![]() In a letter to Bauer's partner, William F. : 59īauer and his team built the Kara Koram Parka, named for the mountain range where K2 is located. Three of the Americans were from Seattle, and they came to Bauer to ask if he could create a down-insulated parka for them. In 1953, a team of seven Americans and one British climber was attempting the first ascent of K2, the world's second highest peak. The 1950s have been called the Golden Age of Himalayan Mountaineering, as twelve of the world's fourteen 8000-meter peaks were first summited in that decade, with the first being Annapurna in 1950. He also made 200,000 down sleeping bags for the military as part of the war effort. During the course of the war, Bauer manufactured approximately 50,000 of these suits. : 43Īt Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, Bauer designed the down-insulated B-9 Parka and A-8 Flight Pants. Army Air Forces contacted Bauer, asking him to design a "cold weather buoyancy flight suit" for them. In the early days of the Aleutian Campaign, some of the American pilots were buying this cold weather suit, and early in 1943 the U.S. Patent D130,166) that created a cold-weather suit he intended for Alaskan bush pilots and others who spent significant time in severe weather. In October 1941, Bauer was granted his second and third design patents for quilted down apparel-a down parka (U.S. This set in motion the year-long Aleutian Islands Campaign to remove the invaders from the Alaska Territory. Six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the Aleutian Islands, establishing garrisons on two of the islands, Attu and Kiska. Designed and constructed in Seattle, the products were field-tested both in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and in cold-storage lockers in downtown Seattle to ensure they would stand up to their unconditional guarantee, and to the company's claim, "Built for service you’ll never require." World War II production With the development of down-insulated garments and sleeping bags, Bauer's expedition outfitting operation grew substantially. In his words, "There can be no compromising quality when lives depend on performance." : 104 Patent D119,122 1940), came as the result of his suffering nearly fatal hypothermia on a winter fishing trip in 1935. His groundbreaking development of the Skyliner, the first down jacket patented in America (U.S. As an outdoorsman, Bauer understood that in the wilderness, clothing and gear was vital. His backcountry experience was also a key component in his offering an unconditional guarantee on everything he sold. ![]() ![]() While unconventional, it gave him the opportunity to develop and test the products that established his reputation as an outfitter for expeditions all over the world. Back February 1st." : 22 That practice of spending a significant portion of the year in the backcountry became a hallmark of Bauer's operation when his business expanded enough to support his own space and he shifted its primary focus to outfitting outdoorsmen. Seven months later, around Labor Day, he put up a sign on his bench, "Eddie Bauer has gone hunting. In February 1920, Bauer rented space in Bob Newton's Gun Shop, set up a workbench, and opened Eddie Bauer’s Tennis Shop, where he sold and strung tennis rackets. At the age of 20, he left Piper & Taft and went into business for himself. For the next six years he apprenticed among the experienced hunters and fishermen on staff. : 10 Bauer's father worked variously as the manager of a plum orchard, the caretaker of a country club, and as a carpenter on Seattle's first world's fair, the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.Īt age 13, the young Bauer left school and went to work at Seattle's Piper & Taft, one of the largest sporting goods and outfitting stores on the West Coast. His parents, Jacob and Mary Catherine Bauer, were of German ancestry they immigrated to Seattle from Russia in 1890, the year after the Great Seattle Fire when the city was booming with reconstruction. Born outside of Eastsound, Washington on Orcas Island in 1899, he grew up exploring the woods and waters of the Pacific Northwest, learning to fish before he was in school, and to hunt before he was a teenager. From a rented workbench inside another man's shop, it grew to become an international brand outfitting mountaineering and scientific expeditions with down-insulated garments and sleeping bags.īauer's passion for the outdoors was apparent from an early age. He founded the Eddie Bauer company to sell tennis-related items in Seattle, Washington in 1920. Eddie Bauer (Octo– April 18, 1986) was an American outdoorsman, inventor, author, and businessman.
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