Steven Pearson <<Steve>>
writes:

The back story re the new glider bags is that we outsourced glider
bag manufacturing since 1980. First to a local guy, then to Free Flight (our
parachute mfg in Elsinore), then to Aeroman (PG mfg in China), and finally to a
Polyant loft in Sri Lanka. The offshore companies can buy materials for far less
than we get them in the US and altogether we can’t come close to making a bag
for the price they charged us. The downside is that we’ve never been happy with
the quality of the bags.

This year I brought everything back in-house—bought a new double needle, hired a
great new woman in the accessory department, ordered premium 420D fabric and YKK
zipper. Double the price but we’re finally happy and I’m done with China. The
new bags are pretty easy to distinguish because they look as pretty as the sails
and the silver is shade darker.

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