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They are already being used extensively by players in the CFL, National Football League and Professional Golfers Association and continuing to expand their horizons.

The idea of heated gloves actually came to Johnny Forzani when he was sitting on the sidelines during a Stamps’ game in his rookie year when he wondered why the only thing to keep everybody warm was a propane tank.

That’s when he contacted Galvon and the long-time buddies began implementing the idea. Forzani says he has travelled to China 24 times and many other parts of the world to develop the initial products for manufacturing, but something was just not up to their high standards.

“In our first three years of doing all our development in China, we were having terrible issues with quality control,” Forzani, 26, president of iHeat, said in an interview on Monday. “In China, manufacturing can be a big thing, but especially if it’s high-tech heat and batteries, we need to control it.

“So, we got out of China and moved our manufacturing to the United States. We also have a very exciting opportunity with the U.S. military, but it had to be manufactured in the U.S. Because of quality control, I want to have more close eyes on things. We’ll also bring manufacturing to Canada for more products. It’s beneficial to me and the economy.”

Forzani says the U.S. military needs a high-quality product as soldiers jump out of aircraft at 50,000 feet where it’s minus-50 degrees.