POOR QUALITY SLEEPING BAGS

THE DAYS OF QUALITY IN MAKING SLEEPING BAGS ARE GONE EXCEPT PRESENT COMPANY

When I got into the sleeping bag business as a supplier the companies that made sleeping bags were producing down bags, these same companies for the most part did not get into making synthetic insulated sleeping bags until Polar Guard the original continuous filament fiber was presented to them.

They stayed away from chopped staple fiber because there were companies making cheap sleeping bags with it and these more expensive companies could not compete with the cheap makers. Polar Guard was 10 times more expensive so they went with it only because it separated them from the cheap guys.

Of course, they didn’t know how best to use it and didn’t care. They just saw a need to give people who wanted the synthetic bag that was more expensive than what was otherwise available.

All of these companies were using nylon for their shells and linings.

The use of the Polar Guard and then Climashield had a solid run for about 40 years and then things started to change. In the 2000’s almost all if not all production of sleeping bags moved to China. At that time the Climashield was shipped to China.

However, in the past eight years things changed again. All of the high priced companies went full circle back to the fiberfill product they stayed away from “chopped staple fiberfill.” To add insult to injury they also replaced nylon fabric with polyester fabric. This is done to reduce costs; PERIOD!!

Every company in the USA as well as all of the companies around the world that ship their version of a sleeping bag into the USA has followed suit. They have gone from making as good as can be made to as poor as can be made. There is one company located in the UK who doesn’t even identify the content of the shell and lining materials or at least I couldn’t find this information. I was told by one of their distributors the material is polyester.

The attitude presented to the consumers is in my opinion devious. Companies like the north face are living on a reputation when they did make quality sleeping bags using Climashield, an insulating medium they haven’t used in 10 years or longer but now they use chopped staple fiberfill. The same can be said about mountain Hardwear, marmot and a dozen more.

Go into any retail store in the country that sells what are claimed to be sleeping bags that are synthetic filled and you will find they are all filled with chopped staple fiberfill. Why because they are all made in Asia and there is no continuous filament fiberfill in Asia. At one time there was a company who tried to make a continuous filament fiberfill product that primaloft tried to market. Like all of the other primaloft products it too was a successful failure.

I am quite sure you will not see any other company besides Wiggy’s using the Climashield unless of course they chose to open a factory in the USA. I believe that is never going to happen.

For the past few days, I have been reading that Peloton is closing there NY factory and moving to a Taiwan factory which is putting 570 people out of work. This action is to cut costs, etc. That said that proves my point not one of these multinationals would ever consider a sewing plant in the USA.