Suivez les aventures de nos deux intrépides et audacieux tour leaders, Johann et Francois, lors d'un repérage 100% raid aventure en Himalaya. Ils reprennent la route pour découvrir et créer de nouveaux itinéraires pour riders aventureux et n'ayant pas froid aux yeux !
Follow the adventures of our two intrepid and daring tour leaders, Johann and Francois, during their last recki in Himalaya, 100% adventure racing. They hit the road to discover and create new routes for adventurous riders who do not have cold feet !
samedi 31 octobre 2015
Essais Libres 2 : Chilton se rebiffe en Thaïlande :Chilton charges in Thailand/ Le héro local Sritrai en termine avec sa première journée en WTCC
Tom Chilton fait le show aux Essais Libres 2, ultime préparation avant les 21e et 22e manches du Championnat du Monde FIA des Voitures de Tourisme, en donnant le rythme sur le Chang International Circuit, à Buriram.
Sous des températures tout juste inférieures à 30°C, Chilton a avalé les 4,555 kilomètres du circuit qui accueille ce week-end la première édition de la WTCC Race of Thailand en 1m38.881.
« J’ai réalisé un excellent deuxième secteur, qui se compose de la portion la plus technique du tracé, confie Chilton, en lice pour le Trophée Yokohama au volant de sa Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1. J’avais jusqu’alors rencontré des problèmes avec les amortisseurs, le différentiel et l’embrayage, ce qui signifie que je n’avais pu bouclé que deux tours lancés avant les EL2, qui plus est avec une auto qui ne fonctionnait pas correctement. Comme il fallait apprendre la piste, je me suis forcé ensuite à rester en piste, à attaquer, et c’est ce qui me vaut de terminer P1. Il faut maintenant que je reproduise cette performance en qualifications. »
Gabriele Tarquini se hisse en 2e position pour le compte de Honda, à 0.078s du Britannique, talonné par Norbert Michelisz et Tiago Monteiro, eux aussi sur Honda. Mehdi Bennani apparait comme le meilleur pilote de Citroën en 5e position, précédant Hugo Valente, John Filippi, José María López, Sébastien Loeb, Grégoire Demoustier, Ma Qing Hua et la LADA de Rob Huff. Un classement très serré puisqu’une seconde, seulement, séparent les douze premiers.
Les concurrents retrouveront maintenant la piste à 10h00, dimanche, pour les qualifications qui détermineront la pole position présentée par DHL.
Le pilote thaïlandais Tin Sritrai a conclu sa première journée dans le Championnat du Monde FIA des Voitures de Tourisme avec trois performances très respectables au volant de sa Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1.
Sritrai écrit une page de l’histoire du sport automobile en étant le premier pilote originaire de Thaïlande à participer à un meeting du WTCC. Après avoir réalisé le 16e chrono lors des tests, il se classa ensuite 18e à deux reprises et engrangé de l’expérience dans l’habitacle de sa voiture du Campos Racing qu’il découvre totalement. de par deux fois as the first driver from Thailand to race in the WTCC.
A l’aube de cet évènement, Sritrai confia aux médias locaux, à Bangkok : « Je ressens une extrême fierté, car toutes mes idoles dans les courses de Tourisme sont réunis ici autour de moi. Je ne ressens pas de pression particulière, je me sens au contraire parfaitement prêt. »
Tom Chilton stole the show in Free Practice 2 for rounds 21 and 22 of the FIA World Touring Car Championship by setting the pace at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram this evening.
In temperatures just below 30 degrees centigrade, Chilton posted a best lap of 1m38.881s around the 4.555-kilometre track, which is hosting the inaugural WTCC Race of Thailand this weekend.
“It was a mega middle sector,” said Chilton, who is chasing Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy honours in his Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1. “It’s where all the corners are and is very technical. Up until now I’ve had problems with the car with dampers, the differential and the clutch and I’d only done two flying laps before FP2 with a car that was working. I was still learning the circuit so stayed out, pushed as hard as I could and got P1. Now I need to carry that into qualifying.”
Gabriele Tarquini was second quickest for Honda, 0.078s down on Chilton, with Norbert Michelisz and Tiago Monteiro next up in their Hondas. Mehdi Bennani was the top Citroën runner in fifth followed by Hugo Valente, John Filippi, José María López, Sébastien Loeb, Grégoire Demoustier, Ma Qing Hua and LADA’s Rob Huff as less than a second covered the top 12 drivers to underline the serious competition in the WTCC.
The next track action is at 10h00 on Sunday when the battle for the DHL Pole Position gets underway with Qualifying. Click here to view the Free Practice 2 classification.
Thai driver Tin Sritrai has completed his first day in the FIA World Touring Car Championship with three respectable performances in his Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1.
Sritrai is making history this weekend as the first driver from Thailand to race in the WTCC. After posting the 16th best time in testing, Sritrai was P18 in Free Practice 1 and 2 as he builds his experience of his Campos Racing machine, which he hadn’t driven prior to this morning.
Prior to the event, Sritrai told local media gathered at a press conference in Bangkok: “I am so proud that I have the chance to go and do WTCC Race of Thailand because all my idols of touring car racing are gathered here. I am not feeling so much pressure, I feel well prepared now.”
Breen remporte le Rallye du Valais et l’ERC Asphalt Master ; Botka sacré en ERC2 suite à sa victoire au Valais / Breen becomes ERC Asphalt Master with victory in Valais ;Botka becomes ERC2 champion with victory in Valais
Craig Breen fait coup double au Rallye International du Valais en empochant la victoire et le trophée ERC Asphalt Master. Avec quatre succès au compteur, l’Irlandais devient également le pilote à avoir triomphé le plus de fois cette année.
Accompagné par Scott Martin, Breen a mené l’épreuve de bout en bout pour terminer avec une avance de plus de 39 secondes.
Alexey Lukyanuk (Russian Performance Motorsport Ford Fiesta R5) longtemps au coude à coude avec Olivier Burri (Citroën DS3 RRC), décroche la médaille d’argent tandisque que le local de l’étape grimpe sur la 3e marche du podium.
François Delecour a quant à lui été contraint à l’abandon dans l’ES15 à cause de problèmes de surchauffe. Un des trois radiateurs de sa Tuthill Porsche 997 ayant été endommagé.
David Botka (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX) décroche le titre en ERC2 suite à sa victoire au Rallye International du Valais.
Le Hongrois aura réalisé une fantastique deuxième partie de saison en inscrivant trois succès sur les quatre dernières épreuves : des résultats qui lui ont permis de dépasser son adversaire Vojetch Stajf.
Stajf, longtemps leader cette année, était très rapide lui aussi. Le pilote tchèque a enregistré sept temps scratch mais tous ses espoirs de titre se sont envolés dans la dernière spéciale lorsque sa Subaru Impreza WRX STI, en proie à des problèmes de frein, s’est immobilisée.
Tibor Erdi n’a jamais été en mesure de rivaliser avec les deux mais il n’aura commis aucune erreur. Il est ainsi récompensé d’une 2eplace.
Craig Breen has added the 2015 ERC Asphalt Master title to his long list of achievements, after winning the Rallye International du Valais. It was also the Peugeot Rally Academy driver’s fourth FIA European Rally Championship win of the season – more than any other driver.
Partnered by Scott Martin, Breen led from start to finish to win the Swiss event by 39.4 seconds.
Alexey Lukyanuk enjoyed a great battle for second place with OIivier Burri, with the Russian Performance Motorsport Ford Fiesta R5 driver taking silver, ahead of the local Citroën DS3 RRC pilot.
Unfortunately, François Delecour retired his Tuthill Porsche 997 at the end of SS15 with overheat problems, having damaging one (or more) of the car’s three radiators.
Dávid Botka is the 2015 ERC2 champion, after scoring victory on the Rallye International du Valais.
A magnificent second half of the season, in which the Hungarian driver scored three wins in the final four rallies, saw the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX driver eventually overtake arch rival Vojtěch Štajf – and together with four second place finishes, Botka is a very worthy champion.
Štajf had led for most of the season, and he was quick again in Switzerland, scoring seven fastest stage times. The Czech driver was in contention for the title right up until the final stage, when his Subaru Duck Czech National Team Impreza WRX STI – which had been suffering brake problems on the long downhill sections – cruelly stopped on the final stage.
Whilst he wasn’t able to challenge Botka and Štajf for victory, Tibor Érdi never put a foot wrong in Valais and was rewarded with the runners-up up spot on the event.
Ryan Tuerck gets first go in Ken Block's Gymkhana Escort!
Hoonigan driver Ryan Tuerck will be piloting this revamped 1978 Ford Escort Mk2 RS in its competition debut at the Monster Energy Gymkhana GRID event this weekend at Santa Pod Raceway in the United Kingdom. Hoonigan tapped top Formula Drift driver Ryan Tuerck to fill the seat, as Head Hoonigan in Charge (H.H.I.C.) Ken Block will be occupied defending his AWD title in the Ford Hoonicorn RTR.
For more details on Ken Block's 1978 Ford Escort Mk2 RS Gymkhana Machine: http://blog.hoonigan.com/gymkhana-esc...
Icon 1000 Suzuki "New Jack" Katana Custom
The 1982 Suzuki Katana was a machine before her time, a Nippon-Saxon gamble on starship styling to jumpstart Suzuki’s dour offerings.
Thirty years on, she’s the darling of the ball, but in ’82 few were interested in dancing with the silver dame. The New Jack is ICON 1000’s reimagination of what could have been.
BMW R100 – Kevil’s Speed Shop
Written by Martin Hodgson.
Kevil’s Speed Shop describe themselves as “The UK’s premier custom BMW builder, producing top quality, one-off commissioned BMWs.” It’s a bold statement, but with bikes as perfect as this 1981 BMW R100 just one example of what rolls out of their workshop, they have plenty of evidence to back it up. Founded by Kevin Hill, a man with decades of experience, the team operate out of the seaside town of Paignton in Devon. Having seen one of their past builds Andrea, who is an IT consultant from Prague, knew exactly what he wanted. With the build in mind, he gave the team free rein to build him the ultimate BMW R Café Racer and boy, did they deliver.
If there is one thing that is common to all Kevil’s builds its how clean they are, the attention to detail and the sheer perfectionism applied in all areas. This build known as “Wild Thing” is no different, you could literally eat off it and the tins are fit for the Queen. The paint work is a mix of gold with fawn grey broken up by black line work that flows seamlessly from front to back. The tank is as straight as any item you’d see off the show room floor and wears Kevil’s badges where the BMW items once were laid. The café racer style seat with its matching paint work sits on a reworked custom subframe with Andrea taking pride of place sitting on an incredible taupe leather seat by Kevil’s. Even the headlight features the same incredible paint work and attention to detail, a level of finish truly befitting of the Speed Shop name.
There is something more than a little special about the engine fitted to the R100, a twin cylinder boxer engine of some 980cc means a hefty crank and two enormous pistons flinging from side to side. Hit the electric start and for a moment or two it feels like the world might end until the Bavarian balances up and ticks over at idle with just the slightest of vibration. Improving the fuelling and throttle response Kevil’s added a pair of Mikuni VM34 carburettors from Japan with pod filters. While the electrical side is just as impressive, all the way from Denver Colorado comes The Euro MotoElectrics EnDuraSpark electronic ignition, an electronic hall effect trigger and electronic ignition advance module that works with an EnDuraLast charging system. The exhaust is fed out of a stunning set of headers and crossover pipe that expel gases through twin matte black finished classic mufflers.
A lightened flywheel helps the big BMW engine spin up and all that torque is sent through the 5 speed box to the silky smooth delivery of the shaft drive rear end. While earlier versions of the R100 had left riders feeling the need for a little more brake this bike suffers nothing of the sort, the twin drilled discs are clamped by Brembo calipers and give confidence inspiring performance all day long. The front suspension utilises the factory telescopic forks that are held in place by a beautiful billet top yoke and the whole setup looks better than brand new. While out back adjustable YSS shocks not only look the business but further enhance the performance credentials of this seriously impressive machine.
But there is more to this amazing build than just the way it goes and stops, just take a look at the detailing of that engine. A mix of raw metal and black paint work in just the right places, the airbox has been removed and a cover added but rather than waste the space it’s become home to the ignition. This along with the custom top yoke further cleans up the front end aided brilliantly with the white-faced Koso multifunction gauge. Like everything and I mean everything on this build it has either been replaced or overhauled, that goes for the new master cylinder, clip-ons, switch blocks and levers that all add to the show quality finish. Signalling is left to the neatly installed LED indicators with clear lenses while the tail light has been mounted into the tail section for a factory like fit.
The Café seat dictates this is a ride purely for one and so both sets of pegs have been ditched, the rider now using a set of custom rearsets. There is no rear fender but the blacked out front item is bobbed to precise dimensions and is also built as a fork brace to further refine the handling of the gator’d forks. The hubs and axles have been cleaned within an inch of their life and now support a set of the stock BMW wheels in black wrapped in Continental tyres for all conditions. Even the fuel taps are impressive in their truly NOS finish, the aircraft like linkages on the foot controls and side stand and the frame that is smooth, detabbed and not a blemish in sight.
Perhaps what makes Kevil’s Speed Shops achievement with this build so impressive is that this is not a one-off item designed to drum up business, they build all their bikes to this lofty standard. And now on the streets of Prague, when his keyboard falls silent, Andrea can join an elite company of riders who get to pilot the exclusive bespoke builds that roll out of the Devon workshop one incredible motorcycle after another.
via PIPEBURN
7 CARS THAT LOOK BETTER IN COSTUME
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Yes, some of these are stretching the definition of "costume," but there's no denying the spectacular nature of these racing cars. Be it a road car rebuilt into a race car or a race car clothed to look like a road car, sometimes box flares and production-honed styling melt together perfectly.
The stories of why are often different, and range from manufacturers trying to get a leg up on the competition to industrious privateers who really want to shoehorn a Formula 1 engine into their DAF race car.
There are thousands of other examples, of course, but these are costumed race cars that definitely improve on the original.
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Basically anything ever called a “Super Saloon”
The UK had “Super Saloons”, which are easiest to imagine if one took a moment to envision the best support series for the era of “unlimited” Can-Am competition. Super Saloons only had to look like the vehicles they’d been based on, and some were modified Formula cars underneath. The fastest had massive V8 engines underneath pedestrian bodywork, birthing V8-powered DAF sedans and Volkswagen Beetles.
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Alfa Romeo 164 Pro Car 
Like Super Saloons, the 164 Pro Car is a race car clothed to look like a 164 sedan for the aborted Formula S series, replacement for the BMW M1-heavy ProCar series. As you can see, the Alfa had a Formula 1 V10 and with enclosed wheels could top 215 mph. Bernie Ecclestone though manufacturers would be lining up to enter this series, to be held before Formula 1 races, but it never got off the ground. Shame.
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 Ford SuperVan
Ford built three radically-altered Transit vans, the first was made in 1971, based on a production van, and had a few choice parts, including a Gurney-Eagle tuned Ford V8, racing suspension, and 5-speed ZF transaxle. The second was based on a Group C car, and the third was a rebuilt version of the second, only now with a Cosworth HB Formula 1 V8.
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Mercedes-Benz 500SLC Le Mans Prototype
The pretty successful and apparently likeable German privateer driver Hans Heyer spent most of his time in touring cars, but after experiencing faster machines and earning some solid results, Heyer took on the project of creating a “new” (unofficial) Group C car to enter at Le Mans. A mid-mounted Mercedes-Benz engine makes nearly 600 horsepower, with an “aluminum monocoque chassis designed along ground effect principles”.
After the 500SLC? He won the European Touring Car Championship round at the Spa 24 Hours three times in a row, among other successes. The 500SLC is still around today, still waiting for its first Group C race…
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 Group 5 Lancia Stratos
The long-running and hotly-contested FIA Group 5 category spanned many years, but here we’re concerned with the “Special Production Car” category that ran from 1976 to 1982, specifically the significantly altered—turbocharged—Lancia Stratos that competed. With only the hood, doors, roof, and rain gutter shared with production car counterparts, the series is responsible for creating many of the cars we still love today. The “slant nose” Porsches, notably, but also…
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 …pretty much anything from the Japanese Super Silhouette Series
Based on FIA Group 5, from 1979 the Super Silhouette cars were run as a support series in Japan to faster cars. Often held at Fuji Speedway, the Japanese production car-based racers usually had around 600 horsepower and every early-’80s speed trick you’d expect to see
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Renault Espace F1 
The Ford SuperVan is cool and all, but for the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing, it’s difficult to top the Espace F1. Renault took Ford’s idea and improved on it in every way, working with its Formula 1 program, Williams, RenaultSport, and Matra to construct a promotional vehicle to sell the plebian Espace. Driver? Alain Prost. The engine was more powerful than it had been in F1, and sat inside a chassis (and bodywork!) specially made for this vehicle. Top speed was just shy of 200 mph, and it’d hit 125 mph from a standstill in seven seconds.
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How a Near-Death Experience Changed Outdoor Gear Forever
By J. Travis Smith Photo by Sung Han
Born in 1899, Eddie Bauer grew up living off the land in the Pacific Northwest. After a childhood spent outdoors and six years of experience selling sporting goods at a local store in downtown Seattle, Bauer opened his own retail business at the age of 20. The first sign of his innate marketing talent was his offer of an unconditional money-back guarantee for any equipment he sold, which was well ahead of its time.
He also had a gift for advertising, and he built trust by personifying the brand itself. Bauer made a name for himself in Washington as an accomplished marksman. Along with his wife, Christine Heltborg, whom he wed in 1929, he won state competitions in the individual and couples categories for shooting clay pigeons, all while wearing patches prominently displaying the Eddie Bauer name. The duo’s victories were covered in the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, spreading his name as he came to inhabit ever-larger retail spaces.
But it wasn’t until a near-fatal outing in 1935 that Bauer began to design the jacket that would make his name known far outside of Seattle. Bauer was returning from a fishing trip in the Olympic Peninsula when freezing rain caught him far from shelter. His clothing soaked and icing over, Bauer began to feel drowsy, the early signs of hypothermia. He fired off three rifle shots to signal a friend hiking far in front of him and then fell asleep against a tree. He wrote later that he would’ve been “a goner if my partner hadn’t come along.”
Remembering a story his uncle told him, in which a down-lined coat saved him from the cold during the Russo-Japanese War, he set to work on a down jacket for the cold of the Pacific Northwest. In 1940, he patented his design for the first Skyliner jacket, which he claims was the first visibly quilted down insulated outdoor apparel garment in the US. According to the patent, for 14 years Bauer held the exclusive rights to produce the diamond pattern of the Skyliner, which he later expanded to 10 other design patterns for quilted clothing, effectively making him the exclusive seller of quilted down jackets until the 1960s. While the iconic pattern ensured that everyone knew it was from Eddie Bauer, the jacket became popular for being lightweight but extremely warm due to its revolutionary use of down.
The oldest surviving patented quilted down jacket produced in America is in the collection of the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle. It’s an Eddie Bauer Skyliner from 1936, the first year they went to production. The second oldest is housed on the fifth floor of Lincoln Square in Bellevue, Washington. Just out of the elevators and beside the lobby’s leather-clad waiting area is a glass wall patterned with the silhouettes of game birds. Oversized logs frame an entryway. This is Eddie Bauer’s historical archive: four hallways moving clockwise in time from the company’s founding in 1920, past the Skyliner on display, and onto the present day, framing an interior storage room. Along the back wall, Colin Berg, in white gloves, is unpacking Eddie Bauer mail-order catalogues from the 1940s.
Berg is the first full-time brand historian of Eddie Bauer. A copywriter for the company in the ’90s, he’s been with the company for a total of 17 years spread over close to three decades. During his tenure he became known as the resident expert on brand history and was given the keys to a rudimentary archive, tasked with packing it up for storage. He left the company in 2004, but three years later, after a new CEO took over, he was called back in. He was told to unpack the archive and expand it. It was the beginning of a new era.
Berg’s dead set on putting substance on the “skeleton structure” of the company’s history, a history that has been forgotten by an entire generation. Adventuring millennials have grown up knowing Eddie Bauer only for comfortable clothing, special-edition Fords and house wares, but the company was at one point a legend in American outdoor outfitting. Most just don’t know the history.Berg was brought back to showcase the heritage of Eddie Bauer, an iconic fishing and hunting outfitter that, most notably, outfitted Americans during the golden years of Himalayan ascents, when nations were racing to the top of Earth’s highest peaks. Following those golden years, the company slowly moved away from its roots as an “Expedition Outfitter,” dropping the famous tagline and refocusing on lifestyle products and what Berg refers to as “mall clothing.” Today, Berg gives his short, square walking tour through the company’s history to new hires and industry representatives. Inside the interior room he curates moveable racks filled with hundreds of vintage garments, each with an accompanying story. These garments are collected from past customers and used as a base of inspiration for Eddie Bauer’s current design department. It’s just one part of the brand’s strategy to reinvigorate its technical outdoor roots.
In 1942, as part of the war effort, Bauer provided thousands of flying suits, and later sleeping bags, for servicemen stationed in Alaska and Europe. Business was booming, but Bauer’s use of expensive, specialized machinery for wartime production, along with re-negotiated contracts for his work, led to a low point for the company, and for Bauer personally. “He was running three shifts a day, seven days a week, so he was physically way over expended, as well as economically,” said Berg. “By the end of the war, even though he made all of these pieces and built a tremendous amount of reputation, the economics turned out that he wasn’t particularly profitable.”
However, these round-the-clock efforts eventually turned Eddie Bauer into a national brand, even if indirectly. GIs returning from the war had experienced firsthand the quality of Eddie Bauer’s products and knew exactly where they were made because of the tag sewn into every garment. The soldiers began writing to Bauer from all over the nation, helping to spur the huge mail-order catalogue business the company became known for. Unlike today’s catalogues, they included a personal, signed letter from Bauer, and the first few pages were written to educate consumers about the benefits of goose down and the ethos of the company
Up until 1950s, Eddie Bauer was associated with hunters, fishermen and outdoorsmen, but it was time to become “Expedition Outfitters.” A team of eight American mountaineers, three of them from Seattle, came to Eddie in the fall of 1952 with a request for a mountaineering down parka. The best in the world were made in France, and the group wanted an American-made parka for their attempt at the first ascent of K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain. The resulting jacket was named the Kara Koram, after the mountain range, and became known for its life-saving quality after the team failed to reach the top due to disastrous weather but showed great heroism in saving all but one climber’s life, including a save infamously known as “The Belay.” The group and Bauer’s equipment became known worldwide.
The rest of the 1950s were characterized by continued attempts at first ascents, and the Kara Koram was used all over the world. It wasn’t until 1958 that an American team, clad in Eddie Bauer down, made the first ascent of one of the world’s fourteen 8000-meter peaks, Gasherbrum I, and they summited the peak wearing another Bauer innovation: down parkas with ripstop nylon. The material had been used in sleeping bags for 2-3 years and, at the suggestion of the climbing team, Bauer used it as the outer shell of his parka to keep the weight low but maintain durability. This material was then used in the most extreme parka ever made by Bauer, the Mt. Everest Parka, in 1963.
The year 1971 marked a drastic turning point for the company. The same year an Eddie Bauer team summited Everest for the third time, and three years after Eddie retired, the company was sold to General Mills, and it was the beginning of a three-decade-long redirection of the company’s legacy. “By the ’80s the leadership that came in had MBAs, they were trained merchants, not outdoorsmen,” said Berg. “Retail space was starting to move out of downtown shopping districts into suburban malls, where the style of retailer is more homogenous.”
Even consumer attitudes began to change. “The company wanted to use an old photograph of Eddie,” said Berg, referring to a photo released in the early 1980s in which Bauer posed in front of his Seattle storefront with a deer he had hunted. “They were nervous about dead animals and were starting to migrate into the lifestyle brand ethos, away from the rugged outdoors. So they airbrushed the deer out. This was before the days of photoshopping. Afterward, Eddie was just standing there by himself.”
By J. Travis Smith Photo by Sung Han
Born in 1899, Eddie Bauer grew up living off the land in the Pacific Northwest. After a childhood spent outdoors and six years of experience selling sporting goods at a local store in downtown Seattle, Bauer opened his own retail business at the age of 20. The first sign of his innate marketing talent was his offer of an unconditional money-back guarantee for any equipment he sold, which was well ahead of its time.
He also had a gift for advertising, and he built trust by personifying the brand itself. Bauer made a name for himself in Washington as an accomplished marksman. Along with his wife, Christine Heltborg, whom he wed in 1929, he won state competitions in the individual and couples categories for shooting clay pigeons, all while wearing patches prominently displaying the Eddie Bauer name. The duo’s victories were covered in the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, spreading his name as he came to inhabit ever-larger retail spaces.
But it wasn’t until a near-fatal outing in 1935 that Bauer began to design the jacket that would make his name known far outside of Seattle. Bauer was returning from a fishing trip in the Olympic Peninsula when freezing rain caught him far from shelter. His clothing soaked and icing over, Bauer began to feel drowsy, the early signs of hypothermia. He fired off three rifle shots to signal a friend hiking far in front of him and then fell asleep against a tree. He wrote later that he would’ve been “a goner if my partner hadn’t come along.”
Remembering a story his uncle told him, in which a down-lined coat saved him from the cold during the Russo-Japanese War, he set to work on a down jacket for the cold of the Pacific Northwest. In 1940, he patented his design for the first Skyliner jacket, which he claims was the first visibly quilted down insulated outdoor apparel garment in the US. According to the patent, for 14 years Bauer held the exclusive rights to produce the diamond pattern of the Skyliner, which he later expanded to 10 other design patterns for quilted clothing, effectively making him the exclusive seller of quilted down jackets until the 1960s. While the iconic pattern ensured that everyone knew it was from Eddie Bauer, the jacket became popular for being lightweight but extremely warm due to its revolutionary use of down.
Berg is the first full-time brand historian of Eddie Bauer. A copywriter for the company in the ’90s, he’s been with the company for a total of 17 years spread over close to three decades. During his tenure he became known as the resident expert on brand history and was given the keys to a rudimentary archive, tasked with packing it up for storage. He left the company in 2004, but three years later, after a new CEO took over, he was called back in. He was told to unpack the archive and expand it. It was the beginning of a new era.
Berg’s dead set on putting substance on the “skeleton structure” of the company’s history, a history that has been forgotten by an entire generation. Adventuring millennials have grown up knowing Eddie Bauer only for comfortable clothing, special-edition Fords and house wares, but the company was at one point a legend in American outdoor outfitting. Most just don’t know the history.Berg was brought back to showcase the heritage of Eddie Bauer, an iconic fishing and hunting outfitter that, most notably, outfitted Americans during the golden years of Himalayan ascents, when nations were racing to the top of Earth’s highest peaks. Following those golden years, the company slowly moved away from its roots as an “Expedition Outfitter,” dropping the famous tagline and refocusing on lifestyle products and what Berg refers to as “mall clothing.” Today, Berg gives his short, square walking tour through the company’s history to new hires and industry representatives. Inside the interior room he curates moveable racks filled with hundreds of vintage garments, each with an accompanying story. These garments are collected from past customers and used as a base of inspiration for Eddie Bauer’s current design department. It’s just one part of the brand’s strategy to reinvigorate its technical outdoor roots.
I
n 1988, Spiegel, Inc. acquired Eddie Bauer and continued the movement to focus on customers who remained indoors. Eddie Bauer no longer sold hunting or fishing equipment. It no longer outfitted mountaineering expeditions. Instead it developed the All Week Long and Eddie Bauer Home lines, abandoning tent sales and the Sports Shop to save retail space. A short bout of success was followed by a decline in sales, and Eddie Bauer was taken over by Eddie Bauer Holdings in 2005. For the first time in 35 years, Eddie Bauer was an independent company. This marked the dawn of a new era, one defined by a movement back to the roots, and a proud representation of the brand’s heritage.A Skyliner for a New Generation
This limited edition of the Skyliner silhouette, created in collaboration with stylist Ilaria Urbinati, combines the latest in urban sportswear trends with 700-fill premium down insulation covered by a cotton/nylon shell coated with a StormRepel DWR finish. Buy Now: $250
If the response from the outdoor world is any indication, First Ascent proved to be more than just a well-executed marketing stunt. In its first five years, the new gear line won 13 industry best-in-class awards and completed 53 pioneering expeditions strapped onto the backs and hands of world-class guides and explorers. Last year, this magazine included Eddie Bauer’s Sorcerer Pack in our GP100 awards, while Men’s Journal also awarded the pack their 2014 Gear of the Year Award.Under new CEO leadership in 2007, Eddie Bauer started a top-secret mission called Project Summit. The company assembled a guide team to help build gear that would be used by world-class climbers, along with novices. In May 2009, accompanied by a film crew, Eddie Bauer’s guide team climbed Mount Everest completely outfitted in the new series, First Ascent, the first public debut of Project Summit and a relaunch of the company as a world-class mountaineering outfitter.
But the recent success hasn’t blinded the company to the lessons of the past. Rather than rest on the laurels of recent accomplishments, Eddie Bauer has been hard at work devising new ways of building on its role as a leader in the world of outdoor outfitting. We visited Eddie Bauer’s HQ in order to get a firsthand look at first iteration of its next game-changing project: EB Custom, in which adventuring consumers, either online and in select stores, are able to fully customize the award-winning MicroTherm jacket. We’ll be revealing more about the project soon, and even a little something of our own creation to keep GP diehards warm.
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