SELLING WIGGY'S

SELLING WIGGY’S?

No I am not selling Wiggy’s!!!!!!

The other day one of my customers called about ordering some items. He lives in N.Y.C. and as it turns out he is an attorney. He asked if I was going to retire and sell Wiggy’s so it will continue to be a viable company. He is wrong it would not be a viable company as he thinks.

This got me thinking because he also deals in the buying and selling of companies I believe.

What I told him initially was I had been contacted by other representatives of people and companies interested in buying Wiggy’s but I was not interested in the discussion because the potential buyers had no knowledge of what it took to make a sleeping bag. My customer offered that I would have a contract that would keep me on for X amount of time etc. The problem with the contracts is simple, since they whoever they is/are would own the company and would therefore do what they wanted and in this case I would not be able to stop them without a law suit.

I further told him whoever the buyer is would want to convert sales from mail order direct to consumers to retail outlets. They would also want to have product made in Asia. Their whole purpose in buying Wiggy’s would be to get as much revenue flowing through Wiggy’s as possible to generate the greatest profit possible.

The quality of the products would suffer immediately. Also they would not want to ship the Climashield to Asia because of the cost so they would use what is available in Asia and call it Lamilite. This is presently happening in Europe. I had a deal at one time with a company named Bootcamp in Sweden and I sold them the Lamilite. They stopped buying it from me several years ago and recently I found out they were getting junk jackets made in China using chopped staple fiberfill and calling it Lamilite. The company is Wiggys Global. I wrote to them thanking them for the free advertising.

Even if I were given the position of CEO or president or who knows what title if this is what they wanted to do, it’s their company I could not stop them. An old friend of mine had a company Alpine Designs and he sold it and was the president and when the sales director wanted to do something before the company was sold George said no, after it was sold Chuck went to the new owners and they told George Chuck could do what he wanted. George left the company. Alpine Designs was eventually sold again and went out of business at some point I believe. George Lamb who was the original owner was in my opinion the most creative designer the industry ever had. My Antarctic parka was his design and the original mummy bag pattern was also his.

I further told my customer that my knowledge of the performance capabilities of my products has been enhanced by the many customers letting me know the circumstances in which they have used my products. Would some guys in an office in Manhattan be interested beyond a cursory acknowledgement of this information? Would they actually understand what it means? Would they want to share the information with their customers? The answer to all of my questions is a resounding no, and why is that because they only have a concern about the bottom line of the financial statement.

My customer’s response was still why not sell the company and retire. I then told him when I was 31 I did retire and lived for 15 months on my boat mostly in the Bahama Islands. It was certainly a good life but I realized that I needed something to do. Hence I started making sleeping bags. I also noted the number of men in their 60s and 70s who were retired in south Florida and they were vegetating. I then knew I would never retire again and I was wrong I am retired and Wiggy’s is what I do. When you are retired you should be doing things that are enjoyable; running Wiggy’s is as enjoyable an activity as I can have. That joy is amplified by the numbers of people who contact me to tell me that the Wiggy product (s) they own and use performs as I claim. Getting that form of support is priceless.

The truth is the company will be passed on to Marc Taylor currently the owner of Wiggy’s Alaska. It is a 15 year old company and Marc has acquired a significant amount of my knowledge so when he relocates to Grand Junction I will not have to start from scratch educating him about Lamilite or any of the products that Wiggy’s manufactures. He already knows and being an outdoorsman he has spent many nights in the bush for 15 years using Wiggy’s. Actually he was issued Wiggy’s bags when he was an active Marine, about 13 years. When he moved to Anchorage he ordered product from me and then asked if he could sell them. He opened a store and he sells more bags in Alaska in 6 months than all the bags that maybe sold of all the rest of the companies that sell sleeping bags combined in 5 years.

So why would I want to sell Wiggy’s since the money I would get would have no meaning for me. At the tender age of 77 I have no needs to travel or go out wining and dining. I like to say I now live for free.

If I sold Wiggy’s I would miss the communication with customers. Corporate executives in their uptown offices never experience what I experience of course they have never created anything. They have no sense of accomplishment. These are the people who will relish retiring because they will no longer have to dream up excuses why some of the companies they were involved in buying failed. Every day I receive several emails from outdoor industry online publications and I read about someone being given a prominent at North Face or Columbia or Nike etc. and when they print the resume a guy mostly say about 40 has had maybe 10 jobs. His new job might last a year or two at best and unless he has been able to increase the stock value he will be replace. It matters not if he knows what the company gets made for them in China it’s all about increasing value. If I were to sell one of them Wiggy’s once the value added was no longer growing Wiggy’s becomes a step child.

It is very gratifying when I answer the phone and the caller says your Wiggy and I say yes. They tend to put me on a pedestal which is nice but unnecessary. And I would miss that interaction.

After all is said and done Wiggy’s is not being sold and Jerry will continue at Wiggy’s so long as I am mentally and physically capable.