s the outdoor business grew and prospered

during the late ’60s and early ’70s, a whole

new group of entrepreneurs came to the

fore. Some entered the business the old-fashioned

way as active outdoor participants who started out

making gear for their own adventures. But a new

crop of entrants was now on the scene, coming di-

rectly from college or business school and bringing a

whole new set of business skills to bear on the indus-

try. During this time, a shift also occurred: Berkeley,

Calif., and Seattle became the hubs of the outdoor

products manufacturing world.

Change was coming fast and the eighttrailblazers profiled here were key in thetransformation.

JACK GILBERTLike so many of the outdoor industrytrailblazers, Jack Gilbert first experiencedthe outdoors on family outings and, later,as a Boy Scout. That experience, pluswatching his businessman father makethe daily commute in coat and tie fromthe East Bay to San Francisco across thebridge, helped him decide he didn’t wantto do that when he got older. That laid thegroundwork for a less conventional busi-ness career.

But first, there was basketball. Gilbertwas on the Stanford University basketballteam and had a superb career playing forthe Cardinal team in the Pacific Eight conference.

Originally a member of the class of 1965, Gilbert took a yearoff and graduated with the class of 1966. “Hap Klopp was inthe Stanford School of Business at the time, and I knew himfrom around campus,” Gilbert recalled. “About the time Iwas going to graduate, he was trying to buy The Ski Hut inBerkeley, Calif., with a group that included George Marks.

That didn’t pan out, but he contacted me a year later sayinghe was going to try and buy a retailer called The North Faceand turn it into a combined retail and wholesale operation.”

At the time, The North Face was owned by brothers Glenand Arne Hiersoux. They operated retail stores on ColumbusAvenue in San Francisco and in the old Stanford Barn inPalo Alto, Calif. When Klopp came courting, the brotherswere in the process of opening another store in Berkeleywith part of it given over to a production facility. JustusBauschinger had been hired away from The Ski Hut to runthe new cut-and-sew department of The North Face.

Klopp’s bid for The North Face stumbled along throughmuch of 1967 and early 1968. Confident the deal would gothrough, Klopp hired Gilbert in April 1968. In effect, Gilbertworked for the Hiersoux brothers for a month before Kloppfinally took over The North Face in May of that year.

After some training on the retail floor,Gilbert was sent out to sell the verylimited company offerings—a rucksackand a line of sleeping bags. “I made myfirst two sales to Howell’s and theCloud Cap Chalet in Portland, Oregon,”he said, “and then traveled back Eastand convinced Al McDonough atEastern Mountain Sports to carry TheNorth Face brand.”

By that time, the brand had devel-oped significantly and was taking offat retail. “For the first four or fiveyears, the only thing holding us backwas how fast we could make gearand apparel,” Gilbert said.

The North Face’s manufacturingquickly outgrew the TelegraphAvenue location in Berkeley, andmoved to 1234 Fifth Street rightnext to the practice facility for the

folk/rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival. “Wecould hear them playing through the walls,” Gilbert saidwith a laugh.

Soon, the company expanded into the building next to1234 Fifth, then to a larger facility at 950 Gilman Street.

As The North Face grew through the 1980s, it expanded itsretail storefronts. First, it bought the Holubar stores from JohnsonWorldwide, and then it opened its own stores in Seattle and in

industry tThe Golden Era of the ’60s and ’70s

saw more entrepreneurs plying their trade in the outdoor industry.

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y trailblazersB Y B O B W O O D W A R D

the South Coast Plaza shopping center in Costa Mesa, Calif.In the late 1980s, Gilbert took another big step for the company

starting the Windy Pass sub-brand. “We realized,” he pointedout, “that more and more gear and apparel was being made inthe Far East, and we’d seen the fine products Bill Simon hadbeen able to turn out offshore for Snow Lion and Black Ice. Butbefore putting a North Facelabel on Far East-made prod-ucts, we wanted to test themanufacturing. So WindyPass became the test label.”

In 1988, not long afterWindy Pass came into being,Gilbert departed The NorthFace. During his 20-yeartenure, he’d helped thecompany’s annual salesgrow from $300,000 to $50million.

After a year stint in realestate, Gilbert headed toLaguna Beach, Calif., forthree years to help put theOutdoor Retailer tradeshows on the map. “Theoutdoor industry needed ashow of its own, and we got the summer Reno(Nevada) show up and running and then added the winter show.”

In 1991, Gilbert got a call from Bill Werlin, The North Face’spresident at the time, telling him the president’s job at SierraDesigns was open. Gilbert took the job and held it until hisefforts to buy the company from Bill Simon’s Odyssey Groupfailed. On Halloween Day 1993, he and his entire crew walkedout to form Mountain Hardwear.

As memorable as Mountain Hardwear’s formation was, Gilberthas fond memories of the outdoor business in the late ’60s. “Itwas definitely a counter-culture business—one that changed myvalues. Then, it was a new business and the people in it lived it.There weren’t a whole lot of corporate issues that existed.”

SKIP YOWELLGrowing up in Kansas, Skip Yowell was exposed to hunting,fishing and camping at an early age by his family. Then therewere summer vacations in Yellowstone National Park and theCanadian Rockies, and winter days on Kansas hills on barrelstaves made into skis by his father.

“The summer after my freshman year in college,” Yowellsaid, “I worked in Estes Park, Colorado, and climbed Long’sPeak.” That event sparked an interest in the mountains, an

interest that grew during ensuing summer vacations spent withhis cousin Murray Pletz near Seattle.

“Murray majored in industrial engineering in college andhad won an Alcoa award for an aluminum pack frame design.Since neither he nor I wanted to work in corporate America,we decided to get into the frame-building business.”

In 1967, they took over the top floor of their uncle’s trans-mission shop in Seattle. “My aunt did the books and,to save money, I lived in the shop.”

At the same time, Pletz was going out with a girlnamed Jan Lewis who owned a sewing machine andwas an excellent seamstress. “Murray proposed to her,”Yowell said with a laugh, “telling her that if she marriedhim, he’d name our new company after her.” Thus,JanSport was born.

In 1970, with Jan sewing the pack bags, JanSport wasselling small daypacks and ski packs with zipperedcompartments to the sport shop on the University ofWashington campus. The shop’s manager, Ned Bergen,noticed a trend.

“Ned called me,” Yowell said, “and said that studentswere buying the packs to carry their books in to protectthem from the rainy Seattle weather.”

Yowell and Pletz added vinyl bottoms to their smalldaypacks and sales grew not only at the University ofWashington, but at college bookstores throughout theNorthwest. It didn’t take long before they were selling

the packs to college bookstores nationwide. Today, over 5million are sold annually via this channel of distribution.

A year after the beginning of the bookpack business, Yowelland Pletz attended Lou Whittaker’s first-ever winter moun-taineering seminar on Mount Rainier. It was a record snow year,and they embarked on an epic, yet unsuccessful, summit bid.

“I was impressed with Lou and his operation, and after makinga successful ascent that summer with him, we decided to workwith Rainier Mountaineering on testing and on their seminars.This year marks the 35th anniversary of JanSport-sponsoredannual seminars with Rainier Mountaineering,” he said.

JanSport was sold to K2 in 1972. But, even more impor-tantly, it saw yet another epic winter outing become the genesisof a new product.

“Murray, Jan, myself, Gary Rose, Dave Chantler, Chuck Crossand Ira Spring set off on a long winter ski tour. A huge stormhit, and the trip was a disaster. We went back the next weekendand during that ski, Murray and I concocted the idea for adome tent—a tent that had plenty of room for people to sitaround playing cards to weather out a storm.”

The initial run of the dome tent was sold to Dave Chantlerat REI. They sold out quickly, and more were ordered. Demand

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eventually became so hot at REI and other retailers that thecompany’s Trail Dome, Mountain Dome and Wedge dome tentswere parceled out on a limited availability basis.

Things were humming along well at JanSport, but not so atK2, which sold off JanSport to Dan Spaulding’s Wisconsin-basedDowners company. With limited capital, JanSport focused exclu-sively on packs. Then in 1984, Blue Bell/Wrangler purchasedJanSport from Downers. In 1986, Blue Bell/Wrangler was boughtout by VF Corp., which has owned JanSport ever since.

Preparing to celebrate JanSport’s 40th anniversary, Yowellnow serves as the company’s vice president of global public rela-tions. He lives in Pleasanton, Calif., and gets outdoors as oftenas possible when not traveling. His life in the outdoor businessis chronicled in his new book, “The Hippie Guide to Climbingthe Corporate Ladder & Other Mountains.”

Looking back, Yowell said, “It’s been an amazing ride. Whata great industry, one that gives back and has so many greatpeople involved in it.”

JUSTUS BAUSCHINGERThe son of a rocket scientist who emigrated from Germany withWernher von Braun to the United States after World War II towork at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., on America’spost-war rocketry program, Justus Bauschinger arrived inBerkeley, Calif., after serving in the U.S. Navy in FighterSquadron 24 attached to the USS Midway.

Of all the design talent that came to bear on the outdoor busi-ness in Berkeley in the late 1960s and early 1970s,Bauschinger was one of the mostcreative. He began his career inthe industry at The Ski Hut wherehe worked in the retailer’sTrailwise gear-making divisionunder Allen Steck.

According to those who were onthe scene at the time, Bauschingerapparently felt underutilized atTrailwise and started looking for hisown venture. In the process, heapproached his friends, the Hiersouxbrothers, who now had a ski shopin nearby Orinda, Calif., east of SanFrancisco. He urged them to buyDoug Tompkins’ bankrupt The NorthFace stores in San Francisco and PaloAlto, combine them with their Orindastore, and allow him to start designingand making gear and apparel underThe North Face name.

The deal was struck, and Bauschinger became a minoritypartner of the Hiersoux brothers. The trio opened a Berkeleyretail store on Telegraph Avenue with space for a design andmanufacturing office where Bauschinger started designing andmaking gear. When money got tight, he introduced the Hiersouxbrothers to Hap Klopp. He and Klopp knew each other fromtheir days working at The Ski Hut/Trailwise. Klopp made thebrothers an offer for The North Face, and when it was final-ized, Bauschinger became a partner in the new venture.

Mark Erickson, who became, as he puts it, Bauschinger’s “boyFriday,” doing everything in the cutting and production rooms,recalled his first encounter with the man. “Justus greeted me with

not much more than aderisive sneer and agrunt, and instructedme to follow behindhim as he cut out astack of 300 Superlightsand remove the fabricscraps from the table.My four years ofc o l l e g e h a d n o tprepared me for thefact that there was aright way and a wrongway to perform thatmundane task, butJustus soon set me straight, in no uncertain terms.”

Bauschinger’s autocratic ways caused friction between himselfand Klopp, and he eventually sold his share of The North Faceto a friend of Klopp’s. After a European holiday, he used themoney to open his own outdoor manufacturing company—Class 5—a few blocks from The North Face at 7th Street andUniversity Avenue. There, Bauschinger was able to lure a trio ofhis best seamstresses away from The North Face to get hisproduction going.

Immediately, Class 5 became known for its quality productsas well as its attitude. Erickson remembers the first Class 5catalog, which embodied that attitude.

“The catalog cover photo was a spoof on climbingphotos of the day. Justus had posed a geared-out modelin classic 5.10 stretch position, but actually lying flaton a sidewalk. He photographed the guy from over-head, so at first glance it looked like he was scaling asheer vertical cliff 2,500 feet off the ground,” Ericksonsaid. “On closer inspection, however, you could seethe ‘climber’ was using the cracks in the sidewalk ashandholds. A further tip off that you’d been connedwas a mangy dog Justus had placed in the framelying lazily on the sidewalk sunning himself rightnext to the guy.”

Class 5 would remain in business until 1983 whenit closed down. Bauschinger later became animporter of classic European toys into the U.S.market.

MARK ERICKSONUpon graduating from Northwestern Universityin 1969 with a degree in speech, Mark Erickson

headed west ending up in Berkeley, Calif. “I applied five timesfor a job at The North Face,” he recalled, “and finally, in May1970, they hired me. Jack Gilbert handed me a pair of trim-ming scissors and a broom and said, ‘Make sure you’re usingone or the other at all times.’”

At $2.15 per hour, Erickson went to work under JustusBauschinger who was The North Face’s one-man design, cuttingroom and production management show. As talented asBauschinger was, he was also opinionated and constantly at oddswith Hap Klopp, the president of The North Face at the time.

“One Friday,” Erickson shared, “Justus and Hap got into aknock-down, drag-out argument and Justus walked out. Tenminutes later, Hap came down from his office, put his armaround me and said, ‘How’d you like to be the new designer at

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The North Face?’“I suppose he said that because I was one of the people who

showed up every day not stoned and ready to work. I also thinkhe did it because I knew where all the patterns were stored,”Erickson added.

Between his debut as a designer in 1970 and 1975, Ericksonwas immersed in work as The North Face grew exponentiallyevery year. “The company was growing, there was a tremen-dous energy around it, it was fun and we were making coolproducts. Also the independent sales reps were creating whatwould become the outdoor distribution network,” he said.

Of the notable products produced during those heady times wasthe Big Foot synthetic sleeping bag, an anomaly in a world ofdown bags. However, it wasn’t a sleeping bag but a tent thatbrought Erickson to the forefront among outdoor gear designers.The tent was the Oval Intention, and its creation makes for aninteresting tale.

“In 1975, The North Face and Sierra Designs were still doingA-frame tents. But then Skip Yowell and Murray Pletz got theirJanSport dome tents going, and that got me thinking,” he said.“While this was going on, Bruce Hamilton was hired by TheNorth Face. Bruce was a real fan of Buckminster Fuller, thefather of geodesic design. The next character in the story is BobGillis, a hippie from the Santa Cruz Mountains who had triedin vain to get Gerry, Holubar and others interested in his geodesicdome tent design.

“Well, one day Gillis arrives at The North Face in his oldVW van with his wife and two naked kids in tow andpitches Hap Klopp on hisdesign. It was crude, butshowed possibilities.”

Erickson and Gillis startedworking on the idea when intothe story enters Jim Easton ofEaston Aluminum who seeswhat the two tent designers areup to and says that he couldadapt his Aeroshaft archeryarrow shafts into some killertent poles.

“Well, we started experi-menting and soon had a free-standing geodesic dome tentwith ultralight tent poles.” TheOval Intention debuted in 1975and was followed a year later bythe VE-24 and then a year afterthat by the VE-23.

Making the Oval Intention’screation even more special for Erickson was a meeting withBuckminster Fuller.

“Bruce Hamilton got in touch with Fuller’s grandson whothought his grandfather would love to see the tent. He arrangeda meeting with Fuller while he was visiting Venice, California,”Erickson continued. “We got to the hotel where we were to greetthe great man, and it was this seedy dump. We knocked on hisroom door and were met by Fuller himself who was verygracious. He loved our concept and better the fact that we’dturned out such a useful product.”

Two years after the geodesic dome tent breakthrough, Gore-Texfabric was introduced, and Erickson—pushed by fellow employeesand avid alpine skiers, John Kirschner and Bill Werlin—designed

a technical line of alpine skiwear using the fabric.“A lot of us were reluctant to do the skiwear line because of

the culture clash between our regular backpacking North Faceculture and the glitzy ski crowd. That was solved by reallystressing function in the garments and putting them on skipatrollers first,” he said.

As the ’70s moved along, Erickson created the look that wouldlast for years to come in the outdoors—the bright colored jacketor mountain parka with black patches at the shoulders and elbows.

“The color blocking idea came about while trying to make aslight and durable a parka as possible. To do so, we used very lightfabric for most of the jacket and then heavy black fabric over theplaces where the jacket would get the most wear,” he said.

Yellow and black were the dominant colors of the day. Ericksonnoted that the yellow was “Acapulco gold” and black was “theonly color we could afford to get in the heavy fabric.”

Heading into the ’80s, The North Face started, as Erickson putit, “to lose its way.” So he left the company in 1988, and after afew months started Erickson Outdoors with his wife, Jan, inthe spare bedroom of their house.

“I’d noticed that L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer and EMS were goingmore and more to private label and thought I’d offer them andothers freelance design and sourcing,” he said.

With just a few dollars left in his bank account, Ericksonbought an airline ticket to the East Coast to see EMS’s RogerPoor. “Roger gave us our first order for a rainwear line.”

Eighteen years later, Erickson Outdoors is chugging alongnicely with 27 employees.

JEFF LOWE AND HIS BROTHERSIf your father is a climber who takes you, your brothersand cousin out climbing starting at an early age, theodds are good that you might become a climber whenyou grow up.

Such is Jeff Lowe’s story. Growing up in Ogden, Utah,in the 1950s, Jeff, along with his brothers Mike, Gregand Kim, plus cousin George, were grade-school kidswhen they started to climb.

“Dad took us to the Tetons in the summers, and wehung around the guide’s camp. My first big climb wasthe Grand Teton with my dad when I was 7,” Jeffremembered.

An auspicious start without question and one thatled him to become intent on climbing starting at age12. “Greg and I used to go out after school and spentmost of our summers climbing around Ogden and

up in the Tetons.”While Jeff started alpine ski racing in high school in the late

’60s, Mike, Greg and George got into doing winter moun-taineering and ice climbing in the Tetons. “Finally,” Jeff said,“I gave up ski racing and joined them.”

As the ’70s rolled around, climbing took over his life. “I didn’tdo anything but climb for 10 years except for working a fewmonths here and there at Outward Bound to raise money.”

Just prior to Jeff’s total commitment to climbing, his brotherGreg started making packs in the basement of the family housein Ogden. “Greg needed a big pack that would not only carryloads into the Tetons but also be suitable to climb with.” LoweAlpine Systems was born.

The burgeoning company’s first product was the ExpeditionPack, “a boxy simple bag on a simple frame,” and it led to other

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pack designs during the late ’60s and early ’70s.Then, in 1973, brother Mike bought most of brother Greg’s

interest in the pack-making business and moved production toLouisville, Colo., just outside of Denver.

Jeff said he was involved peripherally, giving Mike feedbackon the company’s products. Come the ’80s and he was finallyhired by Lowe Alpine Systems just as the company started expan-sion into apparel and climbing hardware.

“The apparel and hardware programs, while nice, basicallystarted to put us under. For example, we were selling tents andsleeping bags and not making a cent on them,” Jeff said.

Eventually, he spun off the Latok sub-brand. “I talked everyoneinto letting me do the climbing hardware and some Bob Culptechnical clothing designs as a separate entity.” Many outdoorspecialty retailers fondly remember the Papillon pullover shirtas one of the unique Latok apparel pieces.

“A few years into Latok,” he said, “we ran out of money andI turned the company over to Lowe Alpine Systems. The appareland outerwear we’d done for Latok would become the basis forLowe Alpine’s clothing line.”

Despite a loyal following for its apparel and outer-wear, Lowe Alpine Systems flounderedand was sold to the English companyFamco in 1998. But before the sale hadgone through, Jeff was trying his handat sponsoring climbing competitions,working with the Winter X Games on itsice climbing tower, and consulting withoutdoor and climbing companies.

Today, besides consulting work, he runsa non-profit organization called OgdenClimbing Parks. “Our goal with OgdenClimbing Parks is to give people betteraccess to the mountains, climbing areas,whitewater runs and outdoor experiencesin and around Ogden,” Jeff said.

DAVE CHANTLER A common thread that runs through manyof the outdoor trailblazers’ personal histo-ries is the importance of the Boy Scouts.And so it is with Seattle native Dave Chantler who became oneof REI’s first employees.

“My scoutmaster, Andy Nelson, first took us climbing, and thatgot me interested in the outdoors and outdoor sports,” he said.

Chantler’s interest in climbing continued while attending WestSeattle High School where he was a few years behind the school’smost famous graduates, and climbers, the Whittaker twins.Ironically, he would go on to work with Jim Whittaker severalyears later.

But first Chantler worked his way through Seattle Pacific Collegeby holding down part-time retail jobs. During those years, heshopped at REI, and on graduating in 1962, he applied for a job.

“Jim Whittaker was heading off on the Mount Everest expe-dition and they needed another person,” Chantler recalled. Hegot the job and soon was at work with Gary Rose, part-timerChuck Hazelton and one other full-time employee at 610 PikeStreet, right above the Green Apple Pie restaurant with TheMountaineers club room just down the hall. Additionally, threewomen would come in a couple days a week to clean up and wrapmail-order packages.

In May 1963, Chantler was drafted into the U.S. Army, andwhile on duty at California’s Fort Ord, read that Whittaker hadreached Everest’s summit.

“When I got out of the Army in 1965, I went right back towork at REI, now in a new store on 11th Street. There, I startedbuying under (REI founder) Lloyd Anderson’s careful watch. Ibought all ‘foreign’ goods while Gary Rose bought all ‘domestic’goods,” he noted.

Foreign goods meant everything from Sigg pots to Edelridropes and Raichle boots. Eventually, skis were added to the mix,and they became the hallmark of Chantler’s buying effort forREI over the years.

“Lloyd and Mary Anderson were on a vacation/buying trip oneyear in Finland and were at Suunto when someone in that meetingmentioned that a cross-country ski maker down the road wasselling lots of skis to a mail-order company in Maine,” Chantlersaid. “That got Lloyd’s attention, and he came home with somecross-country skis, boots, bindings and poles. I took one look atthe gear and told Lloyd I was interested in pursuing the category.

“So I brought in some cross-country gear and it sold through.That winter, I tried the sport myself and lovedit. So for the next selling season, I added anotherski brand and another boot brand, upped myorders with the original brands we’d sold thefirst year, and we sold everything,” he added.“The third season, I went to the Norwegian,Finnish and Swedish trade councils in Seattleand got the addresses of every cross-country skigear maker in Scandinavia. Then I wrote themall letters to see if they wanted to do businesswith us. That led to me bringing in morelines.”

During the third and fourth seasons ofselling cross-country ski gear, sales tripled.Eight pages of valuable catalog space werenow devoted to the category, and Chantlerwas pressed into service to offer REI’s firstcross-country ski clinic. “I think about 250people showed up, and that clinic led to bustours and all sorts of promotional events.”

Along the way, Chantler became known to cross-countrygear suppliers as “The Grand Poobah,” a nickname given to himby then-Karhu marketing man Steve Gladstone that stuck.Afterall, REI, with Chantler as buyer, had become the majorforce in cross-country retail sales in the United States.

Later in his 38-year career at REI, Chantler would also becomethe retailer’s bike buyer.

Buying was always his passion. “I had no interest in peoplemanagement, but a huge interest in product.” And cross-countryskis were his first love. “Skis always fascinated me and they still do.”

Retired in 2001, Chantler lives in his cabin in Washington’sMethow Valley—the state’s major cross-country ski venue.

ROYAL ROBBINSDuring a climbing career that would become the stuff of legend,Royal Robbins was being groomed to take over his father-in-law’s successful paint store business in Modesto, Calif. “But Ialways had problems with getting the mixtures right,” he said.

He really didn’t, as he remembered, have much interest in busi-ness at all. That is, until he and his wife, Liz, were in Switzerlandin 1968 where they were introduced to the owner of the French

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OUTDOOR UNIVERSITY™WWW.OUTDOORUNIVERSITY.ORG

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Hospitality hour/reception: 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

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12:00 pm – 5:00pm (Expanded Outdoor University speaker schedule)

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Registration: required

62-77_stoves_pioneers.qxd 7/1/07 1:31 PM Page 73

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boot-making company, Galibier.“The owner asked me to designa rock climbing shoe for theAmerican market, and the R.R.Yosemite shoe was born.”

With its debut, Robbinstook a new look at whatbeing a businessman mightbe like. “I decided that if wehave to get into business tomake a living, it might aswell be with something weliked and use the businessto stay in touch with theoutdoors.”

On returning fromEurope, the couple collec-tively said, “Why not?” and

jumped into the importingbusiness. They not only brought in the R.R. Yosemite boots,

but also Galibier’s hiking and mountaineering boots as well as thecompany’s telemark ski boot, which set the standard for its day.Warehousing for all this product? Ironically, it was in the base-ment of the aforementioned paint store in Modesto.

“As we moved along in the wholesale business, we decided toadd more quality product, and soon we were importing Germanropes, English helmets, artificial chocks and, eventually, Englishsweaters,” Robbins said.

The Robbins also decided to getinto retail, opening their first retailmountain shop in Modesto in 1971.Not long afterward came anotherRobbins Mountain Shop, this one inFresno, Calif.

Whether it was being more tuned intoapparel via retail, or the success of theirfriends at Patagonia and Doug Tompkinsat Esprit, or even something very simplelike the import of the English sweaters,Liz Robbins got more interested inclothing. In 1974, she designed her firstpiece of apparel—the Billy Goat Shorts.

“They were an immediate success withoutdoor shops and climbing shops acrossthe country,” Robbins recalled of his wife’screation, “and they served as the catalystto start an entire clothing line.”

The Robbins’ attitude regarding clothingwas, “Let’s go for it. We knew going in thatit was make or break with clothing, but then it was all ours andnot somebody else’s goods we were selling.”

The Royal Robbins branded clothing line did so well that thecouple in 1976 closed the Fresno mountain shop (“a moneydrain,” Robbins said) and soon turned the Modesto store intoa Royal Robbins factory outlet store. The number of factoryoutlet stores would grow to five over the ensuing years.

In the early 1980s, Robbins dropped its hardgoods businessentirely to focus on apparel. In 1991, the Robbins’ sold 51 percentof the company, and in March 1993 sold the remaining 49 percent.

“The ’70s were particularly heady times,” Robbins said.“Everyone in the outdoor business did so well. Almost any newproduct or product idea was well-received by consumers.”

HAP KLOPPWhile working at The Ski Hut in Berkeley, Calif., after gradu-ating from the Stanford School of Business, Hap Klopp becameinterested in The North Face retail operation. Doug Tompkins(future women’s clothing empire owner and CEO of Esprit)had opened The North Face store on Columbus Avenue in SanFrancisco in 1966 and later a store in the old Stanford Barn inPalo Alto, Calif.

“His stores were primarily alpine ski shops,” Klopp said,“because Doug had visions of being an Olympic downhill racer.But he also sold some private-label outdoor gear, like sleeping bagsbearing the label: ‘Made for The North Face by Sierra Designs.’”

After leaving The Ski Hut, Klopp learned that The North Face,now owned by the Hiersoux brothers, was losing money.“Concurrently, I was working on a brand idea that incorporateda retail store, and Tompkins had created quite an aura aroundThe North Face brand.”

In May 1968, Klopp purchased The North Face retail chain.First, he closed the Orinda, Calif., store. Then, he pressed forwardon getting the new Berkeley Telegraph Avenue store up andrunning with a manufacturing space carved out inside the store,headed by Justus Bauschinger. Then, Klopp set about getting anew corporate logo created—the one that still exists today.

Next, he turned his attention to manufacturing and thecompany’s first two products—the Ruthsack pack designed byStuart Ruth and a full range of down sleeping bags.

That was followed by tents, technical appareland a unique warranty concept. “I decided thatwe needed to offer a full warranty on all our prod-ucts. The warranty idea made for loyal customers,but because they would hold onto The NorthFace gear they owned forever, we had to offerthem more products to buy.”

There were other things that set The NorthFace apart. One was its yearly catalog thatfeatured employees using the gear on theirown trips both here and abroad. “That conceptseemed to make us and our products morenormal,” Klopp said.

The catalog also became a place to promoteenvironmental activism. For example, the1974 catalog promoted the use of solarpower, 1975 aroused interest in saving theTuolumne River in Northern California fromdamming, 1976 supported Greenpeace, and1977 editorialized about the importance ofthe Alaska Lands Conservation Act.

Then there was the catalog’s annual Ice-9 Award. Based on thesubject of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle” novel, the award wasgiven annually to those, like the Atomic Energy Commission, whoThe North Face felt were pursuing a faulty course with regardto the environment.

“The purpose of the Ice-9 Award,” Klopp said, “was to clearly stateour corporate philosophy which was to help preserve the naturalworld. We wanted to have a company that was principled.”

As The North Face’s manufacturing grew out of the TelegraphAvenue building, the backpacking boom took off. “It was fortu-itous that the market for summer goods took off, but we didn’tsit still. We decided to create a winter business and take riskswith key vendors on new products,” Klopp said.

To create a winter business, Klopp invited Johannes Von Trapp

Hap Klopp

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of Vermont’s Trapp Family Lodge to come to Berkeley andexplain how he’d successfully brought the Scandinavian ideaof cross-country ski centers to the United States.

“With what Von Trapp told us, we worked with the YosemiteClimbing School’s Wayne Merry to create the first cross-countryski program in the West. One of Merry’s first instructors wasNed Gillette who would become famous as an adventurer withstrong ties to The North Face.

“Next,” Klopp continued, “we sat down with people like W.L.Gore and created a partnership, even though not much wasknown about their products at the time.”

Another partnership that came into being at the time waswith Easton and the development of the first aluminum tentpoles to go along with the introduction of the Oval Intentionfree-standing geodesic dome tent.

In 1981, the company introduced skiwear—considered a riskydecision at the time. “I remember going to Ski Magazine in NewYork,” Klopp recalled, “and having their fashion editor SusanMcCoy tell me that functional skiwear would never make it.Fortunately, the magazine’s hardgoods editor Seth Masia gotour concept right away and backed it. We believed that themarket was being underserved by fashion skiwear.”

With the success of the skiwear line and the continued boomin outdoor gear and apparel, The North Face was rolling alongcomfortably. But Klopp wasn’t satisfied.

“We were the first outdoor manufacturer to start marketing inJapan in the late ’70s and then we headed to Europe in 1983 wherewe set up a distribution network with a manufacturing facility in

Scotland. Brands have to be global, and we made that step.”In 1985, Klopp took another bold step with a conference event

he called Future Q. “My concern at the time was that specialtyoutdoor retailers were wondering what was going to happen tothem, but rather than explore the future, they were becomingconservative and taking fewer risks.”

So he invited retail guru Peter Glen to put on a three-dayprogram that included visits to respected San Francisco retailers,Glen’s brutal assessment of outdoor retailing and many of theretailers in attendance, and group sessions on trying to figureout what was coming and how to best respond to it. “We wantedto give retailers insight into the future and help them build theirbusiness,” Klopp said.

Four years after Future Q, Klopp sold The North Face toBill Simon.

Since 1989, Klopp has written books, been a lecturer,consultant and investor in small outdoor enterprises.

As to his legacy in the outdoor industry, Klopp noted, “The factthat 11 of the people who worked for me went on to run outdoorcompanies is perhaps the most gratifying.

“In addition to being proud about this legacy of ‘building’ thepeople who built the industry, I certainly feel the pioneeringefforts we did in environmental support and social activism (wesponsored the first AIDS awareness event in San Franciscoamong others) is something we were quite proud about.”

» To read past Industry Trailblazers articles, go towww.geartrends.com/magazines.

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