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Eddie Bauer history
Eddie Bauer company history timeline
With a large and loyal clientele, Bauer’s future success appeared as guaranteed as the products he sold, but, in the coming years, Bauer’s position as a successful operator of a local sporting goods store would be elevated to a height not imagined even during the optimistic 1920s.
Eddie Bauer, an outdoorsman who loved to fish and hunt, formed a company bearing his name in 1920 in Seattle, Washington.
1927: Married Christine Heltborg and began women's apparel clothing line.
Bauer married the former Christine "Stine" Heltborg on February 21, 1929.
In 1934, his design was patented and eventually adopted for use in the badminton world championships.
In 1936, he introduced the “Skyliner,” a quilted, down-filled jacket that soon became standard gear for outdoorsmen.
Using the war production board’s goose down, Bauer manufactured 25,000 flight suits and nearly 250,000 sleeping bags for Air Corps flight crews and those fighting in the frigid Aleutian campaign. It appeared as if his flourishing retail trade had been swept away from him, but whatever losses Bauer incurred as a result of the government’s seizure, he more than made up for by providing goose down products to the United States Army Air Corps beginning in 1942.
His commitment to his customers evolved into the creed and guarantee still honored today. It was so successful that Bauer was commissioned in 1942 by the United States Army Air Corps to develop the B-9 flight parka.
1945: Company sends out its first mail-order catalogs.
Bauer began selling products through a mail-order catalog in 1945.
The government cooperated, and in 1946 Bauer used the list to create his mail-order business by designing a mail-order catalog of all his products, and then mailing one to each person on the list.
1953: Company is reorganized as a 50--50 partnership between Eddie Bauer and William F. Niemi, Sr., under the name William F. Niemi Co., doing business as Eddie Bauer Expedition Outfitters.
By 1953, catalog sales totaled $50,000.
By mailing catalogs to potential customers and outfitting those outdoorsmen who came to the factory in Seattle, the company generated $1 million in sales in 1960.
In 1960, partners Bauer and Niemi brought their sons, Eddie Christian Bauer and William Niemi Jr., into the business.
James W. (“Jim”) Whittaker of Seattle wore one when he became the first American to climb Mount Everest in 1963.
1968--71: Brief Stab at Independent Expansion
Needing capital to fund a more ambitious expansion, Eddie Bauer, Inc. made plans for a public offering in the spring of 1970, but the underwriter of the IPO recommended a postponement following a stock market dip.
By 1970 sales had surged to $9.1 million, with earnings exceeding $500,000.
In March 1971 food conglomerate General Mills, Inc. purchased Eddie Bauer for about 311,000 shares of General Mills common stock, or about $10 million.
In 1983, Eddie Bauer mailed 14 million catalogs, and, by the following year, 30 million catalogs were sent to potential customers, two million of which were printed in French to accommodate the company’s burgeoning clientele in Canada.
Through an unusual partnership with the Ford Motor Company (see entry) in 1983 came a striking new line of sport utility vehicles (SUVs). Ford contributed the SUV, the immensely popular Explorer, while Eddie Bauer designed the rugged and fashionable interior.
The company also licenses the Eddie Bauer brand to several other companies, including Ford Motor Company, which has made Eddie Bauer edition sport-utility vehicles since 1984; the Lane Company, for a line of Eddie Bauer furniture; and Cosco, Inc., which sells Eddie Bauer car seats.
By 1984, the changes initiated by General Mills had substantially altered the image Eddie Bauer projected to its customers.
1984: Through a licensing deal with Ford, the first Eddie Bauer edition SUV makes its debut.
In 1984 Michael Rayden replaced Casey and began separating retail, mail order, and manufacturing into three distinct divisions.
The earliest Eddie Bauer Special Edition Ford Explorer rolled off the assembly line in 1984 and was so successful that Ford's larger SUV, the Expedition, was added to the line, as well as other vehicles during the following years.
The addition of these specialty retail concepts, each first introduced in 1991, marked another dramatic leap in revenues.
Revenues surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time in 1993.
In 1993, the company launched its first men's fragrance, "Adventurer." That same year, it introduced a German mail-order catalog.
By 1993, Eddie Bauer stores and catalog distribution centers were being opened in Germany and Japan.
Eddie Bauer University, known as EBU, was created in 1994 and is located at company headquarters in Redmond, Washington.
1995: Joint venture is created to form retailing and cataloging operations in Germany.
During 1995, when the company celebrated its 75th anniversary, Eddie Bauer launched a new retail and catalog concept, called AKA Eddie Bauer, selling upscale dress clothing for men and women and aiming at the burgeoning market for more casual work clothes.
In 1995, Eddie Bauer opened its first stores in Tokyo, Japan, and issued a Japanese catalog.
They could no longer buy the Skyliner parka, however; it was discontinued in 1995.
1996: Company moves into e-commerce with the launch of eddiebauer.com.
By 1996, Eddie Bauer had expanded its Web page into an entire site complete with company information and an online shopping service.
In 1997 the company inked a deal with the Lane Company for the development of a line of Eddie Bauer furniture.
After adding a net 39 stores in 1998, and suffering from declining sales because of increased competition and a slow reaction to hot new fashion trends such as cargo pants, Eddie Bauer reined in its North American expansion the following year, when the chain’s net gain was just nine stores.
The turnaround performance of 1999 did not last.
"Eddie Bauer's Secret Weapon for Attracting, Developing, and Keeping Talent." Employee Benefits News (November 1, 2000): n.p.
2000: With expansion into Hawaii, there are now Eddie Bauer stores in all 50 states.
During 2000, when Eddie Bauer planned to increase its North American retail units to 565 and to expand or remodel 40 existing stores, a milestone was reached when the first Eddie Bauer store opened in Hawaii, completing the chain’s entrance into all 50 states.
For the full year of 2000, the company suffered from a 9 percent drop in same-store sales and a 3 percent fall in catalog sales.
Sloane, Carole, "Eddie Bauer Home Plans New Stores, Catalogue Growth" in Home Textiles Today, 12 March 2001.
After the World Trade Center was destroyed on September 11, 2001, Eddie Bauer workers throughout the United States raised over $1 million to help families of the victims.
In the fall of 2001 Eddie Bauer introduced an overhauled merchandise mix featuring a “classic casual” look aimed at men and women between the ages of 35 and 55.
In February 2002 Spiegel announced its intention to sell the troubled unit and also revealed plans to close 45 underperforming Eddie Bauer stores out of the total of 575.
Spiegel operated the brand but fell on its own hard times, filing for bankruptcy in 2003.
———, “Judge OKs Spiegel Plan,” Seattle Times, May 26, 2005.
In 2006 the retailer went back to a focus on clothing for the “modern outdoor lifestyle,” began standardizing its stores around a 5,500-square-foot format, and launched its first full-scale customer loyalty program, called Eddie Bauer Friends.
Same-store sales were up 4.6 percent for the quarter, a trend that appeared to be accelerating in 2007, when the increase was 9.5 percent for the first ten weeks of the year.
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Eddie Bauer competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Eagle Outfitters | 1977 | $5.3B | 37,000 | 1,283 |
| Aeropostale | 1987 | $1.8B | 21,007 | 502 |
| Nordstrom | 1901 | $15.0B | 74,000 | 908 |
| PacSun | 1982 | $797.8M | 10,300 | 812 |
| Forever 21 | 1984 | $4.0B | 30,000 | 32 |
| Foot Locker | 1974 | $8.0B | 32,175 | 1,126 |
| Levi Strauss & Co. | 1853 | $6.4B | 15,100 | 681 |
| Gap Inc. | 1969 | $15.1B | 117,000 | 46 |
| REI | 1938 | $3.1B | 15,000 | 248 |
| Carhartt | 1889 | $600.0M | 4,000 | 76 |
Eddie Bauer history FAQs
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Eddie Bauer may also be known as or be related to Eddie Bauer, Eddie Bauer Holdings, Inc., Eddie Bauer Information Technology, LLC and Eddie Bauer LLC.