natick sources sought notice

BUT FIRST SOME TESTIMONIALS

My first clue that something was amiss was when my dog climbed into my Wiggy's Hunter Ultra-Light with Nautilus overbag bag in the middle of the night. Nature endowed her with a good coat, so I thought she might have been frightened by something outside. (Bears and mountain lions have been killing livestock in the immediate area.) Rousing myself, I noticed the air in my trailer was a good deal more crisp than normal. A glance at the temperature was 34 inside the trailer and 13 outside. Worried about frozen plumbing and resulting leaks, I went to work getting the furnace working again.

Warm as toast inside my sleeping bag, I was unaware of the significant temperature drop. Wiggy's sleeping bags (as well as all the other gear I've purchased from Wiggy's) is remarkable. I wish I had even a fraction of the money back on all the useless junk I've owned in the past.

P.S. I rigged up a system to light a lamp in the future if the furnace fails again, although my canine warning system clearly did work just fine.

– Joan T.

I guess you can say Wiggy’s has now gone to the dogs. Thank you for the story Joan.

The following testimonial came from my u tube web site.

-40 TO -60 F GLOVES ?

The following is a part of a new sources sought notice published this week end.

Solicitation Number:

W911QY-18-CWGS

Notice Type:

Sources Sought

Synopsis:

Added: Dec 14, 2018 7:18 pm

Request for Information (RFI) / Market Survey

Cold Weather Glove System

The Product Manager for Soldier Clothing and Individual Equipment (PdM SCIE), located at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, is conducting a request for information / market investigation to identify domestic products, suppliers and manufacturers of a Cold Weather Glove System (CWGS). PdM SCIE has identified a need for a new modular and scalable hand wear protection system for extreme cold weather operating environments. The PdM SCIE has the responsibility to maintain, develop, and improve Soldier clothing and individual equipment to include gloves as the life cycle manager of these items. The U.S. Army is interested in identifying emergent technologies and capabilities that will meet or exceed the following parameters:

1) Environmental Protection in the temperature ranges of 40oF to -40oF Threshold (T), 40oF to -60oF or below Objective (O).

Rationale: Soldiers operate worldwide to include extreme cold environments. Soldier will need a hand wear system that will provide extreme cold protection for long durations.

Having read the entire notice I decided to write to the contracting officer. I asked if what I was reading was correct, that they wanted a glove system for these extreme low temperatures. He forwarded my request of information to the Program Officer.

-------Original Message-----

From: Matthew R CIV USARMY ACC (US)

Sent: Monday, December 17, 2018 9:17 AM

To: Jerry Wigutow <wiggys@wiggys.com>

Cc: Brenda M CTR (USA)

Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] COLD WEATHER GLOVES

Hi,

I'm forwarding your question to the Program Office for clarification.

Brenda, could you please see below and advise?

Thanks,

Matt

-----Original Message-----

From: Brenda M CTR (USA)

Monday, December 17, 2018 7:54 AM

To: Matthew R CIV USARMY ACC (US); Jerry Wigutow

Subject: RE: [Non-DoD Source] COLD WEATHER GLOVES

Good Morning,

The answer is yes. Objective is for hand dexterity to allow for the conduct of intricate mission ops (knobs/levers/radio equip) down to -20F.

In addition, threshold of down to -20F; Objective down to -60F to use glove without interfering with ability to use trigger.

I hope this clarifies. Feel free to reach out if more is needed.

Thanks,

Brenda

The following is my response to Brenda.

Brenda,

You are very clear about what you want.

However, I must inform you the GLOVES, YES GLOVES have never been made to perform at temperatures below about 25 degrees F.

I have been associated with the hand wear; to include gloves and mittens since about 1968 when I first provided Frank Calibrese textile technologist at Natick at that time, the laminated Polar Guard for use as mitten insulation, now trade named Lamilite. He had Grandoe Glove company (no longer in business) make Mittens for him for soldiers located in Alaska to evaluate. There were two hundred pair made and they were very successful and more were made how many I do not know.

When the Alyeska Pipe line for moving oil from the North Slope of Alaska to Valdese, Alaska was authorized I supplied the manufacturer located in Tenn. With ALL of the Lamilite for the mittens supplied to each man working the construction. There were many thousands made. Note I said MITTENS, not gloves. These men were welding as well as doing other jobs in arctic temperatures. The Tenn. Manufacture is also no longer in business.

For years I was the only supplier of insulation; Lamilite to the ski mitten manufacturers located in the USA or the Philippines, all no longer in business today making any hand wear in the USA.

Today to the best of my knowledge my company Wiggy's is the only domestic manufacturer of mittens. I have been making them for 25 years and they have proven to perform depending upon temperatures from the mid plus 20's to -60 F.

My advice to customers who ask for cold weather gloves is to get a good leather glove with a decent lining that is thin. Keep them in your pocket and when it is necessary to use when you need the dexterity of your fingers remove the mittens and put on the gloves. When finished remove the gloves put them back in your pocket and put on the mittens. Soldiers are humans just like civilians so the same advice goes to them.

If you encounter anyone who has the audacity to tell you they can make a GLOVE OR GLOVE SYSTEM that will accomplish what you are looking for I am telling you they are lying. You are free to use my comments to share with anyone you want at Natick or anyone who tells you they can do it.

To learn about my products simply go to my web site www.wiggys.com and click on hand wear.

Respectfully

Jerry Wigutow

President

Wiggy's Inc.

Phone: 866-411-6465

Email: wiggys@wiggys.com

I do not know what Brenda is going to do with the information I have sent to her but I do know she is really in need of an education. She lives in Massachusetts where it gets cold so she can do her own experiments and personally find out if gloves are as good as mittens, which they aren’t, never have been and never will be!!!

She has to understand that separating the fingers in gloves means that they cannot help each other stay warm. When fingers are in mittens they touch each other helping each finger to stay warm.

The problem unfortunately happens to be that these people who we employ at government facilities are not knowledgeable of what the products are, how they work or if they will work because they have no background in the subject.

It would be nice if Brenda were prior service or even a hunter and if so she would know that putting your finger through a trigger guard with any glove thicker than a shooting glove is not easily possible. Who ever thought up the desire to have an insulated glove that would accommodate the ability to fit in the trigger guard also does not know it is almost impossible to accomplish.

I will report if I ever get a response to my note back to her.