure that made fiberfill. The Chinese do not have that knowledge.

What they do is mix a variety of the fibers used for making texturized materials with anything else they have available but it is not fiber designed for polyester batting purposes.

In the years before outerwear and sleeping bags were manufactured in China jackets and sleeping bags manufactured here in the USA never went flat as the imports do. Why because the companies making these products in their own factories located all over the USA used heavier weights of polyester fiberfill in them.

These companies had yet to hit the craze of “how light can we make them”. The end result is the jackets don’t keep people warm and the sleeping bags certainly don’t either.

Since the companies that supply the retailers here in the USA do not have any employees who have any knowledge of fiberfill, they will continue to have these products made in China which means unsuspecting or uneducated consumers will see these products in the stores.

I did not know I was getting educated in the fiberfill industry and that I would eventually use that education as I have. I tried to educate the people coming up behind me when I was still active back then but my words fell on deaf ears. There has been actually two generations of people that have come into the outerwear and sleeping bag industry [one and the same] who as I have said in the past are simply ignorant of what it takes to make these products. They do not have fiberfill knowledge the most important component of these insulated products.

As you can see two generations have not had any knowledge to pass on but of those two generations several have moved into executive positions not knowing how products are made that they are responsible for selling. Will there ever be in the future any with the necessary knowledge to make these products? I do not think so.

Fortunately there is always WIGGY’S. 

FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW IT WE PUT A ACU [ARMY DIGITAL CAMO] RAIN PONCHO WITH EACH SLEEPING BAG ORDERED.