Our founder lived to hunt and fish. He built his name on providing everything from shotguns and fishing flies to dog training gear and down coats that would keep his customers warm while in the woods or on the water. He met his wife Stine while hunting blue grouse in Eastern Washington, started his original operation in a gun shop, and often left his employees to mind the cash box while he and his wife went hunting and fishing for months at a time throughout the Pacific Northwest. Stine Bauer was Eddie’s lifelong hunting companion and a pragmatic trailblazer for women’s participation in the worlds of fishing, trapshooting and upland hunting.
Eddie Bauer brainstormed the idea for America’s fi rst down jacket after nearly dying of hypothermia on a fishing trip, built his business on an outfitting catalog packed with hunting-focused gear, and devoted a large part of his life to breeding, training and working his black Labs. His passion for the outdoors and the shooting sports never wavered, and even as his business grew to include the worlds of mountaineering, adventure travel and family camping, he was still a hunter at heart.
As our brand returns to its roots, the launch of a new technical line of hunting gear is the most natural expansion for a company founded as a hunting and fishing shop. This tradition has been in the Eddie Bauer family since before our brand traveled to the summit of Everest with Jim Whittaker, explored the Arctic or raced the Iditarod in Alaska. It’s not only part of our past, it is who we are. So as we introduce Sport Shop to sportsmen, it is with the pride of knowing our founder would approve.
THE FOUNDATION OF DOWN
It is a well-known fact that Eddie Bauer patented the first down jacket in America. But for those who don’t know the full story, it was Bauer’s brush with hypothermia on a winter fishing trip that led to his invention of utilizing lightweight goose down for insulation in the Skyliner jacket in 1936. And long before his puffy parkas became standard issue for World War II airmen and then for pioneering Himalayan climbers, Bauer first sold his Skyliners to dedicated hunters, fishermen and outdoorsmen through his Seattle shop and through advertisements in Field & Stream, Sports Afield and American Riflemen.
To commemorate the launch of Sport Shop, we’ve restocked our racks with a modern update on the famous hunting jacket that built our brand. Blending tradition and technology, the 1936 Skyliner Hunting Model Jacket combines field-focused features such as a rear game pocket, leather-topped shell pockets, and leather-quilted shooting patches with nods to our past such as rib-knit collars and cuffs, as well as the signature Eddie Bauer diamond-quilt design. The result is a functional down hunting jacket that resonates with timeless American style that would make even your granddad proud.
Few families have deeper roots in the shooting sports than the lineage of Sport Shop expert Rebecca Etchen Peters. A fourth-generation sharpshooter, Rebecca’s great-grandfather Fred Etchen served as the captain of the American Olympic Trapshooting Team, led them to a gold medal in the 1924 Summer Olympics, and was inducted into the Trapshooting Hall of Fame in 1979. Her grandfather Rudy Etchen, also a Hall of Famer, was known as one of the best shotgunners of all time and accumulated a nearly endless list of pump gun achievements, including winning the North American Clay Target Championship in every age category. Rebecca’s father Joel was also a champion trapshooter and founded a Pennsylvania gun dealership that grew to become Beretta’s largest independent target gun dealership in the country.
With that family tree, Etchen Peters was taught to shoot as soon as she was strong enough to hold a gun, progressing from shooting soda cans off the porch and practicing with the hand thrower in the backyard of their rural Pennsylvania home to her first hunting trip at age 12 with her best friend and their fathers. “I spent a lot of my youth traveling to state and regional trapshooting competition events,” Etchen Peters says. “We spent our summers together as a family, traveling to these different shooting events where my father would sell firearms and also compete.”
“Typically, with women’s hunting apparel, it’s either your dad’s or it’s cut for a model–it’s been one extreme or the other. Until now, nothing has ever been built from the ground up for a woman’s shape but without sacrificing performance.”—REBECCA ETCHEN PETERS
Hunting and tradition go hand in hand, which is why many sportsmen stick with fabrics and styles that have outlasted generations of innovations. One of those time-honored textiles is waxed cotton, a timeless waterproofing technique originally developed by men who worked at sea to keep them dry from the icy waters of the North Atlantic. For nearly a century, waxed cotton sailcloth evolutions were used in military uniforms, but sportsmen adopted the surplus for protection from foul weather due to its utility, longevity and classic performance characteristics.
GUIDE-BUILT INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL PEPI
HOW DID YOU GET INTO HUNTING?
I’ve been in the outdoor industry my whole life. My father owns Jonas Brothers Taxidermy Studios of New York. Since I was a little kid, I was around the hunting and fishing side of things, so when I was really little my dad would take me out fishing. Then we had a springer growing up and before I was able to actually hunt, we’d go walking and hunt for pheasants.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO GROW UP WITH A FAMILY BUSINESS OF TAXIDERMY?
I thought it was great. My parents would be going on a delivery to a museum and they’d take me along, so they tied in the educational component of hunting and the outdoors as well. That was kind of cool, so sometimes I’d be missing school but I’d be going to a museum to go work. I knew all the African antelope when I was in elementary school.
IS THERE SOMETHING IMPORTANT ABOUT BEING CONNECTED WITH A BRAND’S LEGACY?
I think the legacy of a company, it stands for a lot. Because there are a lot of new companies, but we have that range of clientele because there are a lot of diehard customers who have been wearing Eddie Bauer forever. And then you have that technical sport gear in there that they have encompassed in their clothing—that brings in younger hunters. Younger hunters and older hunters have totally different tastes in gear, and they kind of have both those ends wrapped up. You can always count on something that has lasted, but with products that have failed, you kind of remember that.
With Jonas Brothers Studios, they’ve been around since 1908 and people recognize that. And it’s the same thing: Eddie Bauer is dedicated to quality and Jonas Brothers is dedicated to quality—they are both known for the best. So legacy means a lot.
Wingshooting is a pursuit that depends not just on the skill of the hunter, but also on the performance of a well-trained dog. From springers for flushing and setters for pointing to Labs as retrievers, the act of hunting pheasants, quail and even waterfowl would not be the same without working the dogs. While the breeds differ in temperament, the time it takes to train them and the partnership that develops are what draw many of us to the hunt.
Our brand’s founder felt that same pull. In 1930, after hearing about a new breed of gundog in Canada, Eddie Bauer imported the first black Labrador into Washington State. Originally derived from the working St. John’s water dogs of eastern Canada, the forefathers of the breed were crossbred in England with setters and spaniels and returned to Canada as Labradors, the smart, loyal and industrious hunting companions, with a unique mix of water dog and game finder that eventually became the most popular dog in America.
TECHNICAL PERFECTION
MODERN SHIRT SCIENCE TO CLEAN UP FOR DINNER
A PRESENTABLE APPEARANCE Fabric technology is not just the domain of field-rated hunting gear, it is also a critical component that impacts the overall appearance of our everyday style. This importance is why we’ve adopted our tested, trusted philosophy and our deep knowledge of textile science to create a wrinkle-free fabric that not only looks respectable when pulled from the dryer and wicks sweat away from skin, but is also designed to withstand everyday wear and constant washing. We call it the perfect blend of life and science.
