why waste your money

WHY PURCHASING ANY OF THE NO SLEEP SLEEPING BAGS IS A WASTE OF YOUR MONEY

When I first started manufacturing my sleeping bags, I advertised to buy any other brand was a waste of money.

Now for more history lesson to prove my point. As I have previously written in the 1960’s into the 1980’s there were three companies that made fiber for fiberfill purposes. DuPont, Celanese and Eastman Chemical. These companies had very ridged quality control and all of their first quality fiber sold for $0.50 or so a pound. What was rejected sold for $0.20 per pound. The expensive product was a branded product [Dacron, Fortrel, and Kodel]. The rejects were sold as “unbranded fiber.” These products no longer exist as far as I know.

All of the companies that sell no sleep sleeping bags made in Asia are filled with unbranded fiber. The companies that produce fiber do not have a brand associated with their fiber that they support. So, for all intent and purposes it is unbranded fiber and I suspect not consistent as the branded fiber was in the 1960’s made here in the USA.

As an example, if you go into an REI store and look at their selection of no sleep sleeping bags regardless of the price, they are all filled with the same quality of fiberfill. This being the case why the large disparity in price. The fabrics are almost all the same quality so there is not difference there. The labor to make the bags is about the same, so no difference there. The zipper is the same so no difference there. So, the only difference is the amount of fiberfill used. However, it is so cheap it really does not matter. Companies like north face have large advertising budgets so they have to increase their prices to cover advertising.

These bags cannot sustain laundering with out breaking down, actually, the fiberfill shifts in the bags and cannot be corrected.

Of course, the zippers that are used are coil zippers that have a very limited life expectancy. If, dirt gets into the coils your first night out the zipper may not work the second night.

It is important for people to have a clear and concise education about sleeping bags because they are the single most important piece of equipment you take into the field. The more you know about the components used to make sleeping bags the better decision you can make when you make the purchase.

It is for this reason I state and have stated for 30 years to buy any brand of no sleep sleeping bag versus a Wiggy bag that you sleep in is a waste of money.