who takes responsibility?

RESPONSIBILITY

Something that is lacking in the outdoor industry and probably other industries as well. I take to heart the following testimonial.

“I took you at your experienced word, and you said these Tekfire lighters are great...

I agree they are amazing again another trusted recommendation. I would also like to say the glow pads that you charge by day light and they glow all night are also fantastic!

I'm filling my pack with truly great sustainable products that "work". Perpetual light from hanging it on my pack while hiking to at least 3-4 months’ worth of fire starting to fishnets and 2nd layer and clothes that dry faster than ever...

Thanks again,

Chad n Linda

p.s. Based on your word without reservation we bought 3 Tekfire lighters without ever trying them, they're awesome!

Thanks Jerry”

As a manufacturer of cold weather products especially sleeping bags I have a responsibility to provide a sleeping bag to each buyer that will perform for the conditions that they tell me they are going to experience. In essence this person is putting his/her life in my hands. The same hold true for my clothing items. I unashamed advertise that my products are the very best or “simply the best” that you can buy that will perform in all conditions that can be experienced on earth.

It is very gratifying to be told that you (me) are trusted with respect to what I recommend. I am supposed to know what I am doing with respect to the products I make. As for products that I buy from other companies I try them before I chose to add them to my product line.

With respect to my sleeping bags there are basically three things that have changed about them since 1986 when I started making them. The draw cord and the cord locks have changed completely. Then there is the Lamilite, it is and always has been continuous filament fiber and the quality had been improved a few times till now and what the Climashield is today is by far the very best quality available. The Climashield Company is always making an effort to improve the product which not one of the prior suppliers I had were interested in doing. Will they improve it in the future, my opinion yes! When that happens I will be using it and if the rest of the outdoor industry wakes up they too will have the benefit of the best insulation on the planet in their products.

The rest of the industry does not accept responsibility for what they offer when it doesn’t work. The prime product that doesn’t work is EVERY SINGLE MATERIAL SAID TO BE WATER/PROOF and BREATHABLE. Every company that markets this LIE makes effort to change it each year or so saying that they now have one that does. The new version is no different than the old version regardless of the company making it. The way this stuff works is from day one till you throw it away to always keep the moisture from your body inside the garment. However, it does keep for a short while the rain water out until the water repellency disappears and then the outside water gets in, it is called wetting out, that being the case you might as well wear my fishnet underwear as your outerwear garment.

When it comes to sleeping bags each and every company that offers sleeping bags that retail over $100.00 has a new style each and every years that is an improvement over the bags and they name the models from the previous year. What has been done to make them better, color change! And if the bag is filled with down now they are using down that has been treated with a water repellent that is no different than the water repellent applied to the water/proof and breathable fabric. So when you buy a bag with this stuff in it you pay more money because the water repellent costs money but it doesn’t actually work, so you pay more for nothing more.

There are a number of products I have written about that do not work, but are “improved” from year to year, of course the “improvement” is just a word because they have no way of making something that doesn’t work to begin with suddenly work.

The reality is the people employed by these companies from the owners or CEO’s of publicly traded companies and down the chain will never take responsibility for products that do not work as they advertise them to do. It is for this reason that the philosophy of coming up with the “new and improved” prevails. They, meaning all who are engaged in the selling of these none functioning products are in my opinion completely unethical in offering their products because I believe unequivocally they know their products do not work (perform) as advertised.

The responsibility they just love to communicate is to the environment. The effort to make a water repellent that does not contain chemicals that will somehow damage the environment. As if the chemicals that have been used for 60 years or more to make water repellent treatments have somehow done some damage. They take responsibility for the humane treatment of ducks and geese before they kill them. The “kill them” words do not ever show up in their verbiage when they so proudly pound their chests talking about their humane treatment.

There are numerous acts of social responsibility they like to turn to but the responsibility of providing their customers with products that actually perform is an action that they evade completely. The real tragedy as I see it is they know not what they do because they the youth of the industry simply put does not know how to think.

In the outdoor industry they recognize the under 30 and then the under 40 year olds as if they have accomplished something. When you read each bio you find that every one of them is involved in marketing. Not a one has actually “created” a product but rather has developed a new catchy jingle to sell the old products in a new catchy color. All one has to do is go to your favorite companies web site and look at the new stuff and then go to any of the discounters who purchased the prior year’s unsold merchandise and look at the previous year’s products and aside from the color they garments are the same, only the new product is described with a new tune.

When you go into the stores for the newest winter jackets try to remember what last year’s jackets that didn’t perform looked like and felt like and tell me if aside from color there is a difference? Who is responsible for the non-performing products? BLANK!