Founded pre- WW II 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! The text on the upper (gold) label includes the key company descriptor: "Expedition Outfitter."
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, ThermaRest, Outdoor Reserch (OR), Yak Works, and Rivendell Mountain Works.
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 (oldgear@Oregonphotos.com) with information, pictures or stories about their classic Gear, or about any of the classic outdoor companies.
Colorado, the 1960s---
the Frostline Kits 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 2011, 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 2008. I wish Frostline peace in some nylon-bedecked Mountain place, and of course in its native Colorado.
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 after I had met him in Boulder, CO at a talk about
the historic Boulder companies that I gave there. Additional reader
input is solicited (contact me: oldgear@oregonphotos.com)
Banana
Equipment Company of Estes Park, Colorado was another of the
smaller companies that sprouted up in Colorado, somewhat in the
same time frame as Hine-Snowbridge (see above) and Patrick Smith's
"Mountainsmith."...The founders were Nancy Grimes
and Jim Heiden (I'm in contact with Ms. Grimes).... I owned
a pair of Banana's well-made goretex mountain pants, in a green
that was a lot like a very green banana, just like their label
was fond of saying, "PRODUCTS WITH A PEAL." My wife
had a matching pair, but in yellow, like a yellow banana skin!
According to Peter Hickner at Feathered
Friends in Seattle, Banana was one of the very first companies
to use that new-fangled "Goretex" stuff when it
was introduced in 1976.. In fact, my research finds that Banana
Equipment may have been the FIRST to
produce a good pair of Goretex mountain pants...... To the best
of my knowledge, Banana did not last long, and was probably gone
for good by the late 1980s. I solict input on their fate (Contact
me: oldgear@oregonphotos.com)
"Yvon
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
Yvon has a label with giant waves on it, and the answer would
be that Yvon has had a life-long passion for surfing. His famed
climber's blacksmith shop was very purposely sited within a short
distance to the beach so he and his employees could easily go
surfing!..... His book is aptly-named "Let My People Go
Surfing," and deserves my comment-- I obtained my copy
of Yvon's book from none other than Mr. Gerry Cunningham, who
of course founded GERRY in 1946 and
was a prolific inventor of gear. What is less known is that both
Gerry and Yvon have life-long histories as early purveyors of
the Green Revolution. Even in his advanced old age, Gerry was
re-publishing things he'd written years before, such eco-friendly
titles as "The 50% Utility Bill- A Case History." Meanwhile,
Yvon's Patagonia was busy figuring out how to create recyclable
clothing. "Let My People Go Surfing," by Yvon Chouinard,
founder and owner, Patagonia, 7.5 x 9 inches, 254 pages, Penguin
Books, copyright 2005 and 2006.. The recent film "180
South, Conquerors of the Useless" is also identified
in many minds with Yvon Chouinard and North Face founder Doug
Tomkins, although in some ways neither are truly "main"
characters in it..... I will add a special note about the "Chouinard
Dragon" label. It's a complicated story but it came to
me in inquiries about whether some excellently-made packs in (I
think) South Korea were "real" Chouinard products. A
piece of that story is that Sheridan Anderson, who often produced
cartoons for the venerable Summit Magazine, was the guy
who drew this artsy label. Mr. Anderson was also known for his
book Curtis Creek Manifesto (1978), billed as the best-ever
guide to fly-fishing for beginners.
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. Contact me: oldgear@oregonphotos.com
Classic Labels: I am always
adding to this page 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).
of
California