What do you do when you create a company like Mountain Smith, work hard to make it a success, then sell it to a big corporation?  Retire?  Not if you have a passion for the outdoors.  Not if you love to design and make great gear.  Not if you are Patrick Smith.  If you are Patrick Smith, you start all over again by creating another successful company called Kifaru International where you design and manufacturer some of the best gear on the market.

One of the continual discussions/arguments smoldering in the outdoor gear user world is the question of synthetic vs down sleeping bag insulation.  My simple rule of thumb is that if I am confident that I will be able to keep it dry I will usually go for down because, at least up to this point, it is lighter more compressible and a better insulator.  However, high quality synthetic insulations like Lamilite and Polarguard have held a very important place in my gear locker.  I have used my Wiggys sleeping bags in every environment from river runs to search and rescue missions and they have never failed to perform as expected.  Furthermore, they have held up to many years of hard use.  However, they are heavier than my down bags with comparable temperature ratings (which is another discussion entirely) and they do take up more space in my pack.

Enter the Slick Bag from Kifaru which might close the gap and occupy the middle ground.  The Slick and its more innovative Kifaru siblings use a continuous fiber polyester insulation called Climashield Combat which offers lightweight, compressibility, high warmth to weight ratio and of course it will continue to insulate if it gets wet.  Kifaru Slick Bags also offer a less restrictive cut that provides more room for big guys or those that sleep fully clothed and with their boots on like bivy hunters or the military.

A regular size, which fits up to 6' 1", Slick Bag rated at zero degrees weighs 2 pounds 12 ounces.  The 20 degree version weighs just 2 pounds.  So, now you can see why I am interested in this Kifaru product.  I will let you know how it goes.

EDITORS NOTE-Hope you are not in a big hurry if you want to order one of these because you will have to wait five to six weeks.  Worse, once you receive it, if you decide that you need to exchange your Regular width bag for the Wide version, it will take an additional five to six weeks.  Now, I don't claim to be the brightest bulb in the box but in this day and age wouldn't it make sense to keep some in stock to fill orders and then replace them as they are shipped out to customers?  Frustrating.

Love him or hate him, if you successfully negotiate the telephone conversation and you're willing to pay the extra shipping charges, you can have a semi-custom Wiggys bag in just three days.  Wiggys includes a stuff sack with your order.  Kifaru doesn't. 

But which bag do I prefer?  I haven't decided yet.

Thanks.

Wade Nelson
Editor

Sorting through the fads and fashion of the outdoor equipment industry to identify and promote the very best wilderness gear for high end recreational users, backcountry professionals and government agencies.

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