testing in the cold

TESTING COLD WEATHER PRODUCTS

When I first entered the outdoor business, it was with sleeping bags.

The companies doing the manufacturing in the 1980’s, for some reason that I am unaware of in unison all sent their sleeping bags to the Environmental Lab of Kansas University because they had copper manikin.

When I found out I also sent one. mine was my Ultra-Light +20-degree bag. When I received the result, it stated my bag had a clo reading of 4.5. When I asked for them to translate from clo to F or C they said they couldn’t. Knowing this I wondered why these manufactures were doing this at a cost of $1000.00 per bag and couldn’t get temperature ratings in F or C, since clo had no meaning. Aside from one ad from Sierra Designs I do not believe any other company advertised the findings of their bags in clo ratings. Of course, I never when back. I did however expose this testing method for sleeping bags as a farce. The woman that ran the lab said some nasty things about me that were untrue so I wrote the president of KSU advising him that I would take legal action if she said anything of this nature about me again.

What is of interest is that the KSU lab, to the best of my knowledge, no longer is involved in testing sleeping bags. The reality is none of the companies that sell “no sleep sleeping bags” do any testing.   The further reality is they are for the most part no longer in business.

Testing of sleeping bags has otherwise gone on for 40 years of Wiggy’s sleeping bags. It does not have formal laboratory testing but real-world testing. That is because for 40 years customers of Wiggy’s have told me when they purchase a Wiggy’s sleeping bag they are going to test it.

I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to have 200 Desert bags tested by the Marine Corps located at 29 Palms Marin base in CA. A 2,5-pound bag rated by me for +40 degrees and they used as low as +27 degrees.

But the real test for me was when I started to sell sleeping bags to people living or hunting in Alaska. Now I am not talking about 200 individuals but several thousand over the years where they have and continue to experience temperatures into the -60-degree F/C one and the same. How about the National Science Foundation operation at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

We have thousands of customers using Wiggy bags in milder temperatures as well. But I proudly say Wiggy’s shine in Alaska not only for our sleeping bags but also our clothing and footwear and hand wear. Never forget that these products are performing as well as they do because they are all filled with Lamilite/Climashield. It is this product that makes being out in the winter months more enjoyable.

Some history about our hypothermia evacuation bags.

In the summer of 1992, I put together a prototype based on a picture of a British hypo bag. The show I was at was for search and rescue and EMT workers. The show opened and I was a display near the back and on one table I had my hypo bag laid out. The first person to stop by was an EMT worker. He saw the hypo bag and started telling me what it needed to be EMT worker friendly. I took lots of notes. If you go to the hypothermia page and scrutinize it you will see the result of this man’s recommendations. When someone new to the product calls and asks questions about it I tell them I am not, nor have I ever been an EMT, but they are looking at is the advice of an EMT and I am just the fabricator. Because of this man’s advice and Lamilite/Climashield the Wiggy hypothermia is used worldwide. It is the best hypothermia bag in the world.

What I am pointing out is that the performance of all the Wiggy products test beyond the performance capabilities that I have placed on them because of personal knowledge and what I learned before I ever became a manufacturer.

I also chose to make it known that products I manufacture are the result of input from people guiding me.

I am clearly glad that Alaska exists.