Who was Eddie Bauer?
Eddie Bauer wasn’t just a marketing gimmick. He was born in 1899 to Russian immigrant parents in the North Puget Sound area of Washington. As a young man, his enthusiasm for the outdoors grew while working at Piper and Taft, then Seattle’s biggest sporting goods store. In 1919, he started his own business selling tennis rackets. He soon expanded his line to include fishing tackle, golf clubs, and outdoor clothing. In 1929, Bauer married Christine Heltborg, who was as avid a sportsperson as Bauer himself. Christine inspired him to add women’s clothing to his store. Bauer is credited with inventing the down parka. In winter 1934, he nearly got hypothermia after removing a heavy, wet, wool jacket. This inspired him to make a quilted, goose-down jacket, which he patente
He was a quintessential American business visionary, a man who turned his love for the outdoors into a highly successful and influential retail empire. According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography and information on the company Web site, Bauer was born in 1899 on Orcas Island in Puget Sound, to parents who were Russian-German immigrants. His passions were fishing and hunting, and he received his first gun — a Winchester — when he was 8. After his parents’ separation, young Bauer and his mother moved inland to Seattle. There he began to sell sporting goods, first at a store named Piper & Taft, later in his own store. On a block of ice at the store entrance, he’d display the fish he caught. In 1934, he standardized the shuttlecock and helped make badminton a popular game. In 1940, he patented the first jacket quilted with goose down. In 1942, he produced sleeping bags and garments for U.S. troops serving in World War II, including flight parkas for pilots. Bauer, who died in 1986,
