Images Bill Edwards Recollections
1971
Bill Nicolai nearly dies in North Cascades National Park (USA) when A frame tent collapses in a storm
spends a month designing a tunnel style alpine tent, which he begins selling at Seattle street markets for $165
1972
Early Winters founded by Bill Nicolai (former Boeing computer programmer) and Ron Zimmerman
first product is the Omnipotent, an integrated double wall, mountaineering tunnel tent
1974
first product brochure
1975
shown a sample of prototype expanded Teflon Gore-Tex fabric, which REI, Eddie Bauer, and The North Face had rejected
sales of about $50-60,000 USD
1976
release world’s first Gore-Tex outdoor product in the Light Dimension tent, co-designed by Bill Nicolai and William Edwards
sold 300+ Light Dimension tents "in a matter of weeks"
bought most of the 10,000 yards of Gore-Tex fabric that produced that year
US patent issued for the Omnipotent design
Ron Zimmerman developed Gore-Tex marketing tool of securing square of fabric to coffee cup of hot water
launch first catalog
annual sales shot up from $75,000 to $250,000 and beyond
1977
World's first Gore-tex Parka and Anorak released, designed by William H. "Bill" Edwards
1978
first colour catalog
introduce the three hoop, two door, Gore-Tex fabric tunnel tent, the Winterlight
introduce the Earth Station, a four person , Geodesic dome tent in Gore-Tex
1980
introduce Omnipotent SL (Superlight) - 3 hoop tent, one pound lighter than original 4 hoop design
introduce one person Gore-Tex bivvy tent -- the Pocket Hotel
sales of $7.2 million USD
1981
profiled and ranked 38th in Inc. Magazine's One Hundred Fastest Growing private companies in U.S.
profiled in Time magazine as a lead example of mail order catalog success
introduce Paradigm, a hybrid tent design - double walled body and single skin foot
sales have grown to $9 million USD
registered the 'old man blowing wind at cloud' logo as a trademark in the USA
1982
Ron Zimmerman was named "America's best catalog copywriter" by the Direct Marketing Association
mails out 5 catalogs a year, with the smaller version going three times to a mailing list of over 1 million people
company has 160 employees
produce 10 year anniversary catalog with 34 page magazine section, not directly product related
ranked 96th in Inc. Magazine's Private 500 companies
1983
sales grew to $16-20 million USD annually, with 200 staff
1984
Early Winters sold to the Orvis Company
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Orvis sell Early Winters to the White Group
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then sold to the national catalog company, the Norm Thompson group
2004
Norm Thompson group re-named the company, Sahalie - Chinook for "a high and lofty place"
Sahalie now