ALERT: MY BOOK ABOUT FROSTLINE KITS IS NOW PUBLISHED. IT CONTAINS A GOOD DEAL OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND NEW PHOTOGRAPHY. PLEASE VISIT MY FROSTLINE PAGE IF INTERESTED. NEAR THE TOP OF THAT PAGE YOU WILL SEE A "BANNER" THAT YOU CLICK ON TO GET TO MY PUBLISHER. NOTE: My next two books will cover the stories of Holubar and GERRY. The latter is entitled "GERRY, To Live in the Mountains," 74 pages, and will be out in late May 2008.
BILL NICOLAI is the man behind the Early Winters company, which began in 1972 (William S. Nicolai). This company has something of a "fan following," several have claimed that EW produced the first commercially available Goretex piece of outdoor gear, and it was a Mountain Parka in 1976. (link to inventors of Goretex )....Others state that EW does have this honor, but that the product was a tent (the Light Dimension, also in 1976).....This 1978 picture shows what some have told me is the original EW store in the old Alpine Guild store on Queen Anne Hill near Seattle Center. The street sign says "Queen Anne Ave. N." and the town of course is Seattle, Washington. The storefront picture is compliments of correspondent aaaaaa. .. Wikipedia has an excellent page about EW. In part, that page states that sales at EW reached nearly $20 million at its high point. Then the company was sold to Orvis (of fly fishing gear fame) in 1984. The Wikipedia material goes on to state that at an unknown later date the company was purchased by the Norm Thompson group in Portland, Oregon, and that in 2004 Norm Thompson renamed the company "Sahalie" (and those are the catalogs that I have been getting in the mail in recent years). Further notes: Norm Thompson is personally well-known to me because I shopped in their original Portland store on Thurman St. many years ago, when they really were "Norm Thompson, Expedition Outfitter," and had a store definitely catering to the likes of folks going on safaris! There was also a connection of Orvis with at least one other classic gear company-- if memory serves me that was Holubar.BF
Please Note: All Material on this page, and in all my "History of Gear" webpages, is copyrighted, and no usage of my material is permitted unless explicit permission is granted by me, Bruce B. Johnson, owner of OregonPhotos.com...... Editors: Please contact me if you have interest in publishing....Others: if you were involved with one of the old-line, vintage gear companies and have a story to tell in these pages, please contact me soon.uill Nickolai is a spelling also seen.
There are those who remember EW's earliest
tents with great admiration and fondness. The first to be introduced
was in 1972, a radically-styled, expedition capable tent named
the "Omnipotent." Later, in 1976, came the Goretex "Light
Dimension."
....
The Omnipotent was a non-Goretex, double-wall tent designed by
Mr. Nicolai, reputedly after the failure of his traditional A-frame
tent nearly led to his death on Early Winters Spire in the North
Cascades of Washington State...He was a poor young man then, but
his innovative direct marketing through catalogs grew his small
company quickly.. By 1976, he introduced The Light Dimension,
a single-wall Goretex design that some claim was a FIRST in the
industry. Tent Image credit: Alan Wenker.
If claims are true, then Early Winters company would merit a HISTORY OF GEAR AWARD, and that would be: DOUBLE FIRSTS-- FIRST TO USE GORETEX IN A GARMENT, and FIRST TO USE GORETEX IN A TENT, both in 1976.
A bit later, in 1978, EW introduced a Goretex geodesic dome designed by tent designer Bob Howe (see link). It was named the "Starship."
My guess is that the persistence of the Early Winters label into relatively recent times reflects the fact that it was a successful label and its later corporate owners desired to maintain its draw. . In this regard, I would highly appreciate READER INPUT ABOUT THIS, AND ALSO WHAT BECAME OF THE FOUNDER, MR. NICOLAI...CONTACT ME.
Wikipedia also has a biography of sorts about Mr. Nicolai. Here is the link to that.... in part, the biolgraphy states that Mr. N. went on after he sold Early Winters to other pursuits, primarily in the area of being a consultant about direct marketing catalog sales. It states that as of 2005 he was still alive and was still in the area of business consulting.... It adds information about the person of Mr. N., stating that he was a long-term sailplane pilot, and also a person who did quite a few climbing and skiing exploits, thus that he was a person authentically grounded in moutain pursuits on a personal level.... Other research I have done reveal that Mr. Nicolai possesses a graduate degree in Business from Harvard, so this man has what so many of the pioneers of gear lacked, which was highly trained business skills. Without such skills to guide them through changing times, many of the great classic companies were destroyed--- beset with new challenges like competition from China.
Remarkably different has been the business
course of the small custom gearmaker Stephenson's
Warmlite, which has survived, and never changed its name or
ownership in some 40 years of doing business! Be sure to examine
the Warmlite tents, which possess a basic design/structure remarkably
like the Light Dimension and Omnipotent, but had already been
on the market over ten years when the EW line was introduced.
