Wiggy's in the News

GJ company makes survival gear for Air Force

Jerry Wigutow, left owner of Wiggys Factory,2482 Industrial Blvd.with VP Kok Bou.Wiggy is making sleeping bags and survival gear for Air Force.The company dog Cookie photo bombs.

Article by Patti Arnold
Photos by Christopher Tomlinson/The Daily Sentinel

Jerry Wigutow, owner of Wiggy’s Inc., 2482 Industrial Blvd in Grand Junction, is shown with vice president Kok Bou. Wiggy’s specializes in superior sleeping bags and also survival gear for the Air Force. The company was recently awarded a $54,000 federal contract to supply pants and a convertible poncho for the survival kit for the jets at Eielson Air Force Base.

Jerry Wigutow’s company, Wiggy’s Inc., is known for its superior sleeping bags, but the Grand Junction factory also makes survival gear for the United States Air Force.

“We’ve made for years ejection seat survival kits for the Air Force. In recent times, we supplied the Air Force with all of the survival kits for the B-52s, the B-1s, the B-2s, all of the fighters,” Wigutow said.

When survival gear for the new Air Force fighter jet, the F-35, was being installed, the current kit wouldn’t fit in the ejection seat. A new setup was needed.

Tests on the survival gear were conducted at Eielson Air Force Base, just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska.

“They used the existing products from the B-52s and put guys in a cold chamber in Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska and they were looking for a 40-below-zero capability,” Wigutow said. “In December at Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, I don’t know why you need a cold chamber. They had them in there for five hours. After the five hours when they came out, they realized that the temperature gauges were wrong.

“They were not registering 40-below zero, they were registering 60-below zero, so they were now convinced beyond question that what they had from Wiggy’s was what they needed.”

The company was recently awarded a $54,000 federal contract to supply pants and a convertible poncho for the survival kit for the jets at Eielson Air Force Base.

Pum Khun is a sewing machine operator for Wiggy’s Inc., 2482 Industrial Blvd. in Grand Junction, which specializes in making sleeping bags and also survival gear for the Air Force. Pum is Kok's wife.

Some adjustments were made so the gear, which is vacuum-sealed at Wiggy’s factory, will fit into the kit that is stored under the pilot’s ejection seat.

“It fits into the ejection seat, so if a pilot has reason to punch out, this survival kit goes with him,” Wigutow said. “Because of the testing they’ve done, they can tell each of the pilots flying in a cold region in the event they have to punch out, they’ve got a bunch of things, including the pants and the poncho, which they can wear to get away from the bad guys and then they convert it to sleeping bags so they stay warm.”

Wiggy’s has made sleeping bags for 32 years, a product Wigutow says makes all other sleeping bags “obsolete.”

With his background in developing insulating materials, Wigutow’s sleeping bags are efficient, as shown by the Air Force testing, and all of the materials are made in the United States.

His factory is making the Air Force gear from start to finish.

“We convert the insulation to our use, we cut it and sew it for the products we want to make, and with respect to the Air Force, we work in conjunction with them, so what they get is based on their testing,” he said.

The company not only makes sleeping bags and survival gear, but all kinds of outerwear and shelters. With the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his business partner, Kok Bou, designed face masks for their employees. Wigutow said he comes up with ideas and Bou makes them work.

“I can have all of the greatest ideas in the world, but if they don’t materialize into a finished product, I have nothing,” he said. “Kok is able to interpret what I want into a finished product.”

Jerry Wigutow, owner of Wiggy’s factory, wears one of the masks the company is making.

As they started making the masks for their employees, they decided to add them to the product menu for sale.

“Right now we’re lucky in Grand Junction with very low incidents, but you don’t know if you’re going to be in contact with somebody from Montrose, where it’s not so low,” he said. His mask, which sells for $15, is washable and “it’ll last for years,” he said.

All of his products are available at wiggys.com, and he has a retail store at 2482 Industrial Blvd.

Wigutow is proud of the fact that all of his materials are made in the USA and said perhaps the coronavirus will encourage more manufacturers to use American materials instead of buying from China.

The recent contract is a continuation of the relationship he’s built with the Air Force over the years.

“I’ve been supplying the Air Force with a variety of products since, oh, gosh, 1990? The first Gulf war was where I started getting calls from the Air Force for products and have been supplying them ever since,” he said. “They’ve come here and worked with us and seen the equipment. This is a new configuration of what I’ve been doing for them for 25 years.”