Eddie Bauer is a west coast L.L. Bean, but Neil Fiske the firm’s new CEO, wants to reach a little higher than the fishing streams and hunting grounds of its past.
According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the company is about to introduce a new mountaineering line called “First Ascent.”
For more than a year, an all-star team of mountaineering legends has been secretly developing a new clothing and gear line for Eddie Bauer Inc. They’ve tested the prototypes on the world’s highest peaks and hashed out design details within the retailer’s headquarters in Bellevue.
“We’re outdoors people. We’re climbers, we live in this stuff,” said design team member Ed Viesturs, the only American to summit all 14 of the world’s highest peaks without supplemental oxygen. “The consumer’s going to get a product that’s been already designed and tested and thought out.”
Eddie Bauer faces stiff competition from outdoor brands including Columbia Sportswear Co., The North Face, Patagonia Inc., Marmot and REI.
The company’s stock today trades for less than $1 today, down from a 2005 high of above $30 per share.
