SEATTLE — In 1963, outdoor-clothing retailer Eddie Bauer outfitted the first American to summit Mount Everest.
The mountaineer, Jim Whittaker, trusted the same brand that had been chosen during World War II to provide the U.S. Army Air Forces with more than 50,000 flight parkas.
But 40 years after Whittaker’s climb, Eddie Bauer had fallen far from its peak. In 2003, its parent company filed for bankruptcy protection, and Eddie Bauer’s biggest piece of inventory had switched from men’s outerwear to women’s clothing.
Eddie Bauer lost its sense of adventure when it became an indoor casual retailer rather than an active outdoor retailer, chief executive Neil Fiske said at the company’s Bellevue headquarters Thursday.
“There is so much richness in this history, it’s like a gold mine for a brand,” Fiske said.
In an attempt to transform the image, Fiske has asked Whittaker to be a public face for the company. Whittaker, 79, will help with clothing design, prototype testing and promotion, for undisclosed payment.
At a VIP luncheon this week at the Explorers Club in New York, Whittaker will kick off the first step of many in Eddie Bauer’s transition back to an outdoor brand, Fiske said.
“Somebody like Jim is an icon and a legend,” he said. “Those legends are timeless and appeal across generations.”
It’s clear that Eddie Bauer needs to make changes. Wall Street has grown impatient after two years of losses topping a combined $300 million.
In 1996, Eddie Bauer’s stores averaged $430 in sales per square foot. By 2006, that number had fallen to $260, said Fiske, who became chief executive in 2007 after Fabian Mansson abruptly resigned. Fiske’s goal is $450 per square foot.
Earlier this year, the company laid off 123 employees, or 16 percent of its corporate workforce.
Why so much focus on the outdoors? “That’s what Eddie would have done,” Fiske said, referring to the company’s namesake founder.
The company’s new litmus test for ideas is, “What would Eddie do?”
Wearing white gloves in the downtown Bellevue office Thursday, company historian Colin Berg showed dozens of memorabilia items from Eddie Bauer’s past.
The archives had been scattered in boxes all over Seattle, and Fiske has directed a team to gather and catalog the items.
Berg said that one of the most interesting things he learned from digging through them is that “when the company called itself the expedition outfitter, it wasn’t just marketing spin. It was a legitimate claim.”
Between 1953 and 1983, the company outfitted more than 30 major expeditions on five continents, including five first ascents. Berg is still uncovering more evidence of expeditions.
