Outerwear Styles

In the early part of each year the companies that market outerwear start showing the new styles for the upcoming winter. The current trade shows in January and February 2013 are showing what will be in the stores for the winter of 2013/14.

In the event the winter is a cold one — i.e. with temperatures below freezing (32 degrees F) — and you buy one of these newest greatest garments, be prepared to be uncomfortable and cold.

The first thing that you will see is that they are almost all quilted. It is common knowledge that every quilt stitch is a cold spot. It is irrelevant that some of these garments are quilted with down or polyester. The second observation is that they are thinner quilts than in the past and the third point is fit they are cut to a very trim fit — basically to fit very thin people. If you have a few extra pounds, the garment will be snug and that means the insulation is compromised (compressed) so as to have even less insulating quality.

The current crop of designers have no historical knowledge of the outerwear industry, if they did they would not be designing quilted outerwear garments.

When I first started working with skiwear manufacturers (when skiwear was actually made in the USA), they changed their designs from quilted appearance to non-quilted because it was more efficient. The companies that made down outerwear went as far as placing a layer of a very thin polyester batting known as needle punch, not for the insulating quality — since it had or has very little, but rather to eliminate the stitch-through or quilted appearance. I read in a textile magazine recently about some company now adding a layer of polyester batting over the down again to facilitate the non-quilted appearance. The way the article read, it was a “new” concept. Like I said, they have no historical knowledge.

I believe the designers have received feedback from the consumers telling them they are cold. However, using less down in a quilted garment may suggest warmth, but the garments will not be any more efficient than what they sold this past winter. Also, the use of very thin polyester fiberfills will not cut it. Then there is The North Face marketing a polyester fiberfill product that is somehow a synthetic cluster resembling the structure of a down cluster. I wrote about the fiberfill product they are calling “Thermoballs” in the February 2012 newsletter (you can find it in the archives).

What I just do not understand is the reluctance of the “designers” who work for companies like The North Face, Columbia Sportswear, etc. from initiating the use of the continuous filament fiberfill product trade named Climashield — the primary component that I use to make Lamilite. It has been on the market since 1968 when it was first sold as Polar Guard. I personally, through two companies that I have owned or currently own: Olam Outdoor Sports, and now Wiggy’s Inc., believe that continuous filament fiber for insulating purposes has no peer. As a matter of fact, or a point of fact, continuous filament fiber makes ALL other forms of insulation used for outerwear or sleeping bags TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY OBSOLETE. At Wiggy’s I do not have an exclusive agreement from Climashield Company to use their product. I chose to use it exclusively because I have learned over the past 51 years that I have been in the business how good this product is. I have historical knowledge about EVERY material that has been offered to manufacturers during these 51 years and I have made the effort to share the knowledge I have acquired with representatives from many of these companies, all to no avail.

The end result has been very positive for Wiggy’s Inc. I am the single largest producer of quality sleeping bags in the world, and my market share has been increasing steadily and my share of outerwear is also increasing. Orders for the Wiggy's Arctic Parkaare so large that some people will not have them for the current winter. Why is this? Because they do keep you warm and, like my sleeping bags, word of mouth advertising has been my best salesman!

Will these company employees ever get the education they need, NO! Why? Because, as I have found out in some of my conversations with representatives of The North Face and Columbia Sportswear, they will not buy, if possible, any material made in the USA and ship it to China, and they will not, as far as I am concerned, consider opening a domestic facility to produce any product they sell.