Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting WIGGY'S SLEEPING BAG'S

that's pretty cool
map

Map,
For a guy who says he was dissapointed to see his thread go downhill, you sure do a good job of prolonging it. I thought it was a good idea to get a clean start with your down-synthetic thread, and let this one die. You know you don't have to have the last word to be the bigger man, as a matter a fact I think its the other way around.

You seem like a good fella, John, and I hate to see you waste your time. Chawn and Map are firmly committed to sitting at the kid's table. They having too much fun fightin' and makin' a mess to listen to us geezers.

OK, I wrote one post on this thread back on 2/12 and haven't opened the thread since. I see it's been interesting but I want to know WHY I am treated to a "special" email from Wigutrow ?

What an arrogant azz... and anyone wonders why I wouldn't give the man a dime!

From: Jerry Wigutow <wiggyswiggys.com> [Add to Address Book]
To: brad338peoplepc.com
Subject: wouldn't give me a dime etc.
Date: Mar 9, 2008 7:55 PM

What will you do when you will not have any choice but to buy a LAMILITE INSULATED BAG FROM THE OTHER MANUFACTURERS WHO ARE LEFT IN THE INDUSTRY?



WIGGY

I know what I'll do... I'll continue to use Western Mountaineering down bags rather than the Wiggys Car Camping Line-up!

2nd E-Mail:


[b]From: Jerry Wigutow <wiggyswiggys.com> [Add to Address Book]
To: brad338peoplepc.com
Subject: stillhunter owning wiggy's bags?
Date: Mar 10, 2008 12:10 PM
Attachments: winmail.dat

He is on the Wiggy's mail list but our records do not show him ever buying
from us.
I would really question him.

Tell CCH that Cabelas sold Wiggy's bags for 6 years and I ended the sales
for business reasons that were beneficial to Wiggy's.

Tell ken999 that he never got the bags from me.

Tell Hampstead that Coleman does not make any bags. The figures I give D&B
are what I chose to give them. And I do produce more +$100.00 Bags Than any
other company in the world.

Tell kutenay that I encourage him and everyone else to buy the slick as
_____ bags. Then he can tell us about them.

One last item, tell kutenay when the original owner of ID a fellow named
Brian from South Africa was still the owner he was lic. To make LAMILITE
bags. When the company changed hands to another brian from adventure tech
took over he switched Primaloft because they GAVE him $15,000.00 in
advertising money. Recently the current ownership of ID called him asking if
he would buy the company back. He refused because there is a VERY limited
market for their products.

wiggy
[/b]

The man is certifiable!

Brad, what do you expect from this creature, he always behaves like this and I would sleep in a sweaty horse blanket before ever buying another Wiggy's product.

Kute, I used to sell his bags... always thought they were fine for car camping... after dealing with him on the phone once I was pretty well convinced they'd be about perfect for the Italian Army and not much else

I thought about purchasing a Wiggy's bag last Fall.
Then I took a closer look at their website and noticed the tone of some of the Wiggy's fan club on this site and decided to buy a Western Mountaineering bag instead.

I have no regrets, and this thread just serves to reinforce that fact.

LOL.....car camping eh Brad, thats something i've never tried before, might have to give it a shot.

If Mr. Wigutow wants to talk directly with people, I suggest using the forum PM system (although I'm not particularly keen on a conversation with him). I'm sure his attorney(s) and his accountant(s) would appreciate any further statements about providing the financial data "he chooses" to D&B be made in a more private setting. As to Coleman not making sleeping bags, don't tell Wal-Mart , the world's largest retailer. And yes, I know the sub-$100 Coleman bags are all made offshore in some nondescript factory where they get the label. This is why I made the point earlier in this thread that popularity and sales do not indicate quality.

As for sales data on over-$100 bags, call me a skeptic but I would need to see data from an independent source. The boast of a company president and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee downtown. Personally, I find it pretty difficult to think of Wiggy's as the world leader when other brands have such a strong presence with major outdoor retailers. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter to me. I can only sleep in a bag that is certified 100-percent drama free. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

FWIW I know you guys dont like this fella fom Wigys but I got to tell you guys something. Theres a whole bunch of Alaskan hunters using Wiggys bags in the worst places you can go in this state, and they swear by them. I dont know anything about car camping but the guys that are using them are in places like the Pacific coast of the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak where the weather is the worst imaginable anywhere and will make the most remote lower 48 hunt (including Montana) look like car camping. Remote hunts in western Alaska where once again bad weather would be bordering on a category 3 Hurricane in the southern US. So if you want to trash Marc T or Jerry from Wiggys thats fine, but to say that their bags dont work or are no good well, I can think of some pretty hard core Alaskan hunters that would debate that with a vengance.

Really...guys from the lower 48 are not qualified to make judgement calls on gear because we are not 'remote' enough?

Something to remember...being flown it, boated in, or getting things hauled in on sleds does not qualify for 'backpacking', hence some fellas beef with Wiggy's. It's not the lightest or tightest packing...plain and simple.

ken


My point is that if a guy were to get on this forum and read some of you guys post based on hatred for Marc T and Jerry they would think that Wiggys bags dont work. Are they the lightest bags made? No! But if a guy wants to carry a 3 lb bag that just plain works for him as opposed to a 2 lb down bag that he has no interest in thats his perogative. I am not defending the Wiggys bags, I have never even used one, but I can tell you that I have more than one story of friends having $700+ tents blown off mountains or shredded in 90mph+ sideways rain and wind and were forced to sleep under a tarp in their bags in that weather and survived. So I am not saying that lower 48 backpacking is for pussies I am just saying that your likelihood of experiencing what many happy Wiggys bag users see here every season is not likely and for you to say they dont work based on your experience in your geographical location with the conditions you experince doesn't hold much water.

By the way ken what does ADK stand for in your location?

Some things just can't be accepted Cub, your beating a dead horse bro.

I know from decades of personal experience in B.C., the YT, the N.W.T. and a bit in AK, that the weather HERE is every bit as harsh as anywhere in Alaska and the YT and NWT are FAR more remote. So, while I see the point, I would suggest that AK is not the only region where life-sustaining gear quality is an issue of crucial importance.

I think that there is a very sound basis to Ken's point AND we ALL have to remember, me included, that it is EASY to become hypothermic in most of North America and upstate New York, Yellowstone and various other places can also kill you deader than hell, REAL FAST, if your gear allows you to get hypothermic.

I worked in forestry in southern Ontario many years ago, briefly, the weather is VERY much like where I grew up and equivalent to New York, with "lake effect"snow and it get's COLD there, well into April. So, we ALL need quality gear, not just Alaskan "cheechakos" or even "sourdoughs".

I don't think he was stating that Alaska is the end all be all of harsh climates for backpacking/camping kute, he was just stating what he's seen up here and frankly, I've seen it as well, thats all we're saying, not bragging or putting Alaska ahead of anyone else. I've seen the sales up here firsthand, everyone from guides to bush pilots to slope workers to villagers buy these things. It's a darn good bag that works, the problem I see is people getting past JW and is what brings on threads like this.

Maybe I have missed something, but I don't recall anyone saying Wiggy's makes a terrible bag. At the risking of invoking someone's wrath I will say again what I have said before. The majority opinion seems to be that Wiggy's is a competent synthetic sleeping bag that is on the heavy side.

I have never met Mark Taylor or Jerry Wigutow. Taylor strikes me as a salesman... and I don't find sales clerks the most congenial of company. Wigutow seems like a blowhard, but that's not entirely uncommon with guys who have small... companies. (In the words of Foghorn Leghorn, "It's a joke, son.")

If there are folks in Alaska happy in Wiggy's bags, God bless 'em. I'm not here to tell anyone what to buy or not buy. I'm just here to share my experiences and (mostly) learn from others. As long as the discussion is civil and informative, I don't mind participating. I think when there are folks with a financial or emotional stake in a product, the conversation can go downhill.

As for Alaska, I agree with Kute. I've traveled a bit. One of the coldest places I can remember is Korea when the wind came right down out of Siberia. Up north of the Artic Circle can get brisk. The rain on the BC coast can come in horizontally for days at a stretch. I spent a week in a tent where the high temperature was zero (F) and the wind was consistently 20 mph. Kute is spot on. The weather that kills you is the weather that sneaks up on you. After a guy has been in some hard country, it's easy to let your guard down... and that's when Mr. Murphy shows up.

I agree with you guys no doubt, and I wans't/am not trying to start a pissing contest in defense of Wiggys bags, like I said I have never used one. All I am saying is that by all the pissing matches that go on here a new guy looking for a good synth hunting bag would be turned off from a Wiggys and misled into believing that it shouldn't even be considered. I have obviously found other bags that have worked well for me but that doesn't mean that the Wiggys doesn't equal or exceed the quality of bags that I have used. As to the regional comments well like AkMtnHntr stated I am not putting us on a higher level of know how than guys from other regions. But I have been to those other regions and have never experienced what I can bet money on that I will experience up here each year. I mean chit I have been in a tent on trips several times with 70+mph winds outside and rain sideways where I am just sure the whole house is coming down and to be over 100 air miles from the nearest road or help of any type it makes a guy think a little bit and I have to admit that I have never experienced that in the western states I have been in and I am not saying I have experienced it once up here, but several times. So with that said the guys that I know that head out into this remote chit and experience that chit and rely on Wiggys bags for that chit, do so for a reason. They are also the buds that I ask why they dont get a lihter bag and they look at me and say you get what you want no matter the weight, I am using my Wiggys.

Im three years into a Mtn hunter and have never regreted the purchase. Wasnt aware of Wigutows rep when I bought it but could care less. IF I have a problem with my bag im sure it will be taken care of. That said, the bag performs flawlessly, I spend 30 or more days (not as many as i'd like and certainly not as many as others)in this setup on various fishing and hunting trips via raft, plane AND on foot each year. It is probably not the #1 choice for most backpack hunters but it is a great bag regardless and one could do much worse. I have crawled into this setup dripping wet clothed and come out dry in the morning. That is my experience in a Wiggy's bag, I hope my low post count doesn't render it null and void. Good luck

I think if a guy reads this thread and ignores the little jibs and jabs, he can come away with more good information on sleeping bags than he can in most outdoor gear shops. Perhaps the best lesson is that the manufacturer is just one aspect of the decision. A guy has to find a bag that works for him and I daresay there's not a single bag that works well for everyone.