Eddie Bauer History

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The Company Description of Its Time

Established in 1920 in Seattle, Eddie Bauer is filed as a specialty retailer that sells high quality casual sportswear and accessories for the 'modern outdoor lifestyle.' The company believes, historical descriptions say, that the Eddie Bauer brand is a nationally recognized brand that stands for high quality, innovation, style and customer service. At the filing's date the scale was substantial: products available at approximately 370 stores throughout the United States and Canada, through catalog sales and online, with joint venture partnerships in Japan and Germany, licensing agreements across a variety of product categories, approximately 10,000 part-time and full-time associates in the United States and Canada, and headquarters in Bellevue, Washington.

The Timeline: Shuttlecocks, Skyliner and Everest

The original preserves a dated timeline, and it is the heart of this profile, kept here in its own order. 1920: the first store is established in downtown Seattle, called Eddie Bauer's Sport Shop. 1934: the company secures U.S. and Canadian patents on the Bauer Shuttlecock, which remains the standard for the sport today - a reminder that the founder's inventiveness ranged well beyond clothing. 1936: Eddie Bauer manufactures an innovative goose down insulated garment, the Skyliner jacket; 1940: the Skyliner is patented. 1942: the U.S. Army Air Corps commissions the Eddie Bauer B-9 Flight Parka, and more than 50,000 jackets were made and worn for warmth during altitude flights. 1945: the first mail-order catalog. 1963: Eddie Bauer outfits Jim Whittaker, the first American to summit Mount Everest.

The second half of the timeline is ownership and channels. 1968: founder Eddie Bauer retires, selling the business to trusted friend and partner William Niemi and his son. In the 1970s the focus shifts from expedition gear and apparel to casual lifestyle apparel. 1971: the company is sold to General Mills and national retail expansion begins in earnest. 1983: the partnership with Ford begins, producing Eddie Bauer Edition Ford vehicles, the first rolling off the line in 1984. 1988: Spiegel purchases Eddie Bauer from General Mills. 1993 brings both the first catalog in Germany and Eddie Bauer Japan, a joint venture to develop and operate stores and catalogs in Japan. 1996: eddiebauer.com launches, establishing a third channel of distribution alongside retail and catalog.

Stand-Alone, Then Chapter 11: The Record as Filed

The final entries are kept exactly as the historical record states them, dated and without outcomes added. 2003: parent company Spiegel Inc. files for Chapter 11 reorganization. 2005: Eddie Bauer Holdings, Inc. is formed as a result of the Spiegel reorganization, a first Board of Directors is formed, and Eddie Bauer becomes a stand-alone company for the first time in 34 years. 2007: Neil Fiske is named Chief Executive Officer. Then, on June 17, 2009, Eddie Bauer announced that it had voluntarily initiated proceedings under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

The company's own explanation is quoted in the filing and preserved here in substance: good progress had been made on the turnaround strategy of returning Eddie Bauer to its heritage as an active outdoor brand, with exciting product launches on the way, including First Ascent, the return to expedition-grade outerwear and gear; but a crushing debt burden placed on the company from the Spiegel reorganization in 2005, combined with the severe, prolonged recession, left no choice but to use the process to reduce the debt load. The filing adds that the company had entered into an asset purchase agreement with an affiliate of CCMP Capital Advisors, LLC to buy the company's assets through a bankruptcy process, subject to an auction and Bankruptcy Court approval. This profile ends where the original ends - with that agreement announced, not with any later outcome asserted.

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