Peter Treby wrote: >>>>>>>By chance, I was sitting in a bar in Chamonix one day, and noticed an American alpinist on the neighbouring table poring over an Early Winters catalogue. I recklessly suggested that Early Winters should stick to its core business and stay away from gadgets and gimmicks. He then revealed that he was employed by EW, and was responsible for the catalogue and gimmicks! Score zero for tact and diplomacy. Any relation?<<<<<<, I'm not sure who that might have been. Two possibilities are Bill Nicolai (the founder) and Ron Zimmerman the ad man. Ron was probably the guy responsible for keeping the company alive by selling gimmicks with hype to their huge mailing list when the core backpacker/climber clientele had peaked and the backpacking boom petered out in the late 1970's (when interest rates also shot up to over 20% with the raging inflation). A lot of outdoor companies went under or had serious difficulties back then. No, it was definitely the million dollar debt that killed EW, the sales of junk were only a symptom of a company desperately trying to survive its death throws. During the inflation they were having to print new catalogs every six months (a big expense) just to be able to raise the prices to keep pace with the rapidly rising wholesale costs for the items they sold. Even after just six months their profit margins were seriously eroded. Bill was a climber but I don't think Ron was (or wasn't very serious about it if he was). One other very likely possibility of who you may have met was a friend Cam and I used to WW paddle with some who was traveling and climbing around Europe in the employ of Early Winters looking for new products for them to sell. He had previously been the retail store manager before moving to this "dream" job. Once he found a great pair of wool socks in Europe but he didn't think they would be a good seller for EW because they would have had to retail them at $7.00 or $8.00 (when most wool socks were less than half that). Ron took that as a challenge, ordered them, repackaged them in a fancy box, named them "Millionaire's Socks" and priced them at $20.00 a pair. If that paddling friend is who you met you may have met just him shortly before his dream job became a nightmare. He died climbing the Eiger, if I recall correctly, (I am also spacing on his name right now). I believe he was climbing with a local guide and both died in an avalanche.. Matt Broze www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
"all he could do was parody the catalog. "The Winterlight tent, named for the one season for which it is unsuitable" (or something close to that) was one sentence that he wrote during his tryout." Now just a minute. I own and use an Early Winters Winterlight tent, which has a new locally installed floor, and 23 years after purchase, had the Goretex tested and found still to hold up against a reasonable head of water. A few seams drip, but seam sealer is pretty cheap. The Winterlight is fine in mild Australian winters. It has held up a load of wet snow a few times. Too bad you can't buy them anymore. Early Winters failed when it diversified into selling rubbish, like pet granite rocks made of foam. By chance, I was sitting in a bar in Chamonix one day, and noticed an American alpinist on the neighbouring table poring over an Early Winters catalogue. I recklessly suggested that Early Winters should stick to its core business and stay away from gadgets and gimmicks. He then revealed that he was employed by EW, and was responsible for the catalogue and gimmicks! Score zero for tact and diplomacy. Any relation? Cheers, PT *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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