wonderful testimonial and more on antimicrobials.

THE TESTIMONIALS JUST GET BETTER

To Jerry- I do not know if you read these E-mails but just-in-case you do, I wanted to tell you something you already know: In my humble opinion, your outdoor clothing and sleeping bags are the best in the world.

I have been a customer of Wiggy's for quite some time- since the early 1990's when I started my career as an FBI Special Agent. My first assignment was to central WA State where I frequently conducted field investigations in remote Indian Country. There, I relied heavily on your Supplex Sweater, Fossil Ridge Parka, and Leg Jackets and, of course, you’re Lamilite Boots. Usually after receiving an assignment, the first question I would ask myself is, "Where's my Wiggy's?" Your clothing was always the first item on my packing list.

Due to my prior military training (US Army Ranger School), I was frequently subject to travel on temporary duty assignments to remote locations which included primarily northern states namely, Idaho, Montana and Michigan. It was during these assignments that I became eternally grateful for your FTRSS.

So long story made short, I have used your products extensively in the field and they readily outperform anything that North Face, REI, LL Bean or any other outdoor clothing company produces to date. Nothing even comes close.

My field experience has confirmed your assertions over the years:

BOOTS + GORE-TEX = DISMAL CHOICE IT DOES NOT WORK!!

Thank-you for being a pioneer in your field!

Respectfully,

Tom R.

(A very satisfied customer with Wiggy's products)

To those of you in the military I suggest you look at Tom’s comments as a word to the wise. From what I have seen over the past 20 years what has been developed for soldiers for all branches has not performed very well.

As for the civilian market I can only say men like Tom and there are many in the military that use Wiggy’s, Wiggy’s should be considered as your first choice as well.

Cotton Inc. partners with PurThread for anti-odour fabrics

Cotton incorporated has developed a range of cotton-rich fabrics featuring a permanent anti-odour solution from antimicrobial textile technology provider PurThread.

It forms part of a project to create cotton-based fabrics that maintain their natural qualities like feel and uniform colour, while also adding performance characteristics, like odour resistance.

PurThread’s antimicrobial technology incorporates recycled silver salts into staple fibre and filament yarn at the extrusion level. This gives a fabric permanent protection from odour-causing bacteria, mould, mildew and fungus without changing its physical characteristics.

“Consumers know and love cotton, and they have come to expect performance technologies like odour control in their athletic apparel. The continued growth of the athleisure category creates an ideal opportunity to expand established athletic apparel performance technologies to additional categories, such as denim," said Mark Messura, Cotton Inc.’s vice president of global supply chain marketing. “We look forward to sharing these developments with the industry because we believe they are the right innovation at the right time.”

“Blending PurThread with cotton to offer permanent antimicrobial protection offers tangible benefits – apparel can be worn for longer periods of time between washings, helping to reduce water consumption and energy usage,” added PurThread CEO Lisa Grimes. “This is an exciting collaboration that should yield some great new performance fabrics across multiple markets.”

The following comes from NCBI- METAL BASED DRUGS

The antibacterial activity of silver has long been known and has found a variety of applications because its toxicity to human cells is considerably lower than to bacteria. The most widely documented uses are prophylactic treatment of burns and water disinfection. However, the mechanisms by which silver kills cells are not known. Information on resistance mechanisms is apparently contradictory and even the chemistry of Ag⁺ in such systems is poorly understood.

Silver binds to many cellular components, with membrane components probably being more important than nucleic acids. It is difficult to know whether strong binding reflects toxicity or detoxification: some sensitive bacterial strains have been reported as accumulating more silver than the corresponding resistant strain, in others the reverse apparently occurs. In several cases resistance has been shown to be plasmid mediated. The plasmids are reported as difficult to transfer, and can also be difficult to maintain, as we too have found. Attempts to find biochemical differences between resistant and sensitive strains have met with limited success: differences are subtle, such as increased cell surface hydrophobicity in a resistant Escherichia coli.

Some of the problems are due to defining conditions in which resistance can be observed. Silver(I) has been shown to bind to components of cell culture media, and the presence of chloride is necessary to demonstrate resistance. The form of silver used must also be considered. This is usually water soluble AgNO₃, which readily precipitates as AgCl. The clinically preferred compound is the highly insoluble silver sulfadiazine, which does not cause hypochloraemia in burns. It has been suggested that resistant bacteria are those unable to bind Ag⁺ more tightly than does chloride. It may be that certain forms of insoluble silver are taken up by cells, as has been found for nickel. Under our experimental conditions, silver complexed by certain ligands is more cytotoxic than AgNO₃, yet with related ligands is considerably less toxic. There is evidently a subtle interplay of solubility and stability which should reward further investigation.This last sentence says it all!!!!!

Cotton Incorporated’s entry into the antimicrobial chemicals added to the cotton fiber I believe is hap hazard. Probably more hazard. Why can’t they leave things alone? It is called sales; bottom line!

I have read for some years about the use of silver added to material as an antimicrobial, but until today when I researched it I had no idea why or if it worked, and now I not only believe it doesn’t work but is potentially detrimental to humans. The use of the silver salts has been used with synthetic fiber for years.

I do not believe that the Cotton Inc. employees have ever done any research themselves into the silver salts chemical. If they did they would have found what I have found and that is just scratching the surface of information.

The reality of the situation is simple, all of their competition are adding some form of theoretical antimicrobial to their fiber or finish on the fabric after it is woven or knitted so Cotton Inc. believes they have to do the same. I personally believe that ALL of these companies either at the fiber level, fabric level, finished garment level or the retail level don’t give a hoot whether these chemicals actually work as advertised. The sale of the garment at a profit is ALL that matters to them.

This is one more instance of what I believe is fraudulent behavior on the part of the actors in the industry offering product to the consuming public. They don’t care because their hero of the false advertising is Gore.

OUR government created an agency known as THE CONSUMER PROTECTION AGENCY, it is time they started doing their job of PROTECTING THE CONSUMERS. Otherwise we might as well close the agency and save the cost of its existence.