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Special Sections - Outdoor History - Outdoor Industry Trailblazers


Article Thumbnail Industry Trailblazers: Peter Noone, outdoor retail pioneer
Nov 17, 2008
Unlike so many of the ’70s trailblazers, Peter Noone’s career in the outdoor business has had few twists and turns. In fact, his career path has been fairly straightforward: 45 years specializing in outdoor retail with only two employers. His outdoor retail career began when, as a 21-year-old skier and climber, he went “looking for a much-needed summer job in 1968.” He walked into The Ski Hut store on Berkeley’s University Avenue and was hired by Allen Steck for $2 an hour.
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Article Thumbnail Industry Trailblazers: Paul Kramer, creator of the clip system for tents
Nov 12, 2008
A member of the outdoor industry since 1970 with Sierra Designs, Paul Kramer's path to design fame began with office politics. “The company was in a sales slump and I was making a bit of noise about the direction product was going. So a couple of management people who wanted me out said, ‘Why don’t we put Paul into design?’ They figured since I knew very little about it that I’d fail and get fired.” What they didn’t know was that Kramer, via his retail background, had a great feel for what customers wanted. Using that knowledge, he set about designing a line of synthetic-fill sleeping bags. They were a hit, and within six months, Kramer was named director of design.
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Article Thumbnail Industry Trailblazers: Bill Nicolai, founder of Early Winters
Aug 1, 2008
Two weeks prior to his graduation from the University of Washington in 1968, Bill Nicolai said he dropped out, thinking, “If I didn’t graduate, I’d avoid becoming a businessman and, therefore, live an unconventional life." As the founder of Early Winters, a whimsical catalog for outdoor adventurers around the world that once featured a mini-submarine for sale.
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Article Thumbnail Industry Trailblazers: Guntram Jordan parlays a carpentry job into an outdoor industry career
Aug 1, 2008
On graduating in June 1974 with a degree in philosophy of language, Guntram Jordan went looking for a job. “I was walking along University Avenue in Berkeley when I spotted carpenters working on a new retail store. I asked if they were hiring and next thing I knew, I was working as a carpenter and general gofer for Granite Stairway Mountaineering.”
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Article Thumbnail Industry Trailblazers: Jim and Greg Thomsen, founders of Wilderness Experience
Aug 1, 2008
As children, Jim and Greg Thomsen spent summers with their father in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., where they grew to love the mountains. By 1965, they were backpacking on their own all over California’s Sierra. “In 1967, we both started climbing,” Jim said, “and a year later, I was working at Kelty Pack making packs as well as working in the retail shop at the production facility when my wife, Laurie, got this idea to start a program to take kids into the mountains and teach them climbing, backpacking and cross-country skiing. Laurie, Greg and I decided to call the venture Wilderness Experience.”
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Article Thumbnail Industry Trailblazers: Richard Kelty / Rick Scott, lifelong friends launch Sierra West and Big Dogs
Aug 1, 2008
Richard Kelty likes to say that he started in the outdoor business in 1951 when at age 4 his parents and siblings put together Kelty packs in their Glendale, Calif., home. “My mother always said that I pissed all over the first set of Kelty pack bags,” Kelty said with a laugh. “That may be so, but I worked for Kelty Pack part time and during the summers until I was 16.”
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Article Thumbnail SNEWS® Looks Back: The 60/40 Parka -- the outdoor industry's first best seller
Sep 14, 2006
There is little debate that the outdoor industry's first best seller and iconic product was Sierra Designs' 60/40 Mountain Parka. A masterful blend of form and function, the parka's origins are, oddly enough, in motorcycling.
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Article Thumbnail Industry Trailblazers, Part 1: Paying homage to the early pioneers who paved the way for the outdoor industry’s formation.
Jan 30, 2006
In this issue: George Rudolf, founder of The Ski Hut, Trailwise and Donner Mountain; Gerry Cunningham, founder of Gerry; LeRoy and Alice Holubar, founders of Holubar; George Lamb, founder of Alp Sport; Dick Kelty, founder of Kelty; Eddie Bauer, founder of Eddie Bauer; Lloyd Anderson, founder of REI; Leon L. Bean, founder of L.L. Bean; Jack Stephenson, founder of Stephenson’s Warmlite; and Colin Fletcher, author of The Complete Walker.
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Products and Trends
Industry News Releases
Grassroots Outdoor Alliance Welcomes Icebreaker as a Vendor Partner
Dec 22, 2011
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Jetboil Expands Management Team
Dec 22, 2011
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Switch Vision Joins 2012 East Coast Adventure Racing Series
Dec 22, 2011
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BioLogic Helps Social Networking Cyclists Track Data on the Go
Dec 21, 2011
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Liberty Mountain Joins Grassroots Outdoor Alliance as Vendor Partner
Dec 21, 2011
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National Ski Patrol makes branding move to unify divisions and patrols
Dec 21, 2011
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SNEWS Headlines
November retail, outdoor, online sales rise; NRF raises forecast
Dec 26, 2011
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Mountain travel bookings continue uphill surge
Dec 22, 2011
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Gramicci leverages Haggar to lower prices on fall 2012 products, predicts consumers will reduce spending
Dec 21, 2011
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