testimonial and another thought

A NEW TESTIMONIAL AND ANOTHER THOUGTH

Wiggy,

I recently purchased a pair of your Lamilite boots. I really like them! Almost didn’t need any breaking in and they are very comfortable.

What do you recommend regarding care for these boots? Any water repellent treatments or conditioner you might recommend?

PS – I love all my Wiggy’s gear - I have 8 bags (ultra- light, Nautilus), 2 jacket/sweaters, your lightweight waders and now the boots. I have had one of the bags and sweater since 1997 and they have seen hard use. All awesome stuff!

Best Regards,

Don

It does not get any better for me than receiving letters (e mails) like this.

NOW FOR ANOTHER THOUGHT: DEFAMATION

A fraudulent statement need not be characterized by the material gain of the perpetrator of the fraud.

But it does have to result in material damages to the victim of the fraud. Just telling someone a lie is not, and should not be, legally actionable.

The fact that the victim suffers a physical loss is what makes fraud a form of physical force.

For the past 40 plus years that I have been associated with the outdoor industry initially as a seller of insulations, and then I became a manufacturer of finished products. During the course of my career I have seen a number of products sold to manufactures that were misrepresented to the manufacturer who intern used the same misrepresenting information in selling the products to retailers. Now the retailers used again that same misrepresenting information when offering for sale these products to the general public.

As a manufacturer over the years representatives of several companies have solicited me as a potential buyer of whatever it is they are selling. That activity stopped many years ago because 95% of the time I either know in advance what I am being shown does not perform as represented and the rest of the time I learn quickly that the material is again misrepresented.

Having read the definition of what “fraud” is caused me to think about the subject. Who is committing the fraud in the chain of events; the original producer of the product, the manufacturers who use these raw materials from the producers of the materials or the retailers of the finished products? In my opinion all three are responsible.

The physical loss is suffered by the consumers who are making the decision to buy a product based upon information that is misrepresented to them. In my view the original producers of the raw materials should have thoroughly tested the materials to be very sure that they do what they say about them. The manufactures of the finished products should have to satisfy themselves and thoroughly test what they have made to verify what they have been told by the raw material suppliers. And finally the sellers of the finished products to the general consumer market should have further tested the products so they could confidently present to their customers products that actually do function as the raw materials producers claimed it would in finished products. Unfortunately the process I have just described does not necessarily happen i.e. the testing to support the claims.

On occasion I will get a call or e mail from a retailer that would like to become a Wiggy dealer. In all cases they tell me they carry other brands. I tell them if they were to use the other bag brands they would find out that they do not perform as described versus the Wiggy’s brand that does. So if they were to get rid of the other bags based upon “them” experiencing the performance or lack thereof they would only sell Wiggy’s brand. Of course that does not happen so I do not sell them.

The facts speak for themselves about a number of materials that I have written about in the past that in my opinion fall into the category of meeting the criterion they fit the description of being sold under fraudulent circumstances. While the vast majority of people buying products that incorporate these materials do not necessarily go back to the store where the items were purchased for a refund due to lack of performance is not a surprise, and maybe that is what the collective producers of the raw materials, producers of products and retailers are counting on.

Experiencing a loss of money in this instance is a form of physical loss.