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 was released in late May 2008.
BILL NICOLAI is the man behind the classic Early Winters company, which began in 1972 (William S. Nicolai), and ended its classic phase in the early 1980s when it dropped its classic products, eg. its wonderful tents and mountain parkas. 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 a correspondent, who also reports that at the time of the Queen Ave. store Mr. Nicolai had a man named Bill Edwards as his partner.. .. 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 by Nicolai to Orvis (of fly fishing gear fame) in 1984 and Nicolai moved on to other things in the realm of sales and marketing. 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 rather uninspiring clothing and knick-nack 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 very interesting, classy store definitely catering to the likes of folks going on safaris! 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." Sadly, sometime in the early 1980s, the Company dropped all its fine tents and mountain parkas from its catalogs (my 1983 catalog verifies this, and also shows that the company was still located in Seattle (110 Prefontaine Place South, Seattle, 98104).
....
The Omnipotent was a non-Goretex,
extreme-weather tent designed by Mr. Nicolai. It was a hoop style
tent with four supporting poles, and also featured a double-wall
design wherein the outer shell of the tent was its strength and
waterproofing, and the inner tent was permanently attached to
the outer and more or less suspended from the outer shell--- in
some ways similar to what Warmlite tents had been doing for many
years. The Omnipotent arose reputedly after the failure of Mr.
Nicolai's traditional A-frame tent circa 1970 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 3-4 man 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 after Mr. Nicolai 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.... Dec. 2008, a recent reader contribution places Mr. Nicolai as a senior staff at Lenser.com; this company also has a biography posted in their "Staff" pages.
The "Early Winters" name was apparently bought and is now owned, and maybe used, by Norm Thompson.
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.
