government purchasing

MORE ABOUT HOW THE MILITARY SKIRTS THE BUY AMERICA ACT

Recently a solicitation came out for a zero degree rated sleeping bag. The solicitation named the bag; the Western Mountaineering Kodiak cost $570.00 each. It is my understanding that Western Mountaineering gets all of their shells made in Asia and of course the down comes from China. If this is true all they are doing is blowing the down into the shell and then they say it is made in America. I have heard this from a number of retailers, but have never given it much thought until now. I do not how much truth there is to this but I do know every other company selling down bags to the retailers get them made in China, so why not Western Mountaineering?

The solicitation clearly states this bag or “equal” so several of my GSA contract holders bid my Super Light zero degree bag. The price they offered the bag at would have been no more than the retail price of; $185.00 each delivered to the base. So much for buying a sleeping bag that is 100% made in America and giving the order to the low bidder. Aside from the bag being made in America and less money it is not an equal to the Western Mountaineering bag it is superior in every way. The temperature rating is more accurate, totally unaffected by water, so if you happen to be in a wet situation and the unit is located in Alaska where it is always wet there is no need to be concerned if it does get wet, can be laundered endlessly, and left in its stuff sack without losing its ability to re-loft. The down bag is lighter in weight and more compactible but then again there are no down bags that weigh less than 4 pounds (this one is less than 4 pounds) that actually do work at zero degrees. Then there is the factual evidence that all the moisture given off by the human body does get absorbed by the down which further reduces the loft of the bag and adds to the weight of the bag and that same moisture will freeze so you have frost build-up within the bag. That all contributes to further compromising the ability of the bag to perform in higher temperatures.

How about an Air Force unit putting out a solicitation for Wiggy’s Ultima Thule bags vacuum packed? They also added to the solicitation “or equal”. When I read the award went to a company I never heard of I justifiably questioned the award. The price quoted was $240.00 per bag. Considering the bag is $230.00 and vacuum packing is $175.00 or a total of $415.00 how can this company sell it for almost half. And the unit was told it was a Wiggy bag. The company is either offering a counterfeit product or they have stolen property that is actually a Wiggy’s product. Considering the quantity ordered which is a quantity I have only sold to the Air Force, maybe they are dealing in stolen property. Who could the bags have been stolen from in the first place. I will let you ponder the possible answer. The company involved never called me for pricing and when I found out that the solicitation went to a company I never heard of who was intending to deliver a product made by me I had to find out who they were. US Pan American Solutions located in Chevy Chase, MD. They do not make anything as far as I was told by the owner. They do have a GSA contract so based upon this situation it gives pause to question is this their modus operandi in dealing with the government. Where there is smoke there is fire.

What bothers me about the situation is the simple fact that the contracting officer in the first situation chose to ignore the low bid and in the second situation they accepted the low bid even though they have records showing what was paid for these vacuum packed bags in the past.

The real problem as I see it is that the user of these products will find that they are using products that do not perform for the purpose and in the second situation how would you like to be a fighter pilot who has to punch out over the arctic and find out that the bag in your survival kit is not the bag you were trained with during survival training. Your life situation is therefore compromised. Of all the items in that survival kit the single most important is the sleeping bag. Actually whenever anyone goes into the field the sleeping bag is the most important piece of equipment you take with you regardless if you are civilian or military personnel. Obviously it is more important for the military individual since they cannot easily leave the field as a civilian can if the bag isn’t doing what you thought it was going to do; keep you warm so you can sleep!

There are times that I think it would be best for me to walk from the military rather than have to deal with people who are either ignorant of products or are incompetent, as I do not have the time to tell the difference. And then I think of the many soldiers who do get my bags issued to them and they then tell others who get the trash bags about my bags and the “others” to a great extent order bags directly from me.