super sale

SUPER SALE OF SLUMBER BAGS

Kok was doing an inventory of all of the end pieces of fabric we have recently accumulated.

We are using this shell material to make slumber bags.

The color assortment is urban grey, od, coyote brown and marpat.

I do not know the quantity of each color just that we have approximately 60/70 bags in production.

The price is $100.00.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEPING BAGS IN THE MILITARY

Are sleeping bags considered important to the military? It is my opinion the answer to the question is no.

In the early days of Wiggy’s I sold many sleeping bags to the military via a company to the best of my knowledge no longer in business. The years were 1988/9. I believe they were buying the Super Light 0 degree bag. The purchases amounted to a few hundred a year. For me, a fledgling little company it was considerable business. They were a GSA contractor. To this day I receive calls from guys who were issued these bags who are still using them. The company was Brigade Quartermasters located in Kennesaw, GA. Their customer was the army.

Then I received a call from a small backpacking shop in Virginia Beach VA. having a need for 300 Super Light bags for the SEALs located there.

Atlantic Dive Shop learned of this and being larger took over selling my bags to the SEALS. One SEAL told the west coast base about me and they started buying direct from me and after a couple of years I received a commendation from the west coast SEAL base.

Sounds good, doesn’t it. Now I had GSA contractors from all over the country calling me so they could buy and resell to the SEALs primarily. Eventually Specials Forces Groups stated buying and then the GSA contractors were again calling me. I saw this development as a bonus for Wiggy’s. Imagine that I had maybe 50 companies bidding against each other selling the Wiggy’s Bags.

When the SEAL buyer put out his contract for Wiggy’s bags it also stated, “OR EQUAL”. It made no difference that there were none then as there are none today. The GSA contractors were as they are today only interested in making a sale. They all started looking for a source who made what they referred to as sleeping bags, you know the “no sleep” variety. The GSA contractors then and now were/are only concerned with the cost.

Now that they had a cost below Wiggy’s they told the buyer the price and an equal. The buyer being equally as ignorant as the seller only knew and that is the case today, he was saving the unit money getting a gold star from his senior officer, who was/is equally ignorant of reality. These “no sleep” sleeping bags are issued and the recipients make do because they can’t be returned.

For the past 15 years or so periodically a solicitation would surface asking for a Wiggy’s bag that also states “or equal” so Wiggy’s never gets the business through a GSA contractor. Most of the time these solicitations ask for some brand most often made in China. But, to my surprise I will receive a call asking what I have comparable to the product being asked for. My answer is always no and to call back when they ask for a specific Wiggy’s bag, a true sleeping bag. The GSA contractors in all cases do not like my response.

For the past 20 years at least members of our military have been issued “no sleep sleeping bags” for all intents and purposes. Occasionally a unit here and there has ordered Wiggy’s bags, the few and far between. Unfortunately, the military has a problem with respect to their lack of knowledge when it comes to manufacturing a sleeping bag. This lack of knowledge goes downhill.

At the highest levels of the chain of command you have officers who want the very best for the soldiers. They of course are ignorant of what it takes to make a sleeping bag. So, they allocate the responsibility to the next man/woman lower in the chain of command and of course they too have no knowledge. We are still pretty high up in the chain of command but we are making progress. The next lower level individual takes the bull by the horns and to show the boss they either go to the internet or maybe rei. The only information he/she has is a temperature rating guideline.

The information available to them online with the exemption of Wiggy’s website is zero. The information they would receive from the clerks at rei or stores like it is equally zero.

Armed with all of this mis-information this low ranking officer who had no knowledge of the subject in the first place has to fabricate for the boss, so the mis-information may very well go back up the chain of command.

I think this is how goretex was approved. Lower level operatives saw how it was doing in the civilian market and that was all the higher level operative had to know. Of course, they were not interested in knowing it didn’t work, we know that.

What the officers at the top of the chain of command do not understand is the reality of how a lack of sleep affects the soldier’s daily performance. Today the soldier is training in a very cold environment. Doing so, means and I speak from experience when you do not sleep or sleep well your ability to perform is compromised.

If one person in the chain of command did the research and prevailed upon the higher ups with factual information, they would now learn about the importance of sleeping Bags to the military.