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. I welcome readers contacting me with information, pictures or stories about their classic Gear, or about any of the classic outdoor companies.

Founded 1920 by Eddie Bauer, a real person who was then 21 years old. His signature product in the History of Gear was probably his "Skyliner" quilted down jacket, produced in 1936 and patented in 1940, it is claimed to be the first quilted down coat in the USA..Click the image for more on Eddie Bauer and a fun camping picture!

Note: The Puget Sound area around Seattle was also the birthplace of several other classic gear companies during the 1960s and 70s, such as Early Winters, JanSport, Yak Works, and Rivendell Mountain Works.

The 1960s Frostline gear line-up included all the basics such as parkas, tents, and sleeping bags, and, over the years, expanded to include many related items. Eg. my Fall/Winter 1995 catalog lists such items as soft luggage, bicycle panniers, short pants, tote bags, and a growing line-up made of the trendy new material called "pile" (which of course has gone on to revolutionize outdoor clothing wardrobes).

R.I.P. Frostline as an employer was so loved by its employees, reports Dale Johnson, that for years after the company had left Boulder, its employees were still holding annual "Frostline" picnics! But now it is 2006, and I must regretfully report that it is (mostly) R.I.P. for one of my favorite companys in The Gear Revolution. Frostline, born 1966, died about 2001. I wish Frostline peace in some nylon-bedecked Mountain place.

If your main interest is in finding MODERN companies which can supply you with the fabrics and down that you need for outdoor sewing projects, click here to visit my page about that important subject!

Hine-Snowbridge was another of the great gear companies springing out of the Boulder scene, birthplace of so many pioneering companies. Brothers Greg and Ted Hine were at the helm...Their company belonged to a later generation than the classic Boulder companies such as GERRY, Frostline, and Holubar..... The brothers' first catalog seems to have been issued in 1974 and featured packs...I've seen catalogs dated as late as 1984, and it was at about this time that they also issued a Kirtland catalog which offered Kirtland bike packs..... I am researching this company's history; recently Ted Hine sent me a CD of their company history. Additional reader input is solicited.

"Yvonne Chouinard," there is hardly a more recognizable name in the history of American rockclimbing, and also in the History of Gear. More than one of my readers has written to me with memories of the very early days of Chouinard/Great Pacific Ironworks/Patagonia. A popular account recalls Chouinard himself selling hand-forged climber's ironware at Yosemite and other locations-- out of the back of his beat-up old car! This GPIW label was found on a pair of badly de-laminated goretex rain pants dating from the early 1980s. You might ask why a hard-core, famous rock climber like Yvonne has a label with giant waves on it, and the answer would be that Yvonne has had a life-long passion for surfing, and his famed climber's blacksmith shop was within a short distance to the beach!

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

Classic Labels: I am developing this page full of classic, old equipment labels and readers are welcome to contribute. Here's a label from one of the first companies in the USA to supply climbers and backpackers: it's an REI label from sometime in the 1960s, well before the era when the little climber's cooperative of Seattle exploded into a corporate giant (Recreational Equipment Inc.)..Click here for my REI page.... You'll note the tent shown is a primitive guy-lined A-frame, and the ice axe is wooden-shafted and with the old-fashioned pick/adze-- the axe in particular is a sign that this label dates from well before REI's neighbor in Tacoma had perfected the metal-shafted axe (Larry Penberthy's MSR, aka Mountain Safety Research; click for two pages about MSR . (image contributed by Monte Dodge).

Class Five of California