Sleeping Bags

For a number of years I have been writing about what it takes to make a proper sleeping bag to include fabrics, zippers and most importantly the insulation and how best to use it.

I have stated that buying any brand of sleeping bag other than a Wiggy’s bag is a waste of money. I whole heartedly believe that statement to be true more than ever today.

I started making the Wiggy’s line of sleeping bags in 1986 using only continuous filament fiber from companies that supplied it to the furniture industry. That was when I was located in South Carolina near the furniture manufacturers. When I moved to Grand Junction Colorado I switched to a California supplier that also supplied every other company still producing sleeping bags in the USA. When the California companies closed and Harvest Consumer Insulations Company opened in Tennessee they became my supplier as well as all of the other companies using continuous filament fiber. They called their product Climashield and it happens to be the best of the continuous filament fiber products ever made. Unfortunately for the consumer the companies located in the USA that made sleeping bags abandoned the USA for China and the result was either import from the USA the Climashield or change from continuous filament fiber to chopped staple fiber since the chopped staple was available in China. Initially some continued to use the Climashield but chose to change to the chopped staple polyester because it was not only readily available in China and cheap. The key word is cheap and you know that to be true because so many companies such as REI will take back bags that either fall apart, have broken zippers ar fail to keep you warm at the noted temperature that the bag is used for. Some of the REI employees have told me that the return factor is about 40 percent, true or not the return factor is high. This same holds true for all of the other companies out there in my opinion. Another factor is the number of bags that wind up on the Sierra Trading Post (STP) web site. They are a dumping ground for the bags that do not sell through the retail store accounts, but they at STP buy very cheap and mark up to the original retail price and then offer a discount. Who benefits (?) not the ultimate consumer!

One company that has attempted to copy Wiggy’s has been the Mountain Hardwear Company. They originally tried using the continuous filament fiber and failed miserably. Two years later they went to a chopped staple fiber product all the time calling it Lamina. Why Lamina because it was as close as they could get to Lamilite. That was the comment told to me by Paul Kramer the owner of the company at that time. He eventually sold out to Columbia Sportswear I guess they still sell some because it is part of their sleeping bag product mix. When someone reads all of the literature they publish about their product some will buy it. Who benefits with this purchase MH not the consumer why (?) because the bags do not perform as advertised. Why should MH care about this situation when no other company getting their bags made in China care about the bags they offer to the general public, they ALL fail to perform at the temperatures they are sold to be used for.

All of the people who work at these companies who are charged with the responsibility to develop sleeping bags just do not have any background in what it takes to make a sleeping bag. they DO NOT have any know ledge primarily of the insulations that are available to use in a sleeping bag. I know this for fact because if they did they would reject every form of material offered to them and ONLY use Climashield as I do, why because as I have stated un equivocally time and time again IT IS THE BEST INSULATING MEDIUM IN THE WORLD.

The end result is that if you want a sleeping bag that is accurately rated, can be stuffed in a compression stuff sack and left in that state for years and when you take it out of the compression stuff sack its original loft is regained, will not ever care if the bag gets wet while out in the field, and does have a lifetime guarantee then the only bags you are left to choose is a Wiggy’s bag.

For more information about the performance of Wiggy’s bags I refer you to the testimonials that can be seen on the web site.